Posts

January 2018 Adventures in Homeschooling

March 26, 2018/1 Comment/in Abacus, Art, Family, Homeschooling, Monthly Themes /by Betony Coons

Two years ago we began homeschooling Lucy (8), Hattie (6), Beatrice (3), and Arlo (1). 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.

JAPAN:

We continued our world tour this month with a “trip” to Japan. This was definitely one of our favorite countries/cultures yet! I surprised the girls by setting up a Japanese style low table in the middle of our dining room with zen inspired decorations and gave them each a silk kimono (twelve dollars on amazon!).

We had a Japanese tea party –

We practiced calligraphy and mark making with these lovely Teagas water scrolls –

We played with origami –

And REALLy loved getting to try all these yummy Japanese snacks from our TopMunch box!

Watched fascinating videos about silkworms and zen gardens –

We of course went out for sushi at the end of the month!

SNOW:

A reoccuring theme for January for us is “Snow”! Thanks Colorado!

A day at the best sledding hill –

All the snow books –

Building a funny snow man (snow deer?)

Painting snowy scenes

READING:

Lots of letter play for this little one –

The two big girls joined the Secret Society of Letter Writers

And for Harriet this month we worked REALLY hard to read every day. She has been doing so great!

Polymer Clay and Stop Motion:

We had lots of fun making some little stop motion videos with my iphone and also made lots of oven bake figures.

IMG_7713

ART:

So many fun art projects this month. Buzzy helping me do the underpainting on a canvas –

Painting owls inspired by Owl Moon

Painting our to-do list clip boards

Face painting fun

And a really cool art show up at the university

BOOK CLUB:

For book club this month, we read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

We got to experience Chinese Hot Pot

Went on a journey to find the Old Man of the Moon

Had a great discussion

And celebrated the Year of the Dog

DINOSAURS:

Our Natural History Museum at a really cool touring exhibit of dinosaur skeletons, so we adventured to Denver to check it out.

Digging for dinosaur fossils

HOMEMAKING:

Some days, when the chaos is winning, it is best to take the morning off from normal homeschool and learn about the lost arts of homemaking. Headphones and fun music help (Annie soundtrack all the way for these girls)

Harriet came up with her own recipe for Orange Cake. Turned out pretty tasty!

A dinner Lucy and Harriet made.

One day Lucy really wanted to build something. So they designed, built, and painted this shelf with a cup holder for next to their bed.

January 2018 Free Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

January 1, 2018/1 Comment/in Art, Creative Process, Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Monthly Themes, Writing /by Betony Coons

Happy New Year friends! It’s a new day. A whole new year. Everything is waiting for you.

I am going to try something a little different this year for my desktop wallpapers. The theme of “MIGRATION” keeps coming back to me, so I am going to try out having a connecting thread for the wallpaper artwork. I love this idea of movement from one place to another, of traveling great distances, of coming back home. Each desktop this year will be exploring that theme.

Secondly, I want to include a poem/writing that inspires the artwork – a centering writing to reflect on for the month. We heard this piece by David Whyte on the On Being podcast. It is a beautiful piece for a new year. “Or the window latch grants you freedom” is the line that inspired my artwork.

For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.

“Everything Is Waiting for You”

BY DAVID WHYTE

 Your great mistake is to act the drama
 as if you were alone. As if life
 were a progressive and cunning crime
 with no witness to the tiny hidden
 transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
 the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
 even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
 the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
 out your solo voice. You must note
 the way the soap dish enables you,
 or the window latch grants you freedom.
 Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
 The stairs are your mentor of things
 to come, the doors have always been there
 to frighten you and invite you,
 and the tiny speaker in the phone
 is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
 conversation. The kettle is singing
 even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
 have left their arrogant aloofness and
 seen the good in you at last. All the birds
 and creatures of the world are unutterably
 themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the image you want. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen or both.

iphone wallpapers:

January’s Adventures in Homeschooling

January 31, 2017/0 Comments/in Abacus, Creative Process, Family, Homeschooling, Monthly Themes, Writing /by Betony Coons

This year we began homeschooling Lucy (7), Hattie (5), and Beatrice (2). 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.

