Chickie, Chickies Everywhere

So a few weeks ago I posted about our little chicks. Well they aren't so little any more. And it's beginning to get a little cooler here so we decided to start doing some transitioning. But first we had to build this cute little 'chicken tractor'.

This was their first day outside. We think they loved it!

Here you see my eldest inside. That's because we haven't gotten a 'top' on it and there are a few very large birds ... probably hawks ... so we are having to babysit them while they are outside until it is permanent. However, it also allows us to be able to be very hands on with the chiks.

This is Miracle. She's called that because we had to help her a lot escaping her shell from the incubator. We didn't know if she'd make it. Now she peeps a lot until we hold her. Then she falls alseep. Isn't she a cutie?

We are trying to get them very used to us ... and they are.

Here they are learning how to take a dust bath from the 2 'older ones' that were living outside with Mama, but then she jumped ship and started roosting at night with the big hens so the second time she did that we scooped them up and brought them inside. We then took a few days to slowly and under supervision introduce them to the rest of their 'sort of' siblings.

You can Create A Masterpiece! ~~ A New TOS Review!!

As a homeschool family with a child who loves art you find that you are always on the lookout to improve your homeschool art curriculum and we had the opportunity to do just that with our latest review of the Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece. We were very appreciative of the one year online subscription we received to review.

First things first we were asked to purchase our own art supplies. Now if you have a blooming artist at your home you might have had some of these on hand and we usually did, but with our moving I couldn't place my fingers on any of our supplies. Thankfully if you go to the lessons at Creating a Masterpiece each one has a supply list and links to where you can purchase them.

You can click on purchase supplies and it will take you to an external link through Blick Art Supplies and they were rather inexpensive and just faster to order and have them delivered than for me to go around the house and to multiple stores trying to find a 6B drawing pencil, colored pencils, eraser that would work WELL, as well as the different papers. And since I knew my other 2 kiddos (and probably me) would join in I could just order 4 of the individual items and one pack of paper for us all to share. It worked out well!

Currently the Drawing Program has Beginner and then 3 more levels each with several drawing projects. Since most of my children had no knowledge of basic drawing skills or techniques we decided to start with the Beginner set and work through those before attempting ones in upper levels. The plan is for this program to increase in difficulty and have many more projects.

Beginner

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

We had to wait a little while to start so that our supplies would arrive to use during the lessons. We ended up starting with doing a caricature of a giraffe. Miss Sharon is very knowledgeable during the lessons which are not very long, but cut into more bite-sized pieces. Some of my children liked that, others did not. My eldest (16) wanted to watch the video all at once and stop it only when/if she needed. I liked the short sections so that you could fit an art lesson in in a relatively small part of your day or in between other subjects or events planned for the day. My eldest suggested an option where you could play the whole lesson in its entirety as well as the lesson in the bite sized chunks, that way it would work for younger students and older ones who can remember the steps a little easier.

So we have already completed 3 of the projects in the Basic level. We would have done more, but it's been hard to get a time where all 3 of my children are able to sit down for the lesson. We will be doing another one this week, hopefully, since my eldest is on fall break from her dual enroll classes. The cool thing about the lessons is that they could all do them on their own if they wanted, so after the first few lessons I told them they could start to explore and do ones that really spoke to them. I think my one daughter will be drawn to the horse drawing project and my son to one of the ones that use the prismacolor pencils which he LOVES to draw with - they are truly the best!

At first they were a bit tentative of the first project - which was a giraffe caricature. Miss Sharon, the instructor was good at explaining what a caricature was. Funny enough that same week at the college my eldest daughter got a caricature drawn of herself. LOL! Here are some of the pictures of the progression of our giraffe's.

Starting the giraffe

Erasing a line that wasn't right

He's proud of his beginning

watching the lesson

drawing the details

My artist's finished giraffe caricature

Next up was a landscape drawing where Miss Sharon again gave the instruction in bite-sized chunks and explained perspective and shading to make sure items in the forefront stood out. We also learned the correct way to use a tortillion (it's for smudging and blending).  One thing Miss Sharon also suggested was to use less of the paper by folding it in half. That drawing in the beginning is easier when you have less space to fill and use. I think this was a brilliant teaching moment.  Here are our landscape pictures. 

