Making Mandalas with Compass and Protractor

This mandala creation has really taken off, I know.

When I took the mandala-making class from Julie Gibbons Creative, I'd assumed that I was just taking it for my own personal pleasure and edification. I was approximately one minute into her first video tute, however, before I realized that mandala-making would be an EXCELLENT activity for the kids. Geometry of circles, radial symmetry, the proper use of compass and protractor and ruler, angle measurement, polygons... Excellent. Truly excellent.

Like the painted color wheels and the circle and hexagon drawing, this is another project that lets the kids practice how to use a compass, how to draw lines with a straight edge, and how to measure angles with a protractor. They also get to be really creative and artistic, though, and even my Will, who has much less patience for the fine motor activities of drawing and coloring in, became really invested in this activity and produced a mandala that she'd worked hard on and was quite justifiably proud of.

To begin, all the kid needs to do is use the compass to draw a circle as large as the page can support. I gave out regular typing paper for this, since I wanted the kids to do their coloring in with colored pencils or markers, and I didn't want to give them too much blank space to have to cover.

This alone is a great exercise for the kids, visualizing the area to be covered and then testing that theory, figuring out how to adjust one's circle sizing when the theory doesn't pan out:

Next, the kid will want to set up some marks for herself, to help her keep her designs symmetrical. I had the kids use the compass to draw successively smaller circles, then had them use the protractor and ruler to first draw a line straight through the circle at its center point, then draw a line at a 90-degree angle to the first line, then draw lines at 45-degree angles. This part is also how we made our color wheels.

When all the drawing and measuring is complete, the kids get to decorate their mandalas any way they'd like. This one is Syd's, decorated like a birthday cake:

I especially like the three-dimensional candle in the center.

This one is Will's:

 It's meant to remind one of a rainbow.

The kids are really liking making these mandalas, and I think that for Will, especially, it's a way to draw and color that feels comfortable to her. Even though we've been consciously working on art skills for over a year now, specifically to build Will's confidence, and her skills have improved, she's still not usually a confident artist. But with the protractor and compass and ruler that she guides making straight lines and even circles, she's got a starting place that feels good to her.

Color Wheels Composed with Tree Branch Paintbrushes

As part of our Georgia O'Keeffe study, we're also studying art composition, including warm and cool colors and color comparisons. To begin, I asked the children to create their own color wheels. I gave them large-format drawing paper, and since they've both recently learned how to use the compass, I asked them to also draw the wheel from scratch:

This was Syd's introduction to the protractor!

Fortunately, it's quite simple to make a color wheel using a compass, protractor, and ruler:

1. Use the compass to draw a circle as large as the paper will support.
2. Use the center point to help you draw a line straight through the circle with the ruler.
3. Use the protractor to mark a 90-degree angle from this line, also at the center of the circle. Use the ruler to draw the line.
4. Again using the protractor, mark a 45-degree angle in the middle of each 90-degree angle. Use the ruler to draw the lines.

Our Christmas tree is still hanging around--now it's outside on the brush pile, but it nevertheless remains green!--so the children cut their paintbrushes from it. Sensory exploration, creation with a new material, and no need for paintbrush washing--yay!

We own enough Biocolor paints (although after this project, I think I need to restock!) for the children to have completed their color wheels that way, but Syd got it into her head that she'd revolutionize color theory. She'd start with red--

--and then she'd wow the world by showing that you really CAN make all the colors of the color wheel from red!

She got this far:

This also happened, which is why I suspect that I need to check our paint stock:

Will, on the other hand, first studied the provided color wheel--

--and then immediately recreated it on paper:

And after Syd gave up her original idea--alas for the world of color theory!--she started again and created this:

It was very interesting to watch the children handle their tree branch paintbrushes, as they each did so quite differently. Will really embraced the feathering effect of a paintbrush lightly held and vigorously swiped, while Syd held her paintbrush in such a way that all the needles pointed the same direction and allowed her to paint neatly and accurately:

And yet, with both children, it was very apparent by the end of the day that a good time had been had by all:

Although Syd did need to spend quite a bit of time at the sink dealing with those paint cups used in the attempt to prove her grand theory...

