FIAR vol 4 co-op: Angelo

A new fun book to explore and enjoy!  A delightful story with many layers of lessons and well worth the read!

We began with a devotion discussing Col 3:17

We then discussed the setting of the story (Italy).  We spent some time praying for Italy using the Operation World website information.  

The first lesson we covered was one on restoration which was the job of one of the main characters in the book.  We learned more about plaster from this site.  And one tidbit that was mostly interesting to the adults is the origin of the name "Plaster of Paris".  Is this something that you have heard?  I never had and found it intriguing.  Paris was known as the "capital of plaster" in the 1700s because plaster was widely used to coat the wooden walls of houses. This helped protect against fire. Gypsum plaster became known as "plaster of Paris."

We did our own wet fresco painting following these instructions.  

When Plaster of Paris is mixed into a paste, it hardens into a smooth solid with a soft  malleable surface.  It hardens quickly, before the water in it evaporates, so it does not shrink as it dries.  In our story, stucco or plaster is used to repair buildings.  It can also be used as an art form.  We discussed fresco painting and then did our own following these instructions.

Snack time with ideas from the book.  Pasta which they made into "nests" like the last picture in the book.

Daniel showing off his nest.

Everyone gathering around for food.  LOL

 We learned about pigeons in the form of a quiz.  I asked questions to see that they knew.  Here are a few if you want to test your knowledge.

1.  Are all pigeons black like Sylvia?

2.  What is a young pigeon called?

3.  What is the life span of a pigeon?

4.  How many babies does a pigeon have?


Answers:
1.  No, they come in many colors

2.  A squab

3.  10-15 years

4.  They usually have 2 eggs per clutch and can have up to 8 clutches per year.

And did you know that pigeons are able to recognize all 26 letters of the English alphabet and can be taught complex actions and responses.  They can remember large numbers of individual images for several years!  This next fact fascinated me.  During World Wars 1 and 2, they saved thousands of lives.  Here is one site with more information on this.

And also how to draw a cartoon one from this site.

We ended with a bird's nest treat.  Note the 2 eggs as was typical for a pigeon.  These are made from rice krispies.

Here are the finished fresco paintings.  All interesting and unique.

We enjoyed this book and learning about a lot of different topics.  Such a fun way to explore our world.

Blessings
Leslie

B4 FIAR co-op: The Red Carpet

I'm still doing a catch-up focused on February.  The month we focused on the delightful book The Red Carpet.  There are so many fun things to explore in this book!  We had a great time together enjoying some of them.  

We first read the story.

 Then each child received a picture/word card and was to listen for their word when it was read.  They then matched their word to the one already on the door.

 Next they all worked on building the town.  Each one had a building or location to make and some worked together on their sites.

 It always delights me to see Eliana participating as she has come a long way since we first started doing this co-op.

 When the town was complete, a "red carpet" was wound through out the buildings.

 Everyone enjoyed seeing this ...

 and then driving their vehicles through the town.

 One of the craft projects involved making a stoplight.  Eliana likes gluing so this was a hit.

 Next they made pictures using vehicles and paint.

 Eliana did this and only wanted to use one color and vehicle while others embraced lots of colors and various vehicles.  All fun.

 Lastly, we enjoyed a snack.  Not the "stop light" colors of the snack too.

Our time spent with friends is always sweet and fun.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to share learning and memories with our friends.

Blessings
Leslie

February - an whirlwind overview

Here is a quick look at a month worth of happenings and fun.  Enjoy the view.  :)

An event that our FIAR group enjoys is something we call the Expo.  Its a combination music, singing, art show.  We started with a performance portion.  Rebecca began the show with a vocal performance from the play Les Miserables.  :)

Isaiah added in a Lego stop motion movie.

What a lot of talent we have in our group.  Here are all of the performers.

Then we move into a room where displays are set up of many things from art - painting, drawing, sculpting, Lego creations, sewing, jewelry, animation and so much more!  Its such a treat to see these creations!  And I think the kids really enjoy showing off what they have made.

