Olivia Performing at Local Community Theater

Olivia Reciting Creed
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

This is one of the scenes of "The Chocolate Milk Cow" that Olivia is in. Sophia is in the performance as well. The play/musical is at the St. Croix ArtBarn in Osceola.

The girls each have about 50 lines that they are responsible for knowing - a combination of lines they speak themselves, with a few other children, or as a group.

There are quite a few songs and movements that they also learned as part of the play/musical.

This has been such a great opportunity for both of the girls, and they are looking forward to being a part of next year's performance already...even though this one still has 3 more performances.

Summer Solstice Star Collection

Summer Solstice Star Collection
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

Using the 4-color star as the central focus, I made a different pattern star in each of the four colors to surround it.

These five stars remind me of the Summer Solstice which is right around the corner.

They also would be good stars to have up all summer reflecting the warm colors and temperature of the season.

The link to my Etsy shop (Harvest Moon by Hand) is on the right side of the blog.

Olivia Harvesting Rhubarb

Olivia Harvesting Rhubarb
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

It's definitely summer now and the garden is starting to produce some favorites - like rhubarb.

Here Olivia is holding two stalks of rhubarb from the garden. The leaves have to come off before they come into the house since they are poisonous to cats.

So far, we've enjoyed rhubarb sauce, crisp, and coffee cake. Sophia has requested a rhubarb pie.

Before long, it will be time to can some rhubarb sauce and freeze some cut-up rhubarb for use during the winter.

Olivia Feeding Giraffe

Olivia Feeding Giraffe
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

One of the unit studies the girls did this year was on Africa and African animals. The Minnesota Zoo is having a special exhibit during the warm months. There are two beautiful giraffes here now.

One of the opportunities visitors have is to feed the giraffes a special biscuit (you have to purchase it and then go in a separate area to feed the giraffe).

Check out the giraffe's tongue as it reaches for the treat Olivia is holding out for it. She said the tongue was "rough." She really enjoyed feeding the giraffe.

Giraffes eat for 23 hours each day. They rest in 5 minute increments for a total of 1 hour each day.

Bringing Brazil to Minnesota

Ruth and Girls in Osceola
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

A friend from Brazil visited for ten days from the end of May through early June. She was an exchange student back in the late 1990s when she was a senior in high school.

This was an exciting time for the girls as they learned a lot about Brazil - its culture, language, everyday life, and games. It was such a wonderful opportunity for them to meet Ruth and get a taste of what Brazil/South America is like.

Hopefully within a year, we will be traveling to Brazil on frequent flier points to visit Ruth and her family. It would be an incredible learning experience for the girls - and a real opportunity for them to get a more better view of the world and what life is like in a different country.

On this day, we visited Osceola, Wisconsin, to see Cascade Falls. You have to walk down about 100 steps to get to the waterfall. There's a small stream that winds through a forest. It's a pretty location tucked right along the St. Croix River.

Embroidery with Children

Step 2 - Embroider Design onto Fabric
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

This is a pillow that Olivia (who is 6 years old) is hand-embroidering. She is doing the back-stitch for the entire pillow and her stitches are about 1/16" of an inch. Very tiny and precise for a 6-year old.

The image is one that she drew on paper and I transferred onto fabric with a blue fabric pen (the ink disappers when water is placed on it).

Olivia drew a picture of herself with Casey (a pet who passed away unexpectedly in February 2008 who she loved and was close to). They are standing by the apple tree in the backyard on a beautiful sunny day.

Doing this project on an almost daily basis has given Olivia an opportunity to process her grief, talk about Casey, and remember some happier times with her dog. She will have a permanent reminder of Casey which she can put on her bed and sleep with each night. It is a meaningful and practical activity that she did as part of her homeschooling this spring.

Green Pink and Rainbow Stars

Green Pink and Rainbow Stars
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

These are the three most recent stars I've made. I make the stars by hand-folding small squares of paper, overlaying the folded paper, and then gluing them together to create different patterns.

The green and pink stars are both very intricate window stars, and both take quite a while to make. They are the more complex stars offered by Harvest Moon by Hand.