This month for our homeschooling adventures, we focused on three main themes – SNOW, CHINA, and BIRDS (as well as lots of other side projects and studies). I love how January can feel a bit slower after the craziness of the holidays. January also feels like a nice long month which affords the time to really dig in. Being able to learn alongside my children has been such a joy this month. I have loved being exposed to new poetry, learning the stories behind the Chinese New Year celebrations, understanding better why we use salt to melt ice, and so much more. Spending days in and out with these sparkly little souls is such a gift. Here is a photo journal of our January days. Enjoy! (and if you have any questions about any of the supplies/books/projects etc, please let me know! )

Snow Week:

Our first exploration for the month of January was everything SNOW. Read Aloud Revival posted a great booklist where we pulled a lot of our inspiration for this week. We particularly loved “Snowflake Bentley”, “The Story of Snow”, and the Robert Frost poem so beautifully illustrated by Susan Jeffres (one of my all time favorite illustrators) –

We started off our snow study with a series of science experiments – what happens to the temperature/mass/volume of snow/water/ice after time and the addition of salt?

Once we had a better understanding of the WHY behind how salt effects snow temperatures, we had to of course try making our own ice cream using snow and salt. We basically followed these directions. It was pretty delicious.

After reading all about Snowflake Bentley, we tried our hand at taking some snow crystal photographs using my little macro lens for the iPhone. Here is one of Lucy’s photos.

Following along with the scientific mindset, we have been charting the winter sky with paint (and the intention of making these into tiny quilts)

And charting the winter temperatures… (reading thermometers, bar graphs, F vs. C, etc!)

CHINA Week:

As we continued our passport and coloring map tour around the world, we took a week this month to head to China! Here are the girls coloring on our giant world map.

The kids particularly enjoyed looking at all of Tim and my old photos and souvenirs from our 2008 trip we took to China.

We celebrated the Chinese New Year in style with lots of unusual candies and treats that we picked out from our local Asian market –

Lucy helped orchestrate the making of a Chinese dragon and a lantern parade –

We painted Chinese calligraphy signs for good luck and made Chinese lantern decorations –

And did our best to wear authentic Chinese dress –

Harriet: “Mom? Where do pandas sleep?”
Me: “I think in trees”
…And then I find this after the kids have gone to bed –

We mailed Chinese postcards to friends

And enjoyed so many fun books about China – our favorites were the “Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragon Boats” book, and the Tintin graphic novel “The Blue Lotus”

BIRD Week:

This last week of January has been all about birds.
Learning the names of the birds that come to our bird feeder, sketching birds, listening to birdsongs, etc.

We played lots of rounds of Bird Bingo (which is such a beautifully made game, I would highly recommend it)

We did some bird watching on the Poudre River trail

And we read books about artists who were inspired by birds.

Engineering:

For Christmas this year, the girls got a pretty amazing fort building kit. In one month, it has been made into a Hot Chocolate Stand, Telephone booths, Tents, a VW Bug, umbrellas, twirling batons, a rocketship, tunnels, and a variety of houses – pretty cool, right?

Outings:

Here are some pictures from a couple special outings from this month –

Our family took a visit to mushroom rock state park in Kansas. Such unusual and interesting rock formations.

Dad, Lucy, and Harriet went to the annual Father-Daughter dance in Greeley – Beatrice was too sick to go this time 🙁

We went on a fun outing to our cities indoor pool at the Greeley Funplex. A perfect antidote to the winter blues.

The girls and I helped serve food at a homeless ministry in town with some good friends of ours.

We all enjoyed Lucy’s piano recital through Union Colony Music Academy.

And we all participated in our City’s annual MLK day march and presentation

Theater:

Finally, while we were home in Kansas, the family spent some time revitalizing our childhood theater for the use by future generations.

Lots of sets were painted, costumes made, and scripts written for the first annual production of the Apple Cider Players.

Little actors/actresses snack break.

Let the show begin!

January Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

January 1, 2017/1 Comment/in Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

Happy 2017!

Last night after midnight I was laying awake thinking about what word encapsulated this next year. What immediately came into my head was the word “Light” – being light-hearted, being light in the dark, holding things lightly, etc. Still playing it out, but here is a sunrise piece for your new year.

For the desktop, click on the image below to view the large size image.

For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the iphone images. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen.

High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:

January Practice and Process: “Clearing” pt. 2

January 22, 2016/2 Comments/in Art, Bellwether, Creative Process, Monthly Themes, Music /by Betony Coons

PRACTICE

As we are making our way through January, Betony and I have been staying true to practicing the two things we put forward at the beginning of the month:
Doing a massive “clearing” of our house.
and
Having a table alter with and a ringing bell to accompany prayer.

