Preparing Slides

Looking at hairs, onion skins and more .....

Vancouver Art Gallery

Our co-op had another fun outing recently to the Vancouver Art Gallery's Lawren Harris exhibition.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside the gallery but it was a fascinating exhibit of his life's work.  Born into a wealthy family, Lawren Harris was able to devote his entire lifetime to the pursuit of painting resulting in an extensive body of work. Interestingly his work progressed from realistic to abstract by the end of his lifetime.  Most of us enjoyed the middle stage of this progression the most (the painting in the sign below was from this stage).

After touring the gallery we did a workshop creating paintings in the style of Lawren Harris.

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

To celebrate William Shakespeare's 450th birthday we ate some yummy donuts while reading "Much Ado About Nothing".  Happy Bard-day, Will!

Easter Beauty

We had the privilege of "acting out" the Stations of the Cross with