Please visit my Etsy shop at http://www.harvestmoonbyhand.etsy.com if you're interested in any of these stars. There also is a link to my shop on the right side of this blog.

Trying on Wooden Shoes

Trying on Wooden Shoes
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

The girls, their grandparents, and I traveled to Pella, Iowa, as an extension of the girls' unit study about the Netherlands. Pella was originally a Dutch settlement in the 1800s.

It has prospered since that time, and each year the community does a cultural festival. We traveled the week before the festival so it was much quieter and more peaceful. We could enjoy the over 80,000 tulips that were planted throughout the town. It was a stunning example of tulip gardening.

The girls are in a store adjacent to the Klokkenspel. We had some time to look around before the Klokkenspel went off at 1 p.m.

Here, the girls found their sizes in the wooden shoes. They aren't the most comfortable shoes...perhaps with padding they might be more comfortable. However, the girls certainly had fun trying them on and walking around in them.

Girls by Tulips

Girls by Tulips
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

The girls are sitting by a bed of tulips at the historical village in Pella, Iowa. There were over 80,000 tulips planted in this town.

We traveled the week before the big tulip festival so it was a bit quieter and less stressful for the girls and my parents (who are in the 70s).

Visible Horse - Skeleton

Visible Horse - Skeleton
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

The horse was at the Minnesota Horse Expo. My daughters love horses, and Sophia wants to be a veterinarian. So going to the Horse Expo was part of homeschooling today.

This side of the horse shows the skeleton. It is painted with non-toxic paints. The muscular anatomy was being painted on the other side of the horse.

Rainbow of Window Stars - Learn the Color Wheel

Rainbow of Window Stars - Learn the Color Wheel
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

I like the pattern of these stars and wanted to see what they looked like in single colors. This is a collection of the stars using eight different colors of translucent paper.

They are a great reminder for the girls about the colors of the rainbow, primary colors, secondary colors, complementary colors, etc.

It's a hand-on way that they can learn about the color wheel by moving the stars around and/or changing the order that they are in.

These stars are available in my Etsy shop, Harvest Moon by Hand. Please visit http://www.harvestmoonbyhand.etsy.com if you'd like to see these stars and other Waldorf-inspired window stars that I make.

Face on a Tree

Face on a Tree
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

Sophia spotted this face on the tree when we were on our nature walk at the state park.

Pareidolia is when a vague or random image is perceived as recognizable - like these growths on a tree representing a recognizable face.

This was part of homeschool phy ed/nature walk/science observation for the day.

Snack Box for Easter

Snack Box
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

The concept of the snack box that I made for Easter gifts was that it would be a fun way to present a wide variety of snacks that could be enjoyed in a short period of time.

Each person who received the snack box really like it. They are long gone now...the snacks were quickly devoured.

The items in this box were: cashews, sesame sticks, dried apple slices, gum drops, banana chips, jelly beans, sunflower seeds, wasabi peas, toffee peanuts, and Swedish fish.

My snack box is based on the "Muffin Tin Meal" concept.

Olivia in Play at Homeschool Co-op

Olivia in Play at Homeschool Co-op
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

This was Olivia's first play that she was in at the homeschool co-op. She's playing "Christy Kennedy" in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (a Laura Ingalls Wilder story).

The costume she's wearing was made by a seamstress who I hired many years ago when I did a farm/art camp for kids. The seamstress created costumes for kids to wear that represented a variety of times in history (from the mid-1800s to 1970s).

This class was good practice in acting, public speaking, and being comfortable in front of an audience.

Sophia Needlefelting

Sophia Needlefelting
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

One of the skills that the girls have been learning over the past couple of years is needlefelting.

For Easter this year, they learned how to make a needlefelted egg. Using an egg-shape base, they chose the color of wool they wanted. They used a single barbed needle to felt the wool onto the egg form.

Needlefelting is a calming, peaceful activity for children. It is excellent for developing hand-eye coordination, and the result is a lovely, all-natural piece that the child can play with or use to decorate the home.