Nature Books and Chinese New Year

This week, we made nature books for botany. We watercolor painted the covers of our books and added blank paper inside. We made twizzlers out of yarn to hold everything together. The twizzlers are made by twisting stands of yarn into other strands of yarn to make one big string. We each chose colors for the twizzlers. I chose a light brown and an off-white. Wilson chose blue and a brown that was lighter than the one I chose. Joey chose white and white.

This Monday was Chinese New Year. It is the year of the ox, which is my Chinese zodiac. We made some paper lanterns and had some Chinese noodles for dinner. We also read some books about the new year and about the ox. Here are some pictures of what we did for the new year:

The one on the top shows some of the books that we read. The one on the bottom is one of the lanterns we made, only without a candle.

1/17/09-1/23/09

This week on Monday, it was Martin Luther King's Day. We learned about what he did and what he fought for (fought as in political speeches and boycotts, not actual violence). He made many speeches, including the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, where he talked about the Declaration of Independence and how we still weren't following it at the time. He lead the bus boycott where all African-American people wouldn't ride the buses because they had to sit in the back. By refusing to ride the bus, the bus companies were losing money. After about a year, the law was lifted.

Because it was a holiday, we didn't have to do any structured homeschooling. Instead, we did some artsy projects. We made some things out of polymer clay. I made a bow and arrow and three canes of twisted color, and Wilson also made a cane. Joey did some stamping and needlefelting. We all did some natural dyeing with silk cloths using blueberries, brazilwood and tumeric.

At art this week, we finished our walrus and still life projects. Wilson did a the walrus project too. After art, our girl cousins, Emily and Sydney, came over to our house.

For my Middle Ages book this week, I did a page of Medieval Asia. I drew a small map of that area and wrote some facts about China, Korea, and Japan.

Later tonight, we are going to go to the Olive Garden for dinner with the rest of the Tan family to celebrate Lolo's and Aunt Shelley's birthdays.

1/10//09-1/16/09 Sunday-Friday

This week for math, we did a lot of geometry. We folded a bunch of circles into tetrahedrons (pyramids) and octahedrons to form a larger pyramid. With some yellow kite paper, we folded 8 squares into symmetrical shapes according to a book that we got for Christmas. We put the 8 shapes together and made a window star. For artistic geometry, I drew a 4-pointed dodecahedron.

For S.S., we learned about the Crusades, Robin Hood and King Richard. We are currently making our own Magna Carta by dipping a piece of paper into some tea to dye it, then we are going to burn the edges, and then write on it.

Wilson got a new Bionicle, called Glatorian. He was out of Christmas money, so I let him use the rest of mine to buy the Bionicle. On Thursday, our Dad came and met us for lunch at Bel-Air after homeschool band and before my speech lesson.

We did a wax resist watercolor for art. I did a star with colors in the points, but not in the middle so that when I put the watercolor on top, the middle would be that color. Wilson did a drawing of some sort of creature with crayons, then put watercolor over it. Joey did a space type scene, then painted strips of watercolor in the backround.

Here are the pictures of the watercoloring that we did: On the left is Joey's and my pictures. Mine is on the top, and Joey's is on the bottom. The one on the right is all of us working on our paintings.

Today, we learned how to write a friendly letter, a postcard and how to fill out an envelope. We actually wrote letters and mailed them.

This week was more of an artsy week.

The Holidays.

Hello! It's been about two weeks since I last posted. That seems like a long time.

So, over the past two weeks we have been relaxing and celebrating Christmas. We all made presents for each other and bought some (of course). Joey and I made some Math Gnomes for Wilson to help him with his math and just to play with. Wilson and I made Joey a belt/scarf/headband. Wilson carded the fiber for Joey's present, I spun the fiber into yarn and we both took turns crocheting it into the belt/scarf/headband. Joey and Wilson couldn't think of anything to make me, so they got me the book "The Tales of Beetle the Bard" instead.

The presents we got from everybody else in the family included Wii Fit, a Wii game for me and Wilson called "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed", a sweater/jacket (I don't remember which), money, PJ's, money for our collage accounts, and a kalimba (for everybody), and a Nintendo DS, and probably some other things I don't remember. What we got in our stockings included the following: candy, do-kee-doo, clasps for holding things together, a giant, vegan, candy cane for Wilson, and a diatonic flute for each of us.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas:
These are pictures from our Christmas. The one on the top right is us on the stairs with our Dad, the one on the bottom right is a picture of us with our Mom, the one on the top left is Wilson opening up the box to his Math Gnomes, and the one on the bottom left is Joey, Wilson, and I opening up some of our presents.

After Christmas, we spent the money we got. I got all of the World of Warcraft games, Wilson got a couple of DS games for his DS, and I think Joey spent her money on some clothes. We read some Christmas stories prior to Christmas so we could learn about what Christmas is and why we celebrate it. We made a nativity out of things we found in the backyard, some fiber, and wood people we got from a Waldorf store. Overall, it was a fun Christmas.