Inspired By Rainbows

Our class is bursting at the seams, ready for sun, ready for a soft warm breeze on our face, ready to hear the birds chirping, ready to stretch our bodies and run like the wind.  For the last few months we have been storm stayed, snow days, cold, layers of clothing, runny noses.  The magic and wonder of the beautiful winter left our hearts a few weeks ago.  We want spring!!!!

After a little "Saint Patricks Day" celebration the children had lots of "I Wonder..." questions about rainbows, so naturally it led to lots of cool inquiry explorations and inspirations throughout the room.  It was a wonderful invitation to breath some extra colour into our room to combat all the white and lack of sunshine in our lives.  

So with this post I wish you all a very HAPPY SPRING and OODLES of Colour!

Vision/Inspiration Atelier Board

The question on our board reads 

"What colours do you like to create with?"

Lots of fun provocation with the tulips and clay, pencil crayon sculpture, drawings.  

A lesson on pastels, followed by experimentation with smudging rainbow on construction paper.  

3D Shape and finger painting, don't you just love discovering math concepts through  ART?! 

Just one of the beautiful, cool, amazing benefits of FDK.  

Paint chip shades add to the kids knowledge of colours.  

And a little Picasso lady and the mirror peeping out for inspiration.  

Tissue Paper poofs to add sculpture, texture, form and visual interest above the creating table.

Tissue Mosaic Rainbow Spray

I'd like to say that this turned out amazing...but it didn't.  The gluing mosaic style tissue on paper turned out, but once the kids squirted the water it was a little anti-climatic as the tissue paper didn't drip colour!!!  So my learning lesson here was test the tissue first!  Luckily we had a little crepe streamers that we quickly cut up and the kids glued it on.  It dripped colour and we were able to observe some colour mixing and some cool dripping.  The kids seemed to enjoy the processes and I guess that was another lesson for me that it is sometimes (most of the time) about the process and not the product at the end.  Also, interesting to add was the kids observing me when this Art project didn't work as I thought it would and seeing how it turned into a science experiment and just rolling with it, really felt good, a great moment for the kids to see that adults don't always have the answers.

Next time:  I think this would be really fun for outdoor classroom, using the proper tissue. 

Throughout these weeks I can't seem to get the lyrics from a family favourite song when I was little.  "Flowers are Red" by Harry Chapin, here's a wee snippet of the verse.  It's a beautiful, yet sad and sometimes true song.   The best parts are the parts the little boy sings.

But the little boy said

"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one"

No truer words are spoken about children and some adults (especially R. ECE's)

Have a beautiful Sunshiny kind of Day,

Love, Light and Rockets all the Way,

Marcia

Vive La New Years Resolutions...just kidding...I think you should delay them

Every January I start a new Journal.  I ferociously write my grand plans for the year, I write down every morsel I've eaten or drank for the day, how I feel, poems, observations, gratitude's.
And then I stop around the end of February.
Just like that,  done.
I have so many journals, with January to February entries.  Part of the Grand Plans, resolutions if you will, usually include cutting out Alcohol, gluten, dairy and coffee, watch less t.v., exercise more.  Always stems from the gluttonous November/December endless holiday celebrations and dinners, all the baking, rich meals, accompanied by glasses of wine and beer, and evening Bailey's or Harvey's Bristol Cream.

So really, half way between Christmas and New Years, I pretty much feel like a stuffed non-organic Turkey ready to hit the utility conveyor belt.  So making these New Years Resolutions just seems to make sense at that time.

This year started out very similar...resolutions set..... until about the 300th snow day in our Lake Effect Squall/Blizzard Vortex of Never Leaving this Town in Winter, Town.  I truly feel that I will never make a "New Years Resolution" again in January...again.
I needed a glass of wine or three on those long snow days, I needed a hot bowl of homemade cream of something soup and a crusty bun for dinner, every now and then, to warm my heart and belly, when the winds and snow just will not let up.
I needed t.v. during these months to numb my mind after obsessively checking the Weather Network Station, reading, researching, work, and all the things a Woman does.
Now the exercise more, is never a bad one, I am a big believer in daily exercise...just not always a great practitioner of such grandiose daily needs.  I usually 'up' my yoga practice, count sledding with the kids, walking the dog as my main movement breaks.  But sometimes a cuddle under the blanket, cup of tea and book seemed more important (to me) this time of year.

What I propose is from January to April first is your New Year "Prep" time.  Time to reflect, time to slowly detox from the mess of end of year shenanigans, time to regroup your thoughts and priorities, these are your winter months to take stock of your life and slowly implement, small, manageable positive changes.  Changes that won't overwhelm, changes that start feeling "right" and "easy".

Then April 1st, once the weather has broke and hopefully no more snow (but you never know) start kicking your plans into high gear.  Spring.  Everything is new and fresh, growing, stretching.  This is the time to implement all the amazing little things you 'prepped' for.  Time to shine. It just makes more sense in this time of year, and to be honest this phase of my life (what I like to call Early Mid Century).  April 1st is only 2 weeks away, I feel good(ish), I cut back on coffee, I've been juicing, yoga, writing more, t.v. a little less, cut back on gluten and dairy, drinking more herbal tea.

The next phase will come in September and this time will be a Winter Goal Setting Phase, I need to plan on how we will get through winter with a little more fun and a lot less S.A.D., I need to learn (and teach the kids) how to like, embrace, maybe even ...love winter for the rest of our lives.  (I'll let you know how that one goes) For real though, I think this is the ultimate Canadian Life Skill, and I have not mastered it.

So maybe this is my giant excuse post about all my New Years Resolution short comings or maybe, just maybe, its just, I have finally evolved and this is the year I've stopped putting so much pressure on myself to be this high performing superwoman, which I've never reached and never will and plus I don't even want to be that person anyway.  Whatever the reason, it's a new season and I'm feeling grateful and positive about life.  AND,  I'm really, really, really, looking forward to getting my hands in the dirt and start gardening (which equals exercising, right?), long sunshiny days and nights, sitting on the porch, riding bikes, and in this town our most ultimate prized possession, days at the beach on our beautiful Lake Huron.

There is a lake under all that snow.

Peace, Love and Light Always,

Marcia

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's...Super Sassy!

What a fun summertime picture to do.  Draw a city scape on the road have child lay sideways a la super hero flying and voila really sweet picture.  I found this fun idea on Pinterest.  When I started on Pinterest a few weeks ago I vowed to myself I wasn't just going to "PIN" ideas and never do them.  So...so far I've done this art with Sass, my niece and a couple of neighbourhood girlies and it was a lot of fun,  I've done 4 recipes that I "Pinned"  and I ordered 2 really great lunchboxes for the kids that I "Pinned".  Safe to say I am a "Pinspert" (Pinning expert) now.  If you have trouble with any type of addiction I strongly suggest you stay away.  It is that good.  Every "hit" of Pintesest is just as potent as the first.  You know what?  It is just good clean fun.  When my hubby is on Night shift it is a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It has everything from Homeschooling ideas, to travel, to tattoos, wardrobe...it has EVERYTHING all rolled up into one great site. I love it.  So check it woulda already.  Follow me and I will follow you.

Have a Pinteresting Weekend,

Love

Marcia