First Day- August 2013

Starting the day with a load of laundry.

Then hopping on the computer to work on my review.

Breakfast time

Hannah was busy building while she waited for her siblings to awake.

Stretch!

On our way to the doctor's for checkups.

Amelia is all ready for Kindergarten. I loved that when asked to draw a "cross" she didn't just draw a "t" she tried drawing an actual cross. I told the doctor she may need to tell children to draw a "t" instead of a cross.

Sitting in the parking lot eating our lunch while we killed time waiting to go to our Summer Reading Program Party.

Artists at work

Picking some yummy grape tomatoes from our garden with our flat travelers.

Our new Educational Insights review products

Playing outside while mommy makes dinner.

They took turns helping to make their own dessert, while daddy took them one at a time for a quick walk.

Tabitha and Amelia waving bye to daddy and Harold. 

And then I forgot to take pictures, but it was getting ready for bed and me attending a Facebook party. 

Gryphon House: Global Art Review

We had the opportunity to expand our knowledge of different cultures this summer.  I knew I wanted to keep the children learning, even though we were putting our MFW lessons aside for a couple of months. When the opportunity came up to review the book Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions From Around the World from Gryphon House publishers I thought we would have a wonderful time. And I was right. 

Global Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter is one of the many educational books put out by the award-winning Gryphon House publishers. Gryphon House actually began as a distributor of children's books in the early 1970's, but they expanded into the realm of publishing in 1981. Their goal is "to publish and distribute the highest-quality books for educators, parents, and caregivers."  After perusing their shop I discovered that I was already familiar with several of their books which I have borrowed from the library in the past and really enjoyed. They have books in many different subjects, including:

• Math
• Literacy
• Science
• Spanish
• Art
• Character Building

The book Global Art is one of 27 Art books ranging in topics from First Art (for toddlers and 2 yr olds), to Primary Art (for children ages 5-8), and Art with Anything (for children ages 4-10). There are just so many books I would like to try out, because I feel that art is so important for children. You and your children could also explore math, cooking, science, environmental studies and so much more with all of the different art books available through Gryphon House. 

Global Art contains over 130 art ideas and is divided up by continents; within each continent section the activities are organized by country or cultural group. You will discover projects based on customs, celebrations and discoveries/inventions. Others are based on native materials. 

The Table of Contents shows each chapter/continent divided into projects alphabetically by country/cultural group.

When you flip to the first page of each chapter it is labeled with the continent name in addition to a drawing of the continent and a list of the projects arranged alphabetically by country. The projects are then listed alphabetically under each country.

Returning to the beginning of the book, I wanted to mention that there is a "Welcome" page plus some instructions on how to use the icons. The icons were really helpful in deciding which projects we could do. The authors placed these symbols at the top of each project page. There are three different categories:  Art Techniques, Planning and Preparation and Experience Level,.

The Art Techniques will show which art medium is the primary art medium used in the project:

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Construction
• Drawing
• Collage
• Printing

The Planning and Preparation icon shows how easy or difficult preparation will be:

• 1 indicates that all the materials are likely to be found in your home.
• 2 indicates that you will probably be familiar with all the materials by you may need to find them or purchase them.
• 3 indicated that some of the materials may be unfamiliar. The book says they should be easily found at such stores as art supply stores or hardware stores. I will say that living in a rural area, they are not as easy to come by as they may be in other areas. Our closest art supply store is an hour away. 

The Experience Level can be 1 of 3 levels:

• Beginning artist with little experience-indicated by 1 star
• Artists with some art experience-indicated by 2 stars
• More experienced artists-indicated by 3 stars

*Some projects also include an extra Exclamation Mark Icon that warns the parent that caution and one-on-one adult assistance is needed while working on the activity.*

When I was planning which activities we would do, the icons were very important and helpful. It was wonderful to know at a glance whether a project would be appropriate for us. As the children are so young, I knew I would more likely than not be choosing activities with 1 or possibly 2 stars. Due to the fact that it is difficult for us to get to a decent store, I knew we would also be limited to projects labeled with a 1 for planning and preparation.

I realized the book could be utilized in different ways. I decided to focus on one continent at a time, making a unit study out of it. 

However, if you are already studying a certain area or culture, you could open up this book and find a project or two to help make that culture come alive for your children.

You could also search through the book to find a project you and the children want to work on, leading into learning about the country/culture.

We started by focusing on Africa. I knew I would want some books to read so I searched online and found a nice list of books that are set in Africa. What I hadn't realized, in my haste, was on the very first page of each chapter there is a list of appropriate books arranged by country. In planning, it is nice to know which books will go well which each project, but we found some great books by not limiting ourselves to the books listed in the bibliography. For example, though there were no specific projects for "Kenya" we read some great books set in Kenya and learned quite a lot.

When starting a project I would read the little "Did you know?" section on the page as it gave some interesting information about the culture the project came from.

Then we found the country on our globe.

Each project explains what the child will be doing, what materials are needed and a step-by-step process. Some projects also list variations.

