september – Giants & Pilgrims

September 2020 Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper

September 2, 2020/0 Comments/in Art, Desktop Backgrounds, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

We just got back from a family trip to visit the coastal redwoods in Northern California for the first time. The minimal color palette of the forest, the smell of the needles and the fog, the peaceful immensity of the trees, all of these things have been resting in my sub-conscience and filling up my inner wells. Hopefully this forest-inspired wallpaper can bring a little of that feeling to your spaces as well. Thank you all for your continued love and care for our family and artwork. Happy September! – Betony

For the desktop, click on the image above to view the large size image

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. I make a couple different versions so that you can use what works best for your device.

September 2019 Desktop Wallpaper

September 2, 2019/2 Comments/in Art, Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

Happy September!

Welcome to September -a month filled to the brim with new energy for the season, an embarking on new endeavors, a month filled with learning, and full of the fruits of our gardens. I hope you have lots of fun and adventure to look forward to. I plan on visiting our local orchard to pick apples, pulling out all the fall decorations, lighting the autumn scented candles, and paying attention as the season begins to shift.

Much love to you,

Betony

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. I make a couple different ones so that you can use what works best for your device.

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling

October 29, 2017/0 Comments/in Abacus, Family, Homeschooling, Monthly Themes /by Betony Coons

Last year we began homeschooling Lucy (8), Hattie (6), Beatrice (3), and Arlo (10 months). 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.

I am a little behind and trying to get caught up (four kids man…) so this month is mostly just a picture journal. Enjoy the show!

School and ABCs:

One day a week homeschool enrichment program started up for Lucy and Harriet (her first time!)

Baby schooling for Arlo ha ha –

Letter play for Beatrice

Front porch reading/tea time

Beautiful new alphabet tracing board from Treasures from Jennifer

All sorts of alphabet play (An Artist’s Alphabet by Messenger, Animalia by Graeme Base)

Animal name alphabet matching

Such a weird and silly book!

Africa/Geography/History:

Did a little general Africa study this month

Building sand and rock maps as part of our history study.

Architecture:

We read several fun books about famous building and then made our own popsicle stick houses – which turned into troll houses and led to endless play with their tiny troll dolls (“Branch” and “Lily”)

The girls also built some epic block structures

Art:

Buzzy created her first paintings.

Lucy had a great time drawing fairies

They also visited me at the Children’s museum and had a great time exploring all the cool things there. Here is Lucy trying out my stage art piece

A little “Greeley Gothic”

I sorted all my old jewelry making supplies which led to several days of jewelry making for the girls.

And lastly, we found a really cool velvet embossing kit at the thrift store. Such a fun and easy process!

Kansas and the State Fair:

We took a mid month trip back to Kansas and spent the week having a blast at the State Fair there.

Riding all the rides –

The beautiful quilts on display in the Domestic Arts Building –

Experiencing what it is like to milk a cow –

Sunflowers!

Fun on the giant slide

Arlo meeting Daisy the sheep

Math:

Our very favorite math books – Beast Academy. So So fun.

In Beast Academy we are learning all about shapes, so we played with Tangrams

and some Teddy Bear math –

Music:

Piano lessons started up – although practicing is made a little more difficult by younger siblings.

So that is when we have to get out the tiny piano

Listening to a marching band parade in KS

We listened to Classical Kids “Vivaldi: Ring of Mystery” and learned about different instruments in the orchestra and also learned about the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura – so neat!!

PE:

Playing mini golf in Hutchinson, KS!

Dance classes kicked off and somebody is finally old enough to have her own class!

Autumn Fun Outside:

Learning how to fish with Grandpa Ed

Picking apples

Enjoying the animals at a petting zoo in downtown Greeley during Ag Fest

Poudre river trail races

We read My Side of the Mountain which led to all kinds of nature collecting, learning about eating in the wild, and tree walks to find edible nature finds.

Lucy also picked up whittling

Seed Study:

I love this series of books by Aston/Long – This month we focused on A Seed is Sleepy and had a lovely afternoon collecting all different kinds of seeds.

Garden Gathering:

We enjoyed the last fruits and veggies of the garden.

Birthdays:

We have two important birthdays in September. Buzzy turned 3 and Harriet turned 6!

September 2017 Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September 3, 2017/2 Comments/in Art, Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Monthly Themes, Online /by Betony Coons

I’m a couple of days late on this one! Sorry about that. For the background of this one, I found this cool floral print around a really old map of LA. It reminded me so much of what I love about September – that in-between of summer and autumn. I deconstructed the print and created this cool repeating floral print with cut botanicals on top. Hope you enjoy it!

Much love,

Betony

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

High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:

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:

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling – PART TWO

September 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Abacus, Art, Creative Process, Family, Monthly Themes, Online /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”!

To read the first half of this post, go here.

READING AND WRITING:

Here were our reading books for the month:

The One and Only Ivan for fun (it was so good), and Columbus as our history story (we are going through this series in order). We really enjoyed both books.

We have continued with our morning Tea Time and book reading on the front porch. It is so lovely, I’ll be sad when it gets too cold to continue.

Speaking of books, I am learning that sometimes you have to go with the momentum. One morning I had planned on having the girls do a couple of pages in a math workbook. They had other plans. They were super wrapped up in playing with their calico critters. I never want to interrupt play, so we brought the two together. The girls made tiny math books for their Critters. It was pretty sweet.

This picture is a another funny example of learning to let things happen organically. I was trying to work on Harriet’s letters with her and she (and I) kept getting frustrated. Finally I gave up and let her go play with Beatrice. Not two minutes later I look over and she is copying the words from these puzzles.

Tim devised this fun matching game for Harriet’s alphabet work using alphabet pretzels.

We have been doing a weekly letter writing session – thank you notes, pen pals, love letters, etc. A lovely repercussion has been that the girls are starting to get lots of mail back. Which they LOVE.

One day when we needed to get out, we did a scavenger hunt at our library. The purpose was to get the girls familiarized with how to find books on their own and use the library computers. It was really fun.

Birthdays:

We have two girls with September birthdays. We have a tradition around here (see all the past ones here) where the girls and I work together to design them a birthday invitation/postcard. Here is Harriet’s this year –

And Beatrice’s –

Some birthday ideas worth stealing/using again –
My mom came up with this awesome little treasure hunt using picture clues. Each clue was only partially drawn and the kids had to figure out what the image was in order to find their next clue.

As part of Harriet’s party, we drew a giant chalk maze on our outdoor patio. Later (not pictured) the kids drew their own obstacles in it to make it trickier.

Probably my favorite gift the girls got is this really neat one player game, called Camelot Jr. –

MAKING PROJECTS:

Lucy’s using an old reading book from Tim’s mom’s second grade class. We have been having fun coming up with projects around each story. This month was tree houses, camping with star gazing (in other post), a planets science kit, and cactuses. Here are some photos of the tree houses. I used to do a similar project for Architecture when I taught middle school. You just find a good “tree” stick and plant it in a can, fill the can with rocks, and then start building!

SEWING:

These projects were more mama-made and kid-enjoyed, but I had SUCH a fun time making them I couldn’t not share.

Two clothesline baskets for egg collecting –

And two very colorful capes just for fun. This pattern was so easy and straight forward.

Well, that’s all for September! Thanks for coming along for the ride!

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling – “Abacus” Round Up PART ONE

September 28, 2016/0 Comments/in Abacus, Art, Creative Process, Family, Lists, Monthly Themes /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”!

But this month I realized I have to start splitting these posts into multiple parts! Sorry for the length, but there is just so much good stuff to include. Looking back, I can’t believe how much we did in September!

I’ll try my best to categorize images by themes. Please feel free to ask questions about any resources or projects in the comments below and I’ll do my best to clarify!

Autumn Leaves:

One of the themes that has come out this month was “Autumn Leaves.” We have been listening to this playlist a lot. We also had a lovely morning of writing our own poetry (which of course had to be typed out on my vintage Royal typewriter).

Here is Lucy’s poem –

Inspired by the gorgeous ones at Mirus Toy’s etsy shop/instagram we decided to have our first homeschooling woodworking project be to make our own flower presses. The girls measured, I cut, they sanded, drilled, and stained all the pieces. It was a perfect first project. Our first batch of flowers and leaves are pressing right now. I’ll let you know how they turn out!

Here are the finished presses. The girls designed their own tops and then I helped them wood burn the designs (they both drew their inspiration from a fancy spoon we have. Who knows…)

We also went on a lovely scootering/scavenger hunt following UNC’s beautifully done Guided Tree Walk. It was so much fun.

Finally, this was a little morning Art exploration table with inspiration art piece from Tom Thomson, music by Vivaldi (Four Seasons: Autumn of course), and tissue paper “leaves” and glue to play with.

Australia:

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, Harriet and Lucy chose Australia as our country to visit.

This involved lots of Australia stories, maps, stickers, and videos of boomerangs and didgeridoos.

The girls also enjoyed some Cosmic Kids Yoga (specifically the kangaroo episode). These would probably be too young for some kids, but our girls (2, 5, 7) still love them. And it’s just the ticket when you need a moment to yourself.

We also checked out a stack of books from our wonderful library and did a little Australia “research”

Wizard of Oz and Kansas:

Since we had planned a quick but exciting trip to the KS state fair in mid-September, I thought it would be a great time to read Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. Since it is still a little old for Harriet especially, I chose this beautifully illustrated by Charles Santore version. It was just perfect for us. Everyone got SO into it.

Harriet even broke out the old Dorothy costume and her ruby slippers.

We made some Wizard of Oz paper dolls just for fun. I thought someone else might have fun with them too, so I made a wizard-of-oz-paper-dolls printable pdf. Just print out onto cardstock, color, cut out, then hole punch on the dots (I used an extra small hole punch), and attach with mini brads.

Oh AND Tim took the girls and I to the Candlelight Dinner theater production of the Wizard of Oz! Their expressions and gasps of surprise were worth every penny.

Once we made the trip to KS, we had some good old Kansas State Fair fun.

I especially loved these Moon photos taken by the Hutchinson Newspaper. They were inspired by Paper moon photos taken at the fair in the 1900’s.

….although Beatrice’s face almost broke the camera… (he he. There is always one…)

Speaking of Moons….

Harvest Moon

We have been using this ebook as a guide for our Nature Study. And it is SO beautifully done.

It has a simple activity each with corresponding with the seasons, paired with a recommended book list, an art piece to enjoy, a poem, and art ideas. Truly, right now it is my FAVORITE thing. This month the weeks we got to were on the Harvest Moons and the Autumn Equinox. I already shared some of our harvest moon goodies and a playlist here.

But I thought you might also enjoy seeing these salt watercolor paintings we made.

Nature Outings:

We have designated Monday as our outdoor adventure days. It’s our day off together as a family, and we just love it. This month we were able to play at Windsor Beach:

We had a backyard camping adventure (inspired by one of the stories in Lucy’s reading book):

And we spent the first day of Autumn exploring the sights, smells, and sounds at Homestead Park. Our favorite.

I also had a great time playing with our new Mobile Macro Lens (so fun!)

And finally a drive up the Poudre Canyon to search for fall colors, have a picnic, and search for flowers for our new leaf presses. We are doing something called the Nature Pal Exchange this next month and are busily collecting goodies for our box.

Harvest Moon Playlist and More

September 16, 2016/0 Comments/in Abacus, Creative Process, Family, Monthly Themes, Online, playlist /by Betony Coons

Tonight is the harvest moon so we thought it was high time to make a new autumn “Moon” themed playlist. I love how old-fashioned and mellow this mixtape is. Enjoy!

And, just for fun, here is our Harvest Moon themed table/art/reading for the day. Lots of these inspired by the book “Exploring Nature” with Children by Lynn Seddon which I have been loving.

And finally a Poem for the evening –

The Harvest Moon by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighbourhoods of nests

Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes

And harvest-fields, its mystic splendour rests!

Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,

With the last sheaves return the labouring wains!

All things are symbols: the external shows

Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;

The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,

Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

September Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September 2, 2016/0 Comments/in Art, Desktop Backgrounds, Downloads, Monthly Themes /by Betony Coons

In honor of September, here is a little poem by Tyler Knott Gregson

Autumn is coming. It may be the sneakiest season;
it disguises itself with warm winds and late evening golden light.
It wraps itself in colors that look like fire and the slowly fading sound of crickets at night.
It comes without warning and without apology and before you know it,
the air is cold and the leaves are falling and the Summer you thought you were enjoying is just a memory.
Sly. So sly.

(If you can, check out Tyler’s typewriter series. Pretty great stuff)

And, here is a new set of Wallpaper set for your September enjoyment. Most of the Cyanotypes are from the 1890’s by a British photographer/botanist named Anna Atkins courtesy of the New York Public Library and the V&A Collections. These images take me back to my college days volunteering in the UNC herbarium.

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:

iPhone Wallpaper:

September Ideas and Activities around the Theme “Animalia”

September 5, 2015/1 Comment/in Abacus, Family, Lists /by Betony Coons

For this entire year I’ve been doing an at home curriculum with the family (Lucy 6, Hattie 3, Beatrice 10 months). Tim and I call the project “Abacus” and we’re sharing it each month for the fun, challenge, and community of it. Each month we choose a theme and then come up with a bunch of activities around that theme.
Read all about how to use this list and our heart behind this project here.
Explore past months themes here.

Growing up we had this book as a kid by Graeme Base called Animalia. It’s the basic idea of an ABC book taken to the next level – as many things that start with a letter as possible entertwined together on one page with catchy alliteration poetry. My dad and I would play a game where we would see how many things we could find that started with the letter on each page. It would be in the hundreds per page. Inspired by that book, this month’s theme is “ANIMALIA” – think the animal kingdom, animal alphabets, zoology, fables and more

September Dates to Take Note of:

September 7th –Labor Day
September 13th –Grandparents Day
September 19th –Talk Like a Pirate Day
September 21st – International Peace Day
(We also have two little cuties who have September birthdays)

Local: Greeley, CO events:

September 12th –Chalk-a-Lot at UNC (a fun family art event – they will be trying to break the world record for longest continuous chalk drawing)
September 12th –Potato Day at Centennial Village (one of my favorites)
September 19th – Poudre River Trail-a-Thon – we haven’t ever been to this, but it sounds great!

List of Ideas and Inspiration for ANIMALIA:

FILMS:

There are so many good family movie nights here…

Dr. Doolittle (I prefer the old one of course)

Milo and Otis
We Bought a Zoo
Babe
Homeward Bound (Old version is called the Incredible Journey)
Gorillas in the Mist

BOOKS:

Animalia by Graeme Base
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Animalium by Katie Scott & Jenny Broom

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

…and oh so many other great books from the perspective of animals (Redwall, Wildwood, Charlottes Web, etc…)

SCIENCE & NATURE:

Learn about animal taxonomy (remember “Kings Play Cards On Fat Green Stools”?)

Animal tracks – maybe make plaster casts of them

Learn about endangered and extinct animals – could make little clay models of them

ART:

Funny animal combinations

Painting and drawing animals – there are some great books on this. Learning how to simplify to basic shapes is a great lesson.

Help the girls Sew little felt animals

OUTINGS:

Take a trip to the Zoo (or wild animal sanctuary)

LITERATURE:

Read animal fairy tales – three little pigs, billy goats gruff, etc.

Learn about Aasops Fables

MUSIC:

Listen to and talk through the Carnival of Animals by Saint-Saëns – also this Ap might be a fun add on too

DRAMA:

Play Animal charades

Put on a play of one of Aasops Fables or a Nursery Rhyme

Make animal hand shadow puppets

September Calendar Free Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September 1, 2015/0 Comments/in Almanac, Downloads, Online /by Betony Coons

We are listening to our Autumn Leaves playlist this morning and burning fall scented candles. Why? Because in the Coons’ house, Sept. 1st is the beginning of fall! And, here is a new desktop graphic/wallpaper to celebrate. Enjoy!

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.

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

High Resolution Desktop Wallpaper:

iPhone Wallpaper:

Posts

September 2020 Desktop & iPhone Wallpaper

September 2019 Desktop Wallpaper

Happy September!

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling

School and ABCs:

Africa/Geography/History:

Architecture:

Art:

Kansas and the State Fair:

Math:

Music:

PE:

Autumn Fun Outside:

Seed Study:

Garden Gathering:

Birthdays:

September 2017 Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling – PART TWO

READING AND WRITING:

Birthdays:

MAKING PROJECTS:

SEWING:

September’s Adventures in Homeschooling – “Abacus” Round Up PART ONE

Autumn Leaves:

Australia:

Wizard of Oz and Kansas:

Harvest Moon

Nature Outings:

Harvest Moon Playlist and More

September Free Calendar Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

September Calendar Free Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper

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