Work Plans for the Week of January 19, 2015: Essays of Unusual Size

Will was NOT thrilled to write her essay last week, and she will be equally not thrilled to find yet another essay for this week. Write it she shall, however, and I shall attempt to regird my patience for the inevitable upcoming struggles.

Writing, or the battle about writing, took up much of last week, and, as I'd suspected I would, I did need to delete a couple of the smaller, unimportant lessons from our plans--experimenting with watercolors can happen anytime, and Syd, at least, will be pleased to be asked to get messy dyeing Great Northern beans with me during her leisure hours.

This week's plans, however, are all important and unskippable, although I did cull them down as much as possible. I include the children's extracurriculars into their plans, but I don't include the daily book assignment, keyboard practice, memory work, and the chore chart--that's all on top of school, but the reading they'd do for pleasure, regardless, the keyboard practice takes only minutes (although they often remain at the keyboard for much longer--yay!), the memory work takes place in the car, and chores are chores; everyone in the world has to do their chores!

TUESDAY: Yesterday was our free day! Matt was off work, so he took the burden of shlepping the kids around while I slogged through my work at home; the kids skipped our weekly volunteer gig to go to a special volunteer opportunity with the Girl Scouts, and they took their weekly aerial silks lesson, happily freeing up a little more Wednesday for us.

Today, then, as I write Will sits next to me and reads her book assignment, a biography of Charles Darwin (she has just informed me that we MUST go visit the Galapagos Islands one day, although sadly we are no longer permitted to ride the tortoises, and did I know that "galapagos" is the Spanish word for tortoise?), and Syd eats breakfast and reads in the other room. Their math this week is all review drills from our Kumon workbooks--more subtraction with borrowing across zeroes for Syd, and calculating volume and area for Will. I expect that after this extra practice, we'll move back into Math Mammoth next week.

The commencement of horseback riding lessons is also the commencement of the horse breed research that their instructor always gives them for homework. I believe that my emphasis, this session, will be on efficient, effective, and informative displays of their research, so that the children become easily able to reproduce infographics and posters, as the case requires.

Will has by this moment found and looked over the essay requirement for this year's Black History Month essay contest, and already pouted about it. It's another biography from a dedicated pool of names, with some first-person analysis, as well. She's going to loathe it.

She will like better our plans for a swimming date with some friends at the gym this afternoon, and like best of all the first session of this semester's Robotics Club tonight. While she's there, Syd will be able to have some quiet time to work on her design for this year's Trashion/Refashion Show. I REALLY hope that she creates a design that she's able to sew by herself this year!

WEDNESDAY: Song School Spanish is a painless lesson to get through each week, especially as much of the work for it takes place as our daily ten-minute memory work in the car every day. I also enjoy having someone else in charge of horseback riding lessons and Magic Tree House Club (the kids were meant to attend their club meeting earlier this month, but were so busy playing that they didn't want to settle down for it; this is the last meeting for this month, so they'll definitely need to attend this one); I can get some writing done during the former, and have time to cook something a little more involved than frozen pizza or stir-fry during the latter.

THURSDAY: First Language Lessons is scripted, so sometimes I'll save that to hand off to Matt in the evenings. I won't be surprised if I need to on this day, because both kids will need my assistance as they complete pre-writing activities for upcoming essays. We have ice skating plans with children from our homeschooling group, however, so hopefully that will keep them in a good enough mood to stave off the most excessive of the fits.

FRIDAY: I usually try to keep the kids' keyboard lesson early in the week, so that they can use the rest of the week to practice, but it just wouldn't fit into the schedule any earlier than today. Fridays tend to be busy, though, with both math class and Will's ice skating class getting us up and out of the house, so this quick, independent lesson will be a helpful breather for me.

I generally let the kids cook independently these days, but since these cookies are for other people, I'll probably need to be on hand to supervise. I need to remember to set aside time earlier in the week to have the kids choose a recipe so that we can shop for ingredients, unless you think that I can convince them to find a recipe that allows me to use up the random bits of candied cherries and chopped pecans that I have in the pantry?

