Born to Play

Another violinist in the family...

He has asked to play the violin for so long "just like Mama", and a few weeks ago we tried it out...

Turns out, he's a natural. I really should have listened to him when he first started saying that he wanted to play the violin instead of piano. After just a few weeks he's positioning and playing like this instrument is his long-lost love.

Blue II

So in last week's edition of Ginny's yarn along I told you about how off-kilter I've been with knitting lately. Busy schedule, no particular project grabbing at my attention, casting on, ripping out...

And I think I've found a cure.

Meet two little skeins of Baby Alpaca Lace.

Soooo soft.

Soooo pretty.

Now I just have to make the final decision on how to use it. I'm down to just three shawls...

What would you make with 850 yards of this laceweight?

And this is March's sock. I haven't even turned the heel yet. I'm going to put a hustle on it and see what comes of it before Friday, but I also need to finish up mitts for my sweet sister-in-law Abby who has been patiently waiting during my brief season of discontent with knitting. Any bets on when I might finish this sock? Do you think I have a chance to finish them by Monday?

Part of the lack of progress on this month's sock is due to all the school planning that has filled our evenings lately. Our local homeschool conference is just a few weeks off and I've been trying to make sure that I know exactly what I'm interested in before I head to the conference. This stack of files and books has followed me all over the place over the last few weeks!

~ Don't want to miss another post? You can subscribe using the button at the top of the sidebar!~

America

Perhaps this is the last snow for this year? Or maybe it's just wishful thinking...

We picked up a few books about North America at the library last week as part of our continent studies and we've been reading about The United States first.


So You Want to Be President? is a cute book that includes lots of little facts about the presidents (who was musical and who wasn't, how many presidents were named James, the pets presidents have had, etc.) and it's been a great introduction to the names of our former presidents. Next year we will study more about the presidents (specifically the first three or four) as we learn more about early American history.


We also read America as an introduction to some important concepts and symbols in America. We learned the words "constitution" and "democracy" and learned about the American flag.

Of course, we had to make our own:

We used oil pastels for these projects, which are fast becoming the boys' favorite drawing medium. They are still learning to keep their fingers/hands/arms off their drawing unless they *want* it to smudge, but the bold colors are so much more exciting than regular crayons! We also invested in some 9 x 12 paper a few months ago and we're loving the larger size! I'm considering ordering even larger sizes for next year since this bigger size has provided an opportunity for bigger and better art work. Maybe some 18 x 24?

Where are your studies taking you lately?

~ Don't want to miss another post? You can subscribe using the button at the top of the sidebar!~