Daniel shared some of his FIAR inspired Lego creations.

Eliana brought her Corduroy bear.  She is so proud of this bear and often shows it to me.  :)

A photo of the artists, but not a great overall shot of all the things we had to see.  (There were more tables!)

This has been a fun tradition for our family - the Krispy Kreme run!  Christopher has run in it for 4 years.  Roger for several and Joshua joined this year (but did not eat all of the doughnuts!).

 You run 2.5 miles.  Eat 1 dozen doughnuts.  Then run 2.5 miles back.  Its a fun race (note the costumes in the photo below).

 We enjoy meeting them at the halfway/doughnut eating point.

 We bring encouragement, water, laughter and a camera.  :)

 Daniel earned the Alpha award in Awana this year!  He did a lot of memorizing.  Great job Daniel!

 Just a sweet picture of my littlest princess and one of her favorite pals who goes just about everywhere with her.

 A look at what Eliana's hair will NOT look like next year while Rebecca is in college.  Isn't this amazing?!

 Remember in my last post how I mentioned that we had some great snows this year?  Here are some pictures (over several days) of some of our outside fun.

 Light powdery snow and still a cute snowman.

 This girl loves to sled.  Can you tell?!

 When the roads weren't great, we moved to the hilly back yard for more sledding fun.  Thought some of you that live in places that get significant snow would find this one funny.

 Making a fort to get ready for a snowball fight.  Making the most of our snow days!

 Valentines Day.  I went with simple but still wanted to try to make the day fun.  For lunch, I just arranged the food into heart shapes.  :)  The heart shaped bacon was a big hit even though it didn't look all that great.

 And look what Rebecca did.  Is this adorable?  She is really amazing with styling hair.

 This is what she did to her own!  Beautiful!

 The boys and I worked on a pastel art project.

 Daniel helped me make our traditional pizza dinner.

 The heart shaped one says "I love you" in pepperonis.  :)

 Treats and valentines after dinner.

 Wanted to show some of our fun decorations on the window behind my sweeties.

 One of our field trips for the month was to the science museum.

The younger children went to a program on life cycles.

 They really liked the "show and tell" portion of the program.

 Afterwards, we explored the museum on our own.  This photo of my girl relaxing with her friend just made me laugh.

 We met up with the older kids after their program and spend some time in one of the labs.

 The man working there was great about showing them how to work so many things like circuits, computer programs and even a robot.

 Hands-on learning is always fun!

 We spent time playing outside and having lunch with friends.

 It was a great day.  Love seeing these beautiful young ladies having fun together.  :)

 We also visited with our dear friends one week-end.  This was taken while we were there we went roller skating.

 A couple of mine found this much easier to do that others of mine.  I won't name names.  :)

We enjoyed ice cream afterwards.  Everyone found this easy.  :)

 For our book club we read Code Name Verity.  If you read it, stick through it as its a different style of writing.  I can't really explain more because it would spoil the book.  Its a story about two friends, British women, during World War II.  A spy, capture and more.  There is some language if you are considering this for a younger reader.

 Rebecca made ALL of the foods for our enjoyment.  What a feast of yumminess!!!

We decided to spend the entire spring semester studying Robin Hood.  Its a longer book with a lot of interesting topics to explore.  We ended up missing one of our meeting times this month due to snow and were glad to be able to get together again.

We learned about ballads, minstrels and friars.  I love having these music lessons that I just would not be able to do on my own.  :)

And the lunch spread was amazing.  Homemade pasties too!  All delicious and well appreciated.

Just closing with a few random things.  Joshua hurt his foot/ankle and was resting.  Eliana decided that she could help to make it all better.  She got a band-aid, put it on his leg and declared, "All better".  

My very talented daughter knitted herself this cute cap!

The same creative daughter made treats for her brother.  Homemade caramels.  (A friend's recipe and they are fabulous.)  Can you see what else she did though to make it special?  Added different Disney quotes to each piece.  Isn't this sweet and fun?!

A sweet month.  Full of time with people I love.

Blessed and thankful,
Leslie