All this essay writing--or rather, essay dictating, to me--has made it very clear to me that it's high time for the kids to learn keyboarding. I've got several software programs checked out of the public library, so ideally the kids will like one of these well enough to at least learn the functional basics.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: The kids don't have any responsibilities on Saturday, but I'm having friends over that night, so I suppose that I should do some cleaning and cooking. On Sunday, Will has Chess Club, and the cookies need to be delivered to our town's homeless shelter. I imagine there will also be Girl Scout Cookie selling. Perhaps Trashion/Refashion Show material shopping. Minecraft playing. Chicken spoiling.

You know, typical weekend stuff.

A Party to Which I was Not Invited

I found this schedule of events a few weeks ago--it's Syd's handwriting, and it appears to be for a Christmas party that she was planning to throw for her toys:

There was to be a play (with particular attention to the part of the snow angels, I'm certain), some singing, I have no idea where Christmas land was meant to be--under our tree, perhaps?--a talent show, which, I know from long experience, was sure to have numerous acts, all very detailed and each lasting several minutes, and... some sort of other show:

And after that there was still a game of hide and seek to play, and then an obstacle course to complete (I vaguely remember a million building blocks and stuffed animals in the hallway one evening--was I disrupting their obstacle course run?), and then something to do with camouflage, and then another game that includes a spectacular though unfortunate misspelling of the word "hero". It would make a great, although still unfortunate and offensive, college party game, however:

And finally there's some singing, and then, as dearly as I love them, my favorite of all evening activities that children can engage in:

Perhaps I should start referring to our evening routine every night as a "party." The "take a shower" game. The "find your toothbrush" hunt. The "no, you may not take the ipad to bed with you and watch videos for the next three hours" song.

And then, of course, the "finally the children are in bed!" after-party.

From the Children's Museum

No agenda here, no story to tell, no particular message to deliver, just some small but important moments from our winter visits to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis:

Syd is in love with this DIY paleontologist Ken. See the field jacketed fossil? See his hands covered in plaster?!?

This Chihuly installation isn't often cleaned, so it was a treat to see it happening!

the installation from below

Syd is a scuba diver measuring some cannons that have just been discovered in the Caribbean--could they have been a part of Captain Kidd's ship?

Here you can watch real artifacts undergoing electrolytic reduction to remove their concretions. One cannon was recently removed after completing the process that we had observed throughout approximately four YEARS of visits!

 I feel a little poignancy sometimes at this museum, because I know that Will, in particular, is really beginning to push the maximum age for their target audience. As for Will herself, however--she'd never notice. She knows more about electrolytic reduction and edmontosaurs than most of the other small visitors, sure, but she still happily scoops and shovels rubber rocks in the construction site with them, and sends boats down the long and elaborate canal system should-to shoulder with the smaller kids, adding ever more to her intrinsic understanding of the maths and sciences as she does.

Subtraction with Borrowing across Zeroes using Base Ten Blocks

With an exciting title like that, how could this activity NOT be fun?!?

Last week Syd faced a review worksheet of subtraction with borrowing across zeroes with such hysteria that it was as if she'd never seen problems like that before. She has, of course, completely learned how to subtract with borrowing across zeroes before, but never mind--one of the many good things about homeschooling is that there's plenty of room to pause one's math journey to relearn subtraction across zeroes.

Here's how to do that:

If you don't own Base Ten blocks, get them. I don't know how I'd manage without them. Get extra thousand cubes, so that you've got at least nine of them, and preferably more than ten. Same with the hundred flats--you need at least ten. Get as many of the ten bars and unit cubes as you can stand, but remember that those will also work interchangeably with the Cuisenaire rods, which you should also own.

Anyway, get out your Base Ten blocks, and make up a sheet of subtraction problems, all the way up to the thousands, if you want. Make them look really hard, because then your kid will see how easy this method is.

Set all your supplies up in a large space--the blocks, a big piece of butcher paper, the subtraction problems, and a pencil. I'm probably alone in this, but every time I ask the children to get a pencil, I have to say, "Go get a sharp pencil with a good eraser." If I don't say these exact words, I swear to you that the child will every single time come back with a pencil with a broken lead and a non-existent eraser. Every. Single. Time!

