Super Saturday!

Today is our first day of "summer". Not by the calendar of course, but the school books are being put away and the weather is warm and we are getting things ready for the summer season! This summer we are trying something new. Each child was to set goals for reading and for learning. I will help them stay on goal. I want them to see that they can set a goal, learn something fun and meet the goal. This week I ordered each of them Art Books.

For Rachel: "The Wonderful Art of Drawing Horses" by Barry Stebbing:

For Christian: "The Incredible Clay Book" by Sherri Haab and Laura Torres:

For Tyler: "Draw It! Sports Stars: by Tiffany Peterson:

Christian has a clay book because he like to make characters and then write movies. He uses his figures in his movies and he does all the voices. He video tapes his finished product. It's lots of fun for him to do and for us to watch!

He started right away this morning with his books and made lots of creative characters!

Below is the whole gang:

Rachel started her books too. First you are to draw a horse without any instruction. This is kept as your "before" picture. At the end of the book she will draw another for her "after" picture to compare and see how much she has learned. She can't wait to see what her "after" picture will look like. Below is her "before" picture:

...and a closeup:

Tyler was busy with his baseball team today so he will get started later. It's an exciting start and I am so happy they are enthusiastic. Besides the Art book, Tyler would like to learn to cook independently, keep working on guitar and get in shape for soccer.

Christian would like to add Mark Kistler's book "How to Draw in 3D" to his art skills and he will keep practicing drums, and keep learning to program games in JAVA through Green Foot.

Rachel would like to add learning to sew, learning more knitting, learning more piano as well as taking a couple of dance classes. She would also like to do some Nature Journaling.

All of them will read through the summer. We will garden and swim and just have some fun. In between we will play some Math and Science Games and Rummy Roots to keep up with our school skills. I am usually pretty good at keeping up with these things through the middle of July. This year I hope we can stay constructive allll the way to September! Stay tuned!!