Leather crafts....

A few months ago I was reading a blog (here) and learned about the company Corp of Re-Discovery.  They are a family owned, homeschooling business that has the greatest leather craft kits.  They sell them under the heading of American Indian, Frontiersman or Colonial Days Themes.  I purchased the American Indian Special Package because I wanted enough crafts for all the boys to participate at their own level.  As soon as the package arrived the boys wanted to get started but, I made them wait.  I knew I'd need a few more hands if everyone was going to work at the same time so I set up a time to head to Mom's for the weekend.  Papa helped as well as my brother.  Things went very smoothly.

The leather fringe pouch is an excellent easy craft and our 7 year old was able to sew it together after some instruction.  His hands got a little tired and he took a few breaks before it was completed.

My 5 year old with the help of his Uncle made the Bear Claw necklace and head band. 

The moccasins are probably the best craft for your money but very difficult for small hands to put together.  My 10 year old a hard time getting the front part tight enough so I had to help with that.  We haven't finished this project yet.

This is the tomahawk made with a leather blade.  Cool Stuff for boys.

Some finished products.

Pictures & Posts to come soon....

I need a good couple hours to download my camera and create a couple posts.  Unfortunately tomorrow is Monday and it's back to work.  Hopefully I can get up early and make a post.  I have plenty in the camera and in my head I just have to find the time to download it.  

Art is hard...

 About once a week we try to do some art from the Artistic Pursuits curriculum.  The artist lessons are interesting and the art task is fairly simple.  So why does it bring so much complaining?  These boys are so hard on them selves.  I'm happy with what ever they come up with.  I'm usually very impressed at the creations but good golly the process is a painful one.  It usually starts from the second the pencil meets the paper.  They instantly get upset, try to erase, flip the paper over, try again and get up set again.  We go through at least a couple of pieces of water color paper per child before they are convinced it's OK and they can proceed.  It's painful to see them struggle with something that seems like it should be fun.  I juggle encouraging them one at a time to continue on and that it really does look OK.  Finally, they get a good start and most of the time they are happy in the end with what they produced.  Once in while, like today, the paper does not get finished and it's tossed and life goes on. 

 I've leaned something about the oldest child.  I've always know he's a visual guy and sees great detail all the time but I just realized today that it can be a great obstacle when trying to create something simple.  If you don't see simple it's hard to produce simple and if you don't have the skills to produce details the way you want them it's terribly frustrating. 

 I can remember a time when he was in Kindergarten and we took a short winter vacation close by.  The hotel had a pool and later when asked to draw something about our time at the pool he spent a good amount of time drawing tiny little squares all together.  He became quite tired of the task and left the page mostly empty but I knew what he was drawing.  He was drawing the tile floor around the pool.  The tiles were probably 2x2 or 4x4 squares of a cream color.  Can you imagine what it's like to have that much detail get processed through your brain every minute of everyday?

A bit of snow, slush, rain and a wee little snowman for my Auntie in Alaska

Finally, something to write about.  We postponed school this morning.  Something that's awful hard for me to do but we had snow last night.  A good six inches fell and by this afternoon it may be all gone.  I have never experienced such crazy winter weather in any other state than the grand state of Washington.  Nothing prepares you for temperature swings of 40 degrees in a 12-24 hour period.  I know even the native, multiple generation Washingtonians have trouble figuring out which "layers" to wear each day.  Me, I go with the long sleeve shirt and fleece vest.  If you ever look in my closet you would see a rainbow of fleece vest.  These things rarely wear out and they fit at nearly any weight.  Priceless.  Genius really.

I don't have any pictures of my 7 year old because by the time I made it outside - he had already been hit by a snowball in the face and was crying and flinging wet snow gear everywhere.   So, I have a few pics of my book end kids. 



This new camera really captures his eyes nicely.  The little point and shoot I use to use always gave him red eye.



They are working on making a snow fort.

The wee little man.

Back to School...

Vacation is over and we are back to the routine of school.  The oldest asked yesterday when we were going to start again and when I said tomorrow he said "oh good."  This morning he was happy to be back to the routine and he even said school was too easy today.  I like that when we have vacation now I really let the kids have a vacation.  When they were in public school I always tried to cram extra learning into vacation days.  Vacation days now are very unstructured except for meals and the kids get a good break.

Today we got back into things with the major subjects.  We played math bingo called VALUE instead of starting a new lesson.  They worked in some workbooks we did a craft that came from a HIGH FIVE magazine, went outside and also to the library.  Here are a few pics from our paper bag town craft.

Happy New Year

A New Years Day

Sunset

Inspired

By A Friend.

Trying out my new camera.  I think I'll keep it.

Shot from the back porch at my Mom's.