I Can Do It!

Twice a week we have been following Barry Stebbings drawing lesson in I Can Do All Things. When we got to this lesson on drawing balloons and clowns Zak looked at the clown drawn in the book and said, "I could NEVER do that!' This comment made me smile because the title of our book is 'I Can Do All Things'. It is something every artist old and young needs to remember...I Can Do All Things! So, smiling, I had Zak read the title of our book and then he smiled too. He wasn't sure when we started the lesson he could draw a clown, but as we followed the steps outlines for us on the lesson page he ended up with a smashingly good clown. He was pleased.

Max's Clown

The lesson Zak learned in art class is a lesson for us all. Everyone faces situations in life that are beyond what we know we ourselves can do. Art or math or any other subject can bring us to our knees in tears with hopeless feelings of pending defeat. But one doesn't have to be defeated. There is always a way to begin and to see just what we are made of. In our school I encourage the boys to begin with one step towards the doomed thing and see if they then can concieve of step two and so on. Most often just getting started is the biggest hurdle to overcome.

For us with a new life in Christ we have a friend who is always with us working for us to do what we need to do that day or that lesson. Daily we remember his presence with us. It is cool when school work becomes a way to know Jesus more and learn how to talk with him. When they see what Jesus can do through them they will love him all the more.

Of the things that we hope to develope in our children through home education, having a  perfect record of no wrong doing isn't one of them. We know and teach them that failure leads to more understanding which leads to success. One things we do aim at is a can do spirit that will not be despaired with an hurdle in it's path, but seek ways to get over it. Giving our best effort shows us who we are and who we need to have with us for help. This self knowledge is good to learn. Every boy wants to know if he can do it. There are many great lessons in this challenge of the hurdle for little boys to learn; how to begin, how to break big tasks down into smaller tasks, how to ask for help, what questions to ask, or when to know we need a break before we go at it again. But perhaps one of the most beenfical things to discover is that we however we are made need Jesus.

I was intrigued by this article last week. It suggests a wonderful idea that success leads to more success. When I am setting up our schedule for any given school day, I always keep this in mind. I look for ways to challenge the boys and give them oppertunities to succeed. It really doesn't matter what area they succeed in for the one who succeeds in somethings will look for other things to succeed in. The feeling of succeeding is contagious. So I am on the look out for these sucesses because I know that one success snowballs into another.

T.J.'s Clown

Check out this site for 'Can do' art assignments.

and this book by Micheal Pearl about developing a can do spirit in your child.

Exerpt #1

Excerpt#2

A Blossom in The Desert: Reflections of Lilias Trotter

A friend of mine handed me a pile of books saying, "I think you might enjoy these." I thumbed through the covers and noticed the many rich illustrations and smiled. She knew me. The books were lovely and I am treasuring them. With a cup of herbal tea I curled myself up in my favorite reading spot, my papasan chair next to a window that looks out over my garden. I selected A Blossom in the Desert  first because it looked like an easy read and I was in want of something beautiful and inspiring. It was no easy read, each page is rich in beautiful illustrations from Lilia's journals entreating one to stay longer and look. Her scripted thoughts about God and her daily nature walk reflections are short but deliciously meaty. Thank you Anna, you may never know how this little book has inspired me.

Lilias Trotter was a daughter of a wealthy father who raised her with all the privileges of life in England at the turn of the 18th century. It was fun to learn she was emerging as an artist in England around the same time Charlotte Mason was emerging as an educator. It was also fun to learn Lilias studied art under John Ruskin whom Charlotte quoted so often in her writings. Lilias though very gifted as an artist turned down an opportunity to study full time under Ruskin and to be made known to the world, to follow God to the coast of North Africa where she spent the next 40 years of her life among the Muslim people of Algeria.  A Blossom in the Desert is a book devotional writings and drawings from her sketch book while she was in among the Algerians. She had the habit of rising early in the morning and spending and hour outside in nature reading her bible and learning she says from the words in the pages and the nature around her. Her simple faith and teachable spirit is refreshing and the drawings which accompany them inspiring. It suggested to me that nature journaling may be expanded to more than scientific study but also to the listening of the heart to God. Why not draw and listen, write and paint our communion with the everlasting God. Lilias's habits have inspired me to one of my own....nature study with God.