Now, your kid should already be quite comfortable using Base Ten blocks, including the key feature, the fact that units are units, tens come in ten bars, hundreds come in hundred flats, and thousands come in thousand cubes; if they want to make 20, for instance, they should automatically go for two ten bars, and not for 20 unit cubes. If this doesn't come automatically, no problem--set them up building big numbers with Base Ten blocks for a couple of lessons, and then carry on.

Have the kid read the first subtraction problem, and then build the minuend out of Base Ten blocks, labeling each place value, as well. In this problem, for instance, Syd is writing a 1 above the thousand cube, an 8 above the hundred flats, and so on:

The subtrahend, of course, is what is to be subtracted from the blocks that make up the minuend. If your kid is really a beginner at this, let her do it however she likes, but encourage her to keep the place values in their separate spots so that she can more easily see what she's doing, and also encourage her to continually notate her process, also so that she can more easily see what she's doing.

If you let her do that over the course of several lessons, then she'll either come up with the traditional method on her own (or a better one!) or, after a while, you can say something like, "Hey, interested in seeing a kind of shortcut?" and introduce her in that way to the following method:

Moving from units on up, physically take the subtrahend away from the minuend. If there isn't enough of one place value--unit cubes, say--to physically take away the number of units called for in the subtrahend, then take a piece from a higher place value, break it up, and move it down. Notate what you've done. For instance, in the following example, Syd was clearly required to subtract something from the ones place, but had zero ones. She took a ten bar from the tens place, broke it into units, put it into the ones place, and recorded what she had done:

Now she has some units to subtract!

She can do the same, of course, if it's tens or hundreds that she's needing, each time physically removing a block from the higher place value, physically breaking it down, physically putting it into the lower place value, and recording her work:

If there's a zero in the next higher place value then you have to keep going, of course. You've got to break a hundred into tens, for instance, so that you have a ten to break into units: 

Notice how the notations that the kid makes are exactly the notations that she'll make when she's doing this problem only with pencil and paper.

My younger kid REALLY likes manipulatives, and really likes repeating something once she feels that she's good at it, so I like to let her keep doing her subtraction this way for as long as she likes, but this method also takes a REALLY long time, and after the first couple of lessons, I don't reduce the number of problems that she has to complete. Once she's faced with 30 problems, it doesn't take her long to take me up on my offer to teach her a "shortcut" that doesn't require the blocks. That shortcut, of course, is the subtraction with borrowing algorithm, and as I show her, I point out how it looks exactly the same as the notations that she made while physically subtracting using the blocks. That's because it IS the same!

Now since Syd is doing this same lesson for the second time in twelve months, it clearly didn't stick with her the first time. However, every time you relearn something, the process gets quicker and easier. I barely had to show Syd how to subtract using the blocks this time before she was off and doing it, and I know that last time, she spent several lessons getting comfortable with the process.

The other trick with Syd is that she LOVES repeating things when they're easy for her, so I have to let her stick with a concept until she's reluctant to move on. When I suggest starting fractions, and she protests, then I know that she's totally mastered subtraction with borrowing... again.

Work Plans for the Week of January 12, 2015: Personal Narrative, Minecraft Homeschool, and Girl Scout Cookies

Our first week back to a full schedule went well, I thought. I'm usually pretty insistent that the children finish their work plans each day, but I made a point to be more relaxed about that last week, and indeed, Syd did not complete her endangered species project, and neither kid completed her grammar or attended Magic Tree House Club. They worked hard, however, Syd got oriented to her Minecraft Homeschool class, they spent a lot of time working on Girl Scout badges, they spent a lot of time playing with friends, and it was overall a very successful week.

My plan is to try to stay that relaxed throughout the next couple of weeks, as the children's extracurriculars gradually ramp back up to their full schedule. If there are any more permanent changes that need to be made, hopefully I'll be able to more easily spot them that way.

MONDAY: The children enjoy their daily book assignment--more so, I think, because the selection often isn't relevant to their current studies, but is just a book that I thought they should read or that should be interesting to them. I'll continue that this week; in fact, I have today's books sitting next to me on my desk right now, waiting for the children to wake up, eat breakfast, and then come ask for them. Will has this chaptered biography--Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A National Hero--and Syd has this non-fiction picture book: Secrets of the Seasons: Orbiting the Sun in Our Backyard.

