activity – Giants & Pilgrims

December’s Adventures in Homeschooling

December 28, 2016/0 Comments/in Abacus, Art, Creative Process, Family, Homeschooling /by Betony Coons

This year we began homeschooling Lucy (7) and Hattie (5). We’re including this on our Giants & Pilgrims blog as all our family adventures seem to impact our art & music so much! Also, we just like sharing the stories. So we’ll be sharing posts on the themes we’ve been covering each month and calling the adventure “ABACUS”! Our hope is that these posts will help spark creative direction and inspiration for your family as well as giving us somewhere to be document and record our experiences.

December has been a full month around here learning how to be a family of six, shuttling kids to Nutcracker rehearsals and performances, doing ALL the advent things, baking cookies, celebrating Christmas, and enjoying time with family. Here are some highlights from this month of homeschooling –

ADVENT Activities:

For years, we have enjoyed the Jacquie Lawson computer advent calendars. This years was a British seaside theme.

We also always love the Lego advent calendars. They have a tiny set to build every day..

This year we purchased Jennifer Naraki’s Slow + Sacred Advent. It is an ebook that was written to guide families through the four weeks leading up to Christmas. It includes personal stories, Biblical theology, and four weeks of creative, yet simple thematic plans. We really enjoyed it and look forward to using it again in years to come.

Advent closed with all of us at a candlelight service together at Tim’s Church – Saint Andrew United Methodist in Highlands Ranch.

Getting MOVING:

December is always hard because weather in Colorado isn’t the best for playing outside. And, with a new baby, it’s hard to get the girls out and about. Here are a few of the fun activities we fit in –

Cosmic Kids Yoga (always a hit around here) –

Tim took the girls ice skating –

and sledding!

And Lucy and Harriet had their debut in the Nutcracker Ballet as presents! They were stunning.

Arlo missed most of the show…Grandma was just to cozy.

RUSSIA:

One of the things we are doing this year is our Passport idea for Geography/World Cultures. We are “visiting” a different country every month – exploring the food, culture, dress, arts, and music through themed activities. This month, because the girls were part of the Nutcracker, we chose Russia.

We had a wonderful “Russian” tea time – listening to Tchaikovsky, making these delicious Russian tea scones, and drinking Russian spice tea, and reading the Nutcracker.

Canon has a whole set of the amazing (FREE!) printable paper models of famous building. So we made St. Basil’s Cathedral! The instructions and cutting were a little too tricky for the girls, so mom and I did most of it. My puzzle loving brain had a blast. I want to make more!
Here are the books we read about Russia. Thank you High Plains library!

History:

Our favorite history activity this month was visiting Centennial Village’s Homesteader’s Holiday.
Centennial Village is a living history museum in Greeley (actually where Tim and I got married!).
Here are the girls making hand dipped candles in the old Carriage House –

And Beatrice exploring outside the historic church –

STEM:

Lucy saw an experiment in The Dangerous Book for Boys on how to make a Battery. She has been asking about it for a while so we decided to try it. And it worked!

Battery making led to playing with our Snap Circuits Jr. kit – a great toy that teaches the basics of Electronics.

We also picked up a cool new single player puzzle game called Katamino that is quite the brain teaser. Harriet got quite into it.

Art and Handicrafts:

With the flurry of gift making and house decorating, we spent a lot of time MAKING this month.

Making foil stained glass windows –
Making Foil star garlands and stick stars (for our Nature Pal Exchange friends) Making Waldorf window stars –

Making handmade Christmas presents –

Making all the Christmas cookies –

And making a stocking for this handsome little man –

MUSIC:

The girls have continued with their music classes at Union Colony Children’s Music Academy which they love. Tim has been working on tracking for our new album -which means we have amazing musical visitors in and out of the studio. Our friend Sigourney was kind enough to let the girls try out her stunning concert harp.

NATURE STUDY:

For our nature study we received this super fun box of nature crafts from our nature pen-pals in Florida.

WRITING:

We did lots of letter writing this month – tons of thank you notes, pen-pal letters, and of course some super sweet correspondence addressed to the North Pole.

On a different side, Harriet has really enjoyed playing Reading Eggs on the computer.