Getting the supplies ready

working on the background

Learning about a tortillion and how to use it.

Watching the lesson

Landscape portraits coming along.

Finished project

My son finished and added a bird. Can you see it?

I even joined in on this one. I like my finished product.

The latest one we did was the Hoot owl - which I believe we have one somewhere close. For this one my son decided to make a teeny one and ended up 'finishing' his project before we listened to the whole lesson. Sometimes, he doesn't like to wait. Others watching this lesson were having a hard time 'getting things right' before progressing - but that is what Miss Sharon told them to do -- be happy with the base before adding all the details.

Working on the owl

Casting it (which sometimes whites out the being drawn picture)

What it looks like on my computer

Seanan working on his teeny owl

My eldest's owl. 

My artist child has really loved learning how to draw with pencils which is one medium she has shyed away from usually because she feels inadequate. With the lessons that Miss Sharon has presented in bite sized chunks and easy to understand techniques my younger daughter (14) has really blossomed in her use of pencils. As I mentioned earlier she loves horses so she is looking forward to drawing The General's Horse lesson - I bet that one ends up on her wall in a frame!

If you are looking for a homeschool art curriculum, I think the Drawing Program from Creating a Masterpiece fits the bill. I know that my artist loving child is also looking at the other offerings inside Creating a Masterpiece where she can also learn acrylics, pastels, and many other media. She might even ask for a subscription for Christmas (this is a PERFECT gift idea for any art loving child or family!).

You can find Creating a Masterpiece  also on Facebook. And as always don't take just our word on it, read one of the other 70 reviews by clicking the link below to the Homeschool Review Crew blog!

Brain Blox Wooden Planks ~~ A New TOS Review!!

Educational toys are a must have in our family. So I was so very happy to be chosen for the review of Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks from Brain Blox. I knew my son would have hours and hours of fun building and we could also use them for school - a win/win!  The moment we received the box in the mail my son was ready to jump in. But I had him wait until I could video tape him telling me all about our latest review. Check out his first interaction with Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks.

Now that you have seen his introduction I'm sure you know at least one child that would love these planks. They are about 4 3/4" long by 1" wide and ~1/4" thick. They are made from New Zeland Pine which is a sustainable renewable resource and they are 100% natural so totally safe for children and pets!

We received the 200 plank box which also came with a canvas drawstring backpack (so you can bring the planks with you), an idea pamphlet that has 15 ideas many of them also include challenges after the initial build idea. It also had another flyer with some other ideas and challengesand a way to enter a chance to win more planks! We also found on their website some other free resources including some brain puzzles made from the planks as well as a world idea ebook.

Puzzle - move only one plank to make the equation equal

First answer

another answer

I love these types of educational toys mainly becuase it allows your child at any age to express their own unique creative spin on life. They can use them to build anything they think of. They can be used to help build or cement math concepts by using them as manipulatives. They can help with physics and engineering cocepts and ideas by letting your child build what they think they can build and if it stands it's a solid creation. If not then can use problem solving skills and resoning skills to find out why their creation did not work.

We were able to use it in a variety of ways. One was my son just wanted to build creations that then could be knocked down like you can with dominos. He tried to make one with all the 200 planks, but our dog wasn't helping the situation and kept knocking into portions.

Another creation he built was a whale with a blowhole after we were studing whales.

His eldest sister found him playing after she came home from her college classes and decided to attempt a few of the design ideas that came in the box. She made the flower as well as the Parthenon which is a favorite of hers (she LOVES Roman and Greek history and mythology) and we had just seen the replica in Nashville about a month ago on a day trip.

We also were reading a book called The Borrowers for our book club and he decided to make some items from the book  - like a chair and a table. They were too big to fit in his diorama, but I took a picture to show his friends at book club.

As you can see there are many ways to use and implement the  Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks into your regular daily routine. And the cool thing is that Brain Blox is always trying to come up with new ideas and tyring to even build some curriculum uses and learning activities that can also be paired up with these amazing wooden toy blocks.

But don't just take our word on it. You'll want to find out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew thought about their interactions with Brain Blox by clicking on the link below. You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. With Christmas right around the corner these wooden toy blocks are sure to be able to be added to anyone's Christmas list. Also we did a review for another Brain Blox product called Fun Family Chess so be sure to check out that review as well!!