Tour 1 Week 18

 

Cinnamon and Sammy

In getting ready to start our school week, I realized I hadn't yet posted about last week. I meant to write something over the weekend, but stayed busy on Saturday with Birthright, a couple phone calls, and a trip to the grocery store. Yesterday I enjoyed a lazy day working on my latest stitching project and watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the youngest boys. We recently finished the book as our latest read-aloud and they were excited to learn that there is a movie! And, yes, we watched the Classic Gene Wilder version, not the Johnny Depp version. Obviously. 

We also had one of our regular Dog Duos staying with us this weekend - Cinnamon and Sammy (pictured above) are tiny, cuddly, lap dogs. We're looking forward to welcoming back many of our regular dog clients this month as more people get out and about for Spring vacations. 

Last week we learned about Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II, Pearl Harbor, the Manhattan Project/Atomic Bombs, and the United Nations. We also added some of the geographical features of the Rocky Mountain States to our geography notebooks. 

This was our last week studying our current saint, artist and composer, so we spent some time reading about Saint Frances Cabrini and John Philip Sousa, and listened to Star and Stripes Forever. We also reviewed the art of American Impressionist Mary Cassatt, while discussing general qualities of Impressionism.

And then we tried our hand at creating our own Impressionist-Inspired Works of Art! 

My youngest teen joined us for this project, too, since he enjoys painting. I had them use canvases instead of the recommended cardstock, since I figure that while I'm going all out with a painting project, I might as well end up with something to put on my walls. 

First they each taped a bridge shape onto the canvas (we used washi tape). Then they used stippling brushes with a color palette of blues and greens to paint the background. Next they used q-tips and flower-colored paint to dab in the "impression" of flowers. Once everything dried, we pulled off the tape to reveal their masterpieces! 

I love how they turned out and plan to hang them above the couch in our school/office area. 

That was our week! A doctor's appointment (my annual checkup) and a dentist appointment (one of the teens) rounded out the week. We will have a busy week this week with dogs coming, Covid vaccines, and of course Holy Week and Easter. We are really looking forward to attending Easter Sunday Mass in person this year - we had to do it in our living room last year (thanks Covid!). It's another reminder of things we take for granted.

I hope you have a good week and a Happy Easter!

~ Dori

This guy was running around while I was typing this