Below are some pictures of the house-clearing process. We’ve made it through the BIG categories of clothes, books, and papers. Then Betony has been taking on the major hot-spots of her art studio, sewing-closet and kitchen.

These photos make it look REALLY bad, but part of the process we are doing is to pull each category (clothes, books, papers, etc) out completely before putting it back.
Books Day BEFORE:

Books Day AFTER:

Clothes BEFORE:

Clothes AFTER:

Papers Day: (we ended up with two small folders of papers)

The disaster of the studio BEFORE:

Studio AFTER (still in process of repainting…) – can you even believe this is the same space?

There are things that we are learning and processing in doing this! (Please, feel free to leave some of what you’re learning in our comments!)

For me, I’ve been surprised by how the house feels BIGGER. We all of a sudden have plenty of space. We’re aren’t hurting for closets and the floor isn’t constantly covered in toys… I was really feeling the pressure this last year of upgrading our home, keeping up with the Jones’, you know? We’re a family of 5 now. How do we make it in this tiny house? (leaving out the perspective that the rest of the world seems to do just fine with a lot less space and things). Now with this clearing, things feel fine right now. We actually have AMPLE room.

It’s also made me excited to be home. When I look at our bookshelf, I look at the “greatest hits” of Betony and I’s collection. Each of the books we’ve kept mean a lot to us! Now that the closets and nooks and shelves are looking like that, it gives a great joy. We’re surrounded by things we’ve made a choice to keep because of their importance to us.

Another point with that- because they’re important to us, we want to take better care of what we have. I’ve always wanted to be a good caretaker of my stuff, a good steward. But I never have felt very good at it. I hope this practice of “keeping mainly the things that bring me joy” will help me intrinsically move towards better care.

Lastly, and this sounds strange, overall I feel like I’ve spiritually lost 10 pounds. I don’t know how else to describe it. Coming in to the home, things just feel lighter and less stress-filled. Maybe there’s a beginning sense of “this is what I want my life to be” rather than “I’m failing at the American dream”? Does that make sense?

PROCESS

Betony and I are taking these practices and letting them guide our artistic process:

As a result, Giants & Pilgrims will be releasing a new song! This is a single from a larger work called “Bellwether”, out later this year. I wrote it while processing this idea of clearing and subtraction then quickly recorded, mixed, and mastered the song with a host of incredibly talented people!

Alongside the song, Betony is creating limited run of a screen-print that will be sold online only the last week of January! It’ll bring a beauty and design to the lyrics from this new song.

Also, Betony is excited to begin the year with a wonderful, clean, and intention-filled studio.

The number of trash bags full of stuff we donated was CRAZY! This is only about 1/6 –

January Practice and Process: “Clearing”

January 8, 2016/1 Comment/in Bellwether, Family, Lists, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

In creating our new project Bellwether we’ve decided to share what we’re doing each month before it’s released at the end of the year.
We’re calling these posts “practice and process“.

They will detail the spiritual/life practice we’re doing,
give a look at our in-process art that we’re creating in response,
and then include a whole host of resources and activities! (like the new desktop wallpaper, book/music/movie lists, recipes, explorations for kids, etc. This is so as a entire family we can engage in this year’s exploration of “belief” we’re calling Bellwether.

JANUARY Theme: Clearing

To me January is about resetting, starting fresh. It is the metaphor of a clear desk space – putting away all old projects and supplies, shining the surface, pulling up a stool, and opening up a new blank sketchbook, and beginning.

Practice:

As a family this month, we plan on doing two main things.

Clearing out our house of it’s excesses – stripping down to the objects that give us joy and clearing room for creativity to breath.
After a book has been recommended to me by 3 different people independent of each other, I figure it is time to read it. While we were home for Christmas, Tim and I both read this book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Marie Kondo is quirky. She personifies objects and houses. I particularly loved how she talked about socks.
(“The socks and stockings stored in your drawer are essentially on holiday.”
I can’t say I have ever really thought twice about how hard my socks work.) Here are the basic ideas in the book –
- Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely, in one go.
- Discard by category – not by location (first clothing, then books, etc…)
- A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming. Then everything has its right place and tidying becomes easier.
- when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too.
- Surround yourself only by the things you love
“Letting go is even more important than adding” – Marie Kondo

What I have discovered by going through this process, at least so far, is that through discarding, I begin discern more clearly what is most important to me!

