Our Homeschool!
Cinnamon Dough Ornaments
Monday, December 3, 2007
Welcome everyone who is visiting through Tiany's Holiday Open House or Lilliput Station's On-line Christmas Party....it's great to have you here and meet new friends!
Last year I posted about one of our favorite Christmas traditions - Gingerbread Houses! You can read all about it here complete with photos!
Today I want to share an easy craft with you that I enjoyed making last year with Jesse -- Cinnamon Dough Ornaments! You can find many recipes for Cinnamon Dough Tree Ornaments on the web but I'm posting the one we used at the bottom of this post and you'll know it's "tried and true".
Gather your ingredients and then just mix them with a big spoon. Next you'll hand knead it about 2 minutes to get it to form a ball that can be rolled out with my rolling pin. It smells so cinnamony delicious and so did my hands! It was fairly easy to work with.
Now the fun part starts -- we used a bell and star cookie cutter:
After we cut them out Jesse used a drinking straw to make the little holes for putting the ribbons through. You can air dry them for about 48 hours or do as I did and bake them for 1 hour at your oven's lowest temperature (mine is 180F). After an hour I flipped them over and baked another 1/2 hour.
Once they were totally cool and dry, Jesse used a mixture of 2 parts school glue to 1 part water and "painted" them to try and give them a "shiny" finish. It looks like it sealed them and made them a bit darker but not shiny. I suppose a modge podge or acrylic spray would make a better finish.
We like the simple look of these but one web-site suggested using white paint to decorate them, it would look like frosting. I think they would be real cute cut out into gingerbread men!
Here's the recipe we used:
1/2 Cup cinnamon
1/3 Cup applesauce (smooth, from a jar)
1 TBL white school glue
Mix all together well. It will be crumbly at first. Knead together to form a "dough" ball. If' its too crumbly add a bit more applesauce and if too wet, more cinnamon. (I did not have to adjust either ingredient, it worked fine as is for us.)
Roll out on a cinnamon sprinkled surface and cut out with cookie cutters. Re-roll your scraps. We got 15 ornaments. Don't forget to make little holes for hanging them. Let air dry or bake on a cookie sheet in a low temp. oven. THESE ARE NOT EDIBLE.
And homeschooling mommies -- this counts for Art class this week! 
Let me know if you make them -- I'd love to know how they came out.
As far as other Christmas traditions, we also enjoy a special Christmas morning breakfast. I'll post about our menu soon.
Thanks for stopping by....May God bless your Holiday Season! Visit more open houses at Tiany's blog!
Snowflakes!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
What's Christmas without snowflakes?! Even in the warmest of climates you can have snowflakes by cutting out your own to decorate with. Daves Snowflake site has awesome snowflake patterns you or your older children can cut out. These make the most delicate and pretty snowflakes...
Kayla downloaded 9 of the patterns and cut these out to hang in her sunday school room at church.
We cut out a bunch one year and hung them on our tree when we did a red and white theme. They were so pretty! I think they would look great fastened together and hung across a mantel or something. You can just print the templates out on plain printer paper. Have fun and if you post a picture of yours, leave me a comment so I can stop by and see them!
Draw Today
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Draw Today is an art curriculum using charcoal pencils. I think its geared for 6th grade - adult level. Last year, at our co-op, my 2 oldest children used this program for Art Class. (I was not the art teacher for this semester) My DD was in 7th grade at the time (12 - 13 yrs) and my DS was in 4th (10 yrs.). The program teaches the student to make a grid and then draw an outline in the grid, square by square. After you are happy with your outline you go on to shading it in with the charcoal pencils. The 1st picture (for all students) is the horse (below) done only in black and white.
My son had a hard time with it. He is not artistically inclined but has normally enjoyed art of different mediums (under a different teacher) such as painting or drawing with colored pencils. Draw Today was not his thing. He worked the whole 9 weeks on this horse. A few other 4 - 6 grade students had trouble too and it bored them. (I think that these children would probably enjoy it and produce nice work when they are a few years older.)
On the flip side, my daughter really liked it. The mom who was teaching art (also an art major) told me DD would help other students who were having trouble. After completing the horse you have your choice of a few profiles you can do. You keep progressing onto more complicated outlining and charcoal shading. She went on to do these two charcoals:
(President Lincoln would be a level 2 and Mona Lisa a level 3 because she has 3 tones of shading.)
As you can see, a child who enjoys this type of art can end up with a nice "masterpiece" once they master the techniques. (I really need to get those framed!)
I found you can order this kit to do at home from Rainbow Resource (my favorite home school supplier!!) for about $40.00. The kit includes the instructions and the materials you need.
I have seen plenty of books for the elementary level art class. They are easy to find right at your local library. For me, finding art for a soon to be high-schooler has not been as easy. I hope my little review on Draw Today has been helpful to you if your searching for an art project for an older child. DD is working on a level 4 drawing now and perhaps I'll post about that in the near future.
Free e-book from Yes You Can! Publications
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
**THIS OFFER HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FEBRUARY 28th**
DON'T MISS OUT!
A fellow homeschooling mom is developing a new resource about teaching art to our children. She has a special offer for us good through February 15th!!! It's easy. I just took a quick, 10 question survey about teaching art to my children at home. For doing so I was given a FREE e-book valued at $14.95 entitled "Artful Advent".
Read more about the survey and the Free e-book below:
TAKE OUR QUICK SURVEY!
And receive a valuable bonus: free!
YOUR BONUS REPORT ARTFUL ADVENT is just a FEW CLICKS AWAY!
* Homeschoolers, take our quick survey -- before the deadline -- on your most pressing question about teaching art in your home
* Receive a limited first edition of our ebook to be released this fall, Artful Advent, valued at $14.95, yours at no cost now!
Here is the link to get you to the survey:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?VkXC1lw4tXbZ9t0mknZDRg
The survey is only available until 12:00pm February 15th, 2007 so don't delay!
Her web-site is YesYouCanPublications.com
What are the benefits
of your bonus Artful Advent?
- Download now and keep for Christmas -- no need to buy our product in the fall
- Fresh approach to celebrating Advent
- Complete; for all ages; nothing else to buy
- Confidence to teach about art (even if this is new to you!)
- An overlooked free source of rich art images: I'll show you where
- Quick-view summary to print and use as you enjoy the glorious story of Christmas in art with your children
- An opportunity to win a free copy of our upcoming resource The Art of Seeing: Your Art Questions Answered
I just love a freebie!
Win An Art Program!
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Mamaduso is having an Art contest where you have the opportunity to win a one year subscription to an on-line children's art program called geeArt16. She would like your opinion about teaching children art at home. Hurry! Hurry! The contest ends on Dec. 6th!
DS6 and I went over to the geeArt16 web-site to check it out. He certainly did enjoy interacting with the animated characters. I know he would love to go through this program just because he loves working at the computer. Click on the link above and it will take you to a FREE sample lesson. The sample lesson is on movement in art and has several interactive steps that your child participates in while going through it. You will want to have hi-speed internet to take advantage of it at its best.
The geeArt16 program looks like its geared toward about grades K - 4th. The parent has nothing to prep except having materials ready to do the hands-on activites. I like that. My son wanted to try the activity suggested at the end of the lesson using the computer. When we used our Paint program in Windows we weren't able to copy and paste his drawing so it didn't work quite right; however, when you subscribe to the program you get Corel Draw software. Nice bonus!
If your looking for a new and different art program this one is worth checking out.