Will's next couple of Math Mammoth lessons on area should come quite easily to her, and so I'm sending her on ahead, but I discovered last week during a Math Mammoth review that Syd has completely forgotten how to subtract multi-digit numbers when borrowing across zeroes is required. I spent a math lesson last week reviewing this with Syd using actual Base Ten blocks, and today I'll have her review again using this subtraction tool online. I'll be asking her to complete the algorithm on paper as she works the problems with the online manipulatives, and hopefully that will be enough reinforcement that she can successfully complete a review worksheet tomorrow. Oh, how our Syd loves to be successful!

The kids had a lot of fun working on Girl Scout badges last week--Syd made some recipes for her Snacks badge, and Will completed several activities for her Cookie CEO badge. She also asked me how she could tour a small business, also for her Cookie CEO badge, so I set up a field trip in February for her and some of our other Girl Scout friends to a business owned by a couple of friends of mine. The children would like to learn about accounting, and marketing, and customer service, and I think it's going to be fabulous.

Would The Green Nursery also like to have Girl Scouts sell cookies outside their store sometime in February? We'll see!

The children's Hoffman Academy lessons continue this week. They enjoy them, they do them, they practice--yay!

Now that Will has some ideas about the topic of the personal narrative that I'd like her to write, I plan to spend some time today talking with the children about personal narratives in general. Yesterday, when I dropped the children off at the library to attend a program on Japanese music, I handed them this list of mentor texts and asked them to bring home to me as many as they could find--they brought six, so today we'll be reading a couple of those out loud together. We'll be talking about the tendency of a personal narrative to have a Big Idea as a lens through which the narrative is written, and the children will assist me as I fill out this worksheet on theme. Next, we'll talk about the way that characters are fleshed out in narrative, and the children will assist me as I fill out this worksheet on characterization. Finally, I'll have the children fill out worksheets of their own--Will about her own personal narrative, to help her in its planning, and Syd about another one of the mentor texts that she can choose.

Oh, and we've got our weekly volunteer gig today! I should get dressed for that sometime! On the way home, we're going to stop by a florist and see if I can wrangle up some white carnations that Will's wanting for an activity for her Flowers badge.

TUESDAY: Free day! Syd will want to get started on her Minecraft Homeschool class (if she doesn't start it today), and the kids may have a friend over, but otherwise, their time is their own.

WEDNESDAY: Song School Spanish remains a good vocabulary study. Ideally, the children should be learning a second language from a native speaker, but as I've had many conversations with local friends about the shocking inaccessibility of children's language classes in this university town, my problem is at least not an isolated one.

Will should write the outline for her personal narrative today. I imagine that we'll butt heads about this, as I imagine that she'll want her outline to read something like "Pappa took me fishing. I caught a fish. The end," and I'll want her to unpack her narrative into a longer, more detailed sequence of events that expands this small moment, but she promised me last week that she would not throw a[nother] fit about writing this personal narrative. We'll see...

Horseback riding starts back up today, and I'll probably sign the kids up for an aerial silks class on this day, as well. Making the crystallizing watercolors is just a fun little science-y project that can be deleted if we're too busy, but that I think everyone will enjoy, based on how much fun the kids had doing the other sensory and art projects from this book.

THURSDAY: Will hasn't had as much prior experience with volume as she has with area and perimeter, so this project, using the basic technique that makes these newspaper constructions, will be a useful one--and I think it'll be fun!

Since we had so much trouble getting grammar and science done last Thursday, I'll be especially watchful with how it goes this Thursday--should I move some subjects around? Make Thursday a shorter day or a free day? We'll see!

Will's hatred of the fine motor skill of handwriting is such a detriment to her that I permit her to dictate her essays to me. I did, however, check out several typing instruction software programs from the library, and I've already blocked out some time next week for the children to install them and experiment.

FRIDAY: The editing and revising of Will's personal narrative will probably take the entire weekend, as I'll be asking her to read it out loud to a few people--grandparents, perhaps?--and make edits after each, and, of course, I'll be showing her how essays are best left to sit for a while, so that you can come back to them to revise and edit with fresh eyes.