With her pocket sketch book and her keen eye she lived the credo Ruskin outlined for modern painters: " The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see." -Miriam Hoffman Author of A Blossom in the Desert.

Daisies Talking

 "The daisies ave been talking again-the girls brought in a clump the other day from their saturday afternoon hours in the country. Somewhere long ago I saw that the reason they spread out their leaves flat on the ground-so flat the scythe does not touch them-is because the flowers stretch out their little hands, as it were, to keep back the blades of grass that would shut out the sunlight. They speak so of the need of deliberately holding back everything that would crowd our souls and stifle the freedom of God's light and air." page 178

The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.

Lamentations 3:24

Miriam Huffman the author of this devotional diary writes that she was not allowed to print the devotional books until there was a biography written of Lilias Trotter. So she took it upon herself to research and write the biography which is called Passion for the Impossible. Sounds like another good read.

I Got Some Egypt In My Pocket

The idea of a pocket is simply charming. You can make pockets in so many different ways, in so many sizes and with so many different materials. Then there is the fascinating thought of what to put into it, and what to take out of it. I love pockets!

So, this year when I wasn't sure how to organize our study of Ancient Egypt and stumbled upon Evan Moor History pockets, I was intrigued. The pocket idea sounded interesting. It had possibilities I had not thought about. To get an idea of what history pockets are I purchase the history pocket for Egypt e-book by Evan Moor from Currclick and took a look. They showed how to make the pockets and provided activities and information to put into the pockets. I liked the way the activities resembled mini books and notebooking pages we had used before. Looking at their ideas made my mind began to see even more possibilities. So from their idea we have jumped into a fun and 'not sure how it will turn out' project that will take us the whole year to put together. But we are all tickled with the new creativity it spawns in us all.

The first problem I had to solve was, what to make the pockets out of. I wanted them to be durable and look somewhat like papyrus. I also wanted the materials to be inexpensive because we plan to do nine pockets during the year. Times that by three, nine for each boy and you end up making 27 pockets. Rice paper can get a bit spending working at that quantity. Then I remembered a post Jimmie wrote last year about Sprite's sixth grade lapbook of Egypt. She had used a large brown mail envelope. That was it! So I went to work to design some pockets out of  brown mailers I had on hand here in my house.

The pocket idea from Cover to Cover.

The next problem to solve was how to make the pockets. The Ancient Egypt history pockets e-book I purchased had an idea which used one piece of construction paper, but I felt our pockets needed to be a bit larger. So I went to my shelf and pulled down a book called Cover to Cover. It is all about how to make  handmade books. In this book I found a wonderful pattern and directions for the pockets. The best thing was that I only had to throw away one 1 inch strip of my mailer and was able to use all the rest of it. I love that! The tutorial for making the pockets can be found here.

The Book idea from Cover to Cover.

Well now, looking at Cover to Cover wet my appetite for more creativity. In the pages of ideas for making books I found a style of handmade book that would lend itself easily to binding up our pockets once they were all complete. This method allows for the book to be as thick or as thin as we want. The cover can be hand crafted by the boys and then the pockets can be stitched together as if they were each a signature (a signature is a grouping pages). The cover once created can be stitched on at that time as well.

The boys were particularly interested in this stitched book idea because they are learning to hand sew on felt this year. It is a skill they chose to learn so I have been helping them with simple sewing projects. To think of sewing up a book captured their imagination and gave then a goal they wanted to work for. I may end up doing most of the sewing but it will be good for them to see how it is done.

Our idea for making the cover is simple. I have some Egyptian origami paper that the boys can hodgepodge onto a thick piece of cardboard. It will most likely be the thick cardboard from the back of our drawing paper pads. The boys will create a title to paste over that and we will see what happens then.

So our plan is to continue making pockets out of mailers, filling them with oversized mini books, maps, pictures, and other things we make or do as we learn more about Ancient Egypt.  Our first pocket, Introduction to Ancient Egypt,  is complete. We are currently working on The Kings and Queens of Egypt pocket.

Fronts of the pockets.

What's on the inside.

The items in this pocket that I added are:

The Archeology Tools mini book

'My Photos' photo album

The Cat of Bubastes mini book report booklet

One pocket down and eight more pockets to go!