The girls made "Decorative Necklaces" from Central Africa, "Substitute Ivory" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and "Drum Decorations" from Senufo on the Ivory Coast.

While we were making the necklaces we looked up African necklaces on Google Images and while we were making the drums we read a book called Jamari's Drum by Eboni Bynum and Roland Jackson. In fact, the girls love banging on their drums and chanting, "Bede bada boom kabede."

Our "Drum Decorations" craft

Our "Substitute Ivory" craft.

(Unfortunately our Ivory soap didn't mold really well. We allowed it to soak longer than recommended, but didn't have much success.)

We have since moved on to Asia, starting with China and Japan. The girls had a blast creating a "Moribana Flower Scenery."

I am looking forward to doing more projects in our study of Asia and other cultures. As the girls get older we can revisit our studies and use the more difficult projects. 

Global Art is a great book to introduce your children to other cultures while engaging in a wide variety of crafts. If you would like to try out some of the projects in this book you can check out the Free Activities in the Resources section of the Gryphon House website.

You can purchase this award-winning book for $16.95. It is appropriate for children in grades K-5, though quite a few of the projects were able to be completed by Hannah who is 3. 

Sunday Photo Round Up on Tuesday (oops)

It's time for me to share my photo challenge photos from this week.
First, let's get going with this week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday:

Cooler colors, leaves, iced beverage, cooling off, raw)
(These can really speak for themselves this week)

Cooler Colors

Leaves

(Those are some big leaves.)

Iced Beverage

Our favorite indulgence, frozen mocha waiting for us while we play at the park.

Cooling off

In addition to cooling off himself, he was cooling off a little toy bear.

Raw

Some raw cherry tomatoes, fresh out of our garden.

and one of them became Bob to go with a Larry for lunch. Well, 3 of them really as each girl had a Bob and Larry.

Now onto

July Photo a Day

As I am so far behind with posting about my Photo a Day I am going to share an end of month post tomorrow (I hope) with all the pictures for July.

Wordless Wednesday: July 31, 2013 (w/linky)- Tabitha Lost Her First Tooth!

(She's holding it in her right hand if you can see it.)

We do not teach our children about the tooth fairy, but she was very excited to receive a quarter for her tooth. They now sit together in a zippy bag and she is planning what to get with her money. 

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

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Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- July 30, 2013

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Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me and Emily @ Emily Reviews

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on  Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups. 

Our co-hosts this week are Sue from My Photopage and Shelly from The Attic Girl.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would  like to follow the  hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaways

$100 eGift Certificate to Educational Toys Planet  Open to US only Ends 8/5

Win a Gift From Your MyPerfectGift.com Wishlist {up to $150} Open to US Ends 8/9

$20 Toysplash.com Gift Card Pool Toys & Accessories Ends 8/1

Just Tomatoes, Etc Snacks Fruit and Veggie Snacks Prize Pack Ends 8/1

Liberty's Kids Complete Series DVD US only Ends 8/4

Dragons: Riders of Berk Pts 1 & 2 DVDs US only Ends 8/6

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Sue from My Photopage and Shelly from The Attic Girl.

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: July 26-28, 2013

Welcome to Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops with your co-hosts:

Karen from Tots and Me, Rena from An Ordinary Housewife and Angie from Snack Cups and Smiles.

Thank you to every one who has stopped by, whether this is your first visit or you have been a faithful ongoing participant! 

We would love for you to stop by each of the co-hosts and follow us, then feel free to add your links to any or all of the following linkies.

 We also randomly choose a Featured host each week from the Lovin' The Readers linky. This week we are featuring Sammi from Sammi's Blog of Life.

Here's what she has to say:
"My blog is Sammi's Blog Of Life.  I started it in 2009 and am coming up in my four year anniversary in December.  I am not a mom so I have an edge over other mom bloggers as I am not one myself.  I love to interact with my readers and make sure they have a great experience at my blog.  My favorite products to review are housewares, fashion, and electronics. I started blogging because of my love for consumer products."

Don't forget to link up to the Lovin' the Readers Hop if you would like a chance to be a Featured host next week. Please comment with a way to contact you, especially if there is not an obvious way mentioned on your blog. We would love to include a little write up about you and your blog in the next week's Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop post, including a link to your blog. And you will get to include the linky codes on your blog. Sound fun? We're looking forward to getting to know our readers better.

Here's how this blog hop works. We would appreciate it if you would follow Tots and Me, An Ordinary Housewife and Snack Cups and Smiles. And please don't forget to visit our Featured Host. If you no longer have GFC please follow in some other way. After that there are three different linkies you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on Tot's and Me's sidebar). We'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. We'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.  

Some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, there are two separate blog hop linkies. 

The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Linky Followers, email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. We will follow you back if you follow us (just note which one you are linking to):

If you are interested in gaining followers to your blog who will read and comment and truly find an interest in your blog, link up here:

If you have family friendly giveaways to link up, here's your spot. Please make sure to include an end date for your giveaway.

We are so glad you stopped by. Please leave a comment if you link up and we will be sure to stop by and follow back.

Don't forget to check out my "Blog Hops" page for other great blog hops!!