Dyeing beans is just a fun little activity that can be deleted if the kids need more time with Girl Scouts, Minecraft Homeschool, or personal narrative. They also do really enjoy sensory play still, so it also might be just the thing to help them wind down from the week.

We're continuing our Georgie O'Keeffe study this week by reading biographies and reporting on them. There are several to choose from, so I may just lay them all out and let the children select. Field trips to Indy are always weather-dependent this time of year, but I'm anticipating a visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for their Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition sooner rather than later!

SATURDAY/SUNDAY/MONDAY: The children have a Girl Scout workshop on Saturday and a couple of events on Monday to celebrate MLK Day, but otherwise we're free to play. Should we go to the art museum? Watch Krrish 3? Go swimming?

We'll see!

My Latest: Drawstring Backpacks, Slime and Sidewalk Paint, a Double-Sided T-Shirt Quilt, and Much, Much MORE!

It's been quite a while since I've updated you on my paid writing, and that's because I've had so much of it!

I substituted as site director for Crafting a Green World over the holidays (and yes, of COURSE Matt had to call me Director Finn), which means that for a while, I was writing five times a week, sometimes literally with a piece of pumpkin pie at my elbow. Fortunately, this was the best time to have the extra work, since Matt was on his vacation, as well, and with him playing with the kids, it wasn't too stressful to sneak off regularly and get these posts up:

a round-up of crafts and recipes related to coffee

a tutorial to make drawstring backpacks

You cannot have too many of these, by the way. They make organizing for extracurricular activities so much easier.

a Top Posts of 2014 round-up

a round-up of holiday upcycling options

a review of 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids (the kids made slime and sidewalk paint)

Giving the slime a haircut is always fun.

a round-up of chia seed crafts and recipes

a tutorial for making a double-sided T-shirt quilt

 a crafty recipe round-up

a round-up of altered container projects

a melted crayon ornament tutorial

 and, finally, an essay on the future of computer learning and the service industry

That was a lot of writing, right? Congratulations to me! 

Anyway, the other day, Will was pitching a fit about having to brainstorm topics for a personal narrative that I'll be requiring her to write next week. She didn't want to brainstorm topics; she WANTED to play half an hour of LEGO Marvel, but she wasn't allowed her last half-hour of screen time until after she'd finished her schoolwork. The only thing left on her work plans, however?

Brainstorm topics for a personal narrative.

After the huge temper blow-up, which thankfully took place in her father's company, not mine, she appeared in front of me, teary-eyed but belligerent, and I pulled her into my lap to quietly chill out for a while. After some chilling, she again expressed her desire to have her half-hour of screen time; I assured her that she had only one assignment left to complete before she could do that. She expressed her desire to NOT write a personal narrative; I assured her that she did not have to write a personal narrative today. Rather, she needed only to brainstorm a topic for a personal narrative to be written in the future. She asked why she had to write a personal narrative at all; I explained that much practice in composition is required before it comes easily, and that she will want it to come easily, so that she can focus on all that she wants to communicate one day. She said something along the lines of "how/why/what do you know about it, anyway?"

I looked at her in bewilderment, amusement battling with a bit of horror, and said, "Child, do you not know that your MOTHER is a writer?!? This is what I do all day when I'm not actively engaging with you. Writing is my JOB! Not even to mention--I used to TEACH writing, to COLLEGE STUDENTS! And you used to come with me sometimes! To my WRITING WORKSHOPS! Did you never wonder what was going on there, all the 18-year-olds in a classroom, me at the front of it talking to them, them asking me questions, me answering them? I was teaching them HOW TO WRITE!!!"

Once I had successfully made the child understand that I am a reliable authority in the field of composition and its instruction (mental note: must get my diplomas framed and hung to point out to them when they're acting belligerent about academics), the conversation resolved, the child finished her brainstorming, I praised it, and she actually promised me that she would not throw a fit at all next week about any part of the process of writing and editing a personal narrative.

I should have made her write that down and sign it, because I can guarantee you that she will throw a fit, likely at every single step of the writing and editing processes, but there was no time...

After all, the kid had a half-hour of LEGO Marvel to play!