READING:

We enjoyed so many wonderful stories this month. (Especially thanks to lots of time sitting nursing!)

We also really enjoyed Read Aloud Revival’s Christmas Book list recommendations –

Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for following along!

Abacus: “Spectrum”

March 3, 2015/0 Comments/in Abacus, Almanac, Art /by Betony Coons

Giants and Pilgrim “Abacus” is a creative home curriculum centered on a monthly theme. This month’s theme is Spectrum!
Read all about how to use this list and our heart behind this project here.

Below is our comprehensive activities list! Choose a couple to do with your kids to enrich the month or try to accomplish the whole thing!

Also, a few March Dates to keep in mind as you are scheming fun activities-

Pi Day = March 14th (3.14…)
St. Patricks Day = Mar. 17
First day of Spring = Mar. 20th

March: Spectrum

Listen:

Ludwig Von Drake – The Spectrum Song (disney)

Red Roses for Blue Lady by Jack Morgan

Our Spectrum playlist! (coming later this month…)

This podcast on Spiral dynamics (For adults – not kids)

Movies:

Any of these films with an intensely distinctive color palette: Amelie, any Wes Anderson film, Nanny McPhee, Hero

For St. Patricks Day:
The Secret of Roan Inish, and The Book of Kells

The Wizard of Oz (For its transition from black and white to color)

Science:

Play with prisms

Learn about plants and how they process light

Steve Spangler St. Patrick’s Day Science Kit (we bought this a few years back and now get it out every year. It was super fun. I would highly recommend it. We are needing a few refills, but mostly it lasts quite a while)

Bees, Ultra violet and other colors off our visual spectrum – we are hoping to take a field trip out to Illuman Apiary’s bee hives if it gets warm enough.

This Cool Density “rainbow in a jar” experiment

Take a trip to the Denver Natural History Museum – specifically to play with their infrared camera body scan

Learn about eyes – Anatomy, Rods/Cones, etc

Adventure:

Make a Treasure Map – Participate in our Isles of Green Adventure at the end of this month! (Here is last years)

Books:

Adult Reads:

Red: The Red Tent by Anita Diamont

Orange: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Yellow: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Green: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Blue: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Purple: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Kids:
Older kids – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Giver by Louis Lowry
Younger – Mix it Up by H. Tullet, Do You Know Colors by Katherine Howard, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? by Eric Carle, The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffres

Art:

Freezer paper “Favorite Color” shirts

Paint Color wheels/Learn about color mixing/Spin art

Find some where to do a color coded Trash art installation like this –

Make dip dyed cloth or paper (or tie dye!)

Make layered paper jewelry

Garden/Outside:

Make Garden cold frames (or as I like to call them, “mini-greenhouses”)

Seed Starts

Visit the Wichita Botanical Gardens

Play with this:

Kitchen:

Make homemade play dough – recipe coming soon 🙂

Eat the Rainbow – this could make a fun grocery store trip that maybe helps convince my kids to try eating a few vegetables.

Make these edible rainbows –

Play with rainbow foam

Sort all the things by color (oh wait, I do that already…)

Abacus: Top Secret Spy Assignment

February 9, 2015/0 Comments/in Abacus, Almanac Adventure Days, Curriculum /by Betony Coons

Lucy woke up yesterday telling me all about a dream she had where she was a spy. She then sat and stared at the cover of “Spy Kids” on netflix for about 20 minutes, talking about how much she wanted to be a real spy. I sent her upstairs to assemble a “spy” kit (what she came up with is pictured above) and told her not to come down until I was ready. While she and Hattie were working on their bags, I set up a spy training course. I saw this idea on pinterest a while back –

So I quickly strung yarn “lasers”, set up a row of chairs over “hot lava”, and ended the course with a ride down a roller coaster. We also listened to a mix Tim and I made a while back called “This Album Will Self Destruct.” It was pretty fun (Ironically, I had woken up grouchy and tired and had zero desire to do anything fun or engaging with the kids. What I really wanted to do was to sit and drink my coffee and look at my phone.) I wanted to find a way to tie the whole thing into “Letters”, so in the afternoon, Lucy received this message in the mail:

Since this month is all about Letters, we thought it would be fun to pass it on to you as well. Print it out, and, if your kiddos are into it, follow the instructions and they too will get a package from us in the mail with some fun trinkets and “spy” gear.
Signed,

Crocodile, Spider X, and Scary Bear (our spy names the girls came up with)

Almanac Adventure: Winter Jars

January 27, 2015/0 Comments/in Almanac Adventure Days /by Betony Coons

Are you in Greeley, CO? Take the street southwest past Glenmere Park and there’s a sign for a wildlife sanctuary. It is the coolest little forest walk in the middle of our city- a hidden gem. If you take the path into those woods you’ll find our hanging jars there.

This has been one of our favorite January traditions. As a family we hike out to a wooded area and leave 5 hanging jars.

The jars are “writing-prompts” with the words Hopes, Dreams, Fears, Secrets, and Prayers written on them. We leave them in the woods about a week then pick them back up. It’s an honor to read the journalistic writings- seeing glimpses into peoples dreams and struggles.

The hope is that we’d make an adventure out of introspection in this season of resolution! It’s our way of taking on January and the new year.

This adventure is completely re-creatable for your community. Here’s the directions:

Items Needed-
5 mason jars
5 tags
golf pencils
scrap paper
twine

You are invited into a polar expedition. This adventure is, as always, to be tailored to your story and we are merely providing suggestions and framework for goodness to happen. Make changes as needed and be creative.

Sometime this month find a wooded area that is traversed by people, even in winter. It should be hidden enough to be an enjoyable destination, yet frequented enough to be quite public.

Create your jars: Write the following words on the 5 tags- Hopes, Dreams, Fears, Secrets, Prayers. Then put the tags in the jars so they’re easily seen. And leave scrap paper and golf pencils in each jar. Lastly, leave quotes and your own thoughts in the jars as well, as a catalyst.

Bundle up and head out into the cold. Bring a friend. Or family. Enjoy the sense of purpose that comes with loving people by providing them anonymous reflection space.

Hang your jars together in a place that can be seen from a path- not too hidden but not too obvious. It should feel as if they’ve stumbled onto something special. And they have.

Leave the jars there. Invite your friends and connections on Facebook and other media channels. Everyone loves and deserves an adventure.

Collect your jars after 5-7 days. If you leave the brittle glass out too long they’re subject to breaking.

Take some time and treasure the connections and thoughts left there. Whether poetic musings, crude vandalism or plain honesty, it all speaks to our humanity.

Keep the jars somewhere they can catch the light this month. Be reminded of hopes, dreams, fears and everything that comes with great beginnings.

Adventure: Capes and Crowns

September 20, 2014/0 Comments/in Almanac, Almanac Adventure Days /by Betony Coons

Capes & Crowns

When Lucy was a baby, one of her outfits had a tiny

hidden talk bubble on it that said

“This is the begining of something beautiful.”

This adventure is about speaking mantras into childrens’ lives.

Items Needed:

Free fabric samples (perhaps thrown out from a furniture or

design businesses) or other scrap fabric/felt

Plastic jewels

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

Sharpies

Instructions:

For the September theme of “brave” you’ll be making capes and crowns for kids. Keep a couple for your family or children you know, then donate the rest to a play area of a woman’s shelter or a waiting room at a doctor’s office or somewhere you know they’ll be put to great use and play.

First, cut the fabric samples into the shapes of capes and crowns while using the hot glue gun to add bling in different patterns. Add ribbons or elastic strips that make them wearable. These can be as simple or as elaborate as you would like. Have sewing skills? If so, reinforce the designs with stiches for extra durability. There are some great templates online you can use as a pattern for the crowns.

When you’ve made some working items take the sharpie. Here’s the important part:

Hide messages into the capes and crowns. What do you want spoken over your kids? Your friends’ kids or nieces and nephews? The children at the place of donation? We suggest mantras like You are Strong. You can do this. You are loved. Great wisdom and strength is found in you.

And so on.

They may never read the message but these sentiments, like small prayers, will play over them as they dawn these dress up items; these capes and crowns that encourage feats of bravery in their stories.

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