2. For our second spiritual/life practice we’re setting up a table altar. When the meal is finished and the table is cleared and cleaned ring the bell and say this prayer together: Lord God and King we thank you for your sustaining love.

Process:

Artistically, January is a month of exploration for me. I have some initial ideas for Bellwether, but mostly I am letting things steep. I will be drawing in my sketchbook a lot. And working through several boxes of beautiful old books to be used as collage material donated to me by the Greeley History Museum. I’m resetting and clearing my studio space to begin a new year of creating – I can’t hardly bear to post this picture of my studio right now. It is in SUCH a sad shape of disaster (this is what happens when the year ends with 3 major art shows). But, by sharing it here, it is just even more motivation to get it to where I want it to be.

Tim is working on recording a song around the ideas of subtraction and clearing. Hopefully for use in a really cool upcoming project.

(by the way if you haven’t checked out the new January calendar and desktop you definitely should)

Resources for “Clearing”:

JANUARY Dates to Take Note of:

January 11th – Winners of the major Children’s book awards are announced
January 18th – Martin Luther King Day – listen to this playlist or this one

Local: Greeley, CO events:

January 9th – Missoula Children’s Theater Rapunzel @UCCC
Starting January 18th – Centennial branch library is hosting a “Discover Nasa” exhibit
January 29-30th -The Annual Father Daughter Dance – tim takes the girls each year, and they all just love it.
(Here are the pictures from last year, we still giggle at how much these two shots capture the girls’ personalities)

Let me know if you have other fun Greeley events I should add to this calendar!

READING:

I am reading a lot of parenting and “how kids learn” kind of books, because we are thinking about shifting up how we teach our kiddos next year.

I have been really digging into Michelle Garrels new blog/resources at her site The New Domestic.

I want to listen to this podcast interview of her.
Her resource lists are particularly wonderful for learners of all ages.

Tim has been reading The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse by M. Gungor
Every snippet he has read to me has been just wonderful. I can’t wait to pick it up too.

I have seen some powerful reviews of When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I am very interested to read his story.

Here are some of the books I have on hold at the library for the kids this month:

We are also planning on rereading the financial classic Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (if I can get past the Cheese factor). It is a proven system of money managing that has worked wonders for us in the past.

LISTEN TO:

Chvrches – Every Open Eye (my current favorite track is Clearest Blue – it makes me want to go running)

This liturgists podcast called “Vapor”

WATCH:

Selma

SCIENCE EXPLORATIONS:

Since the theme is “Clear”ing, I would love to do this vinegar egg experiment with the kids

Since it is ridiculously cold here right now, I think this would be a beautiful little science experiment to try as well.

FOOD:

We are in the midst of the Bon Appetit food lover’s cleanse for 2016. A practice we have done for the last 3 years. For our family it is a lovely reset. I do simplify and rearrange the menus for the sake of our grocery budget. So far our absolute new favorite is the Oven Roasted Chicken with Grapes.

ART:

Read and be inspired by this children’s book and experiment with our own scratch art.

Because one of our sub-themes is subtraction, we want to play around with Soap Carving with the girlies. Also seem like they would be fun for the bath if we made little boats.

POETRY to READ:

A New Years Blessing by Joel Mckerrow

The Journey by Mary Oliver

January Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

January 1, 2016/0 Comments/in Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Online /by Betony Coons

We love the end of the year holidays. All the festivities and feasting are something we look forward to all year long. But, I have also really started looking forward to January and the close of the old year as well. There is nothing quite like it. The vast potential and blank slate of a new year fills me with fresh energy. It reminds me of the feeling of cleaning off a cluttered workspace and coming in the next morning to a clear table with endless possibility and energy. Our theme this month we will be exploring is “Clearing.” To kick us off on this first day of 2016, here is a clean minimal desktop/iphone wallpaper set for you. A tiny boat heading off into new adventures.

To dig into January, read this simple poem, make this yummy New Years Stew, and listen to this “Resolutions” playlist.For the desktop, click on the small thumbnail below to view the large size image.
For the iphone wallpaper, navigate to this page on your phone and then click and hold on the iphone images. Select ‘Save image to camera roll’. Then from your camera roll set your home screen/lock screen.
High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:

iPhone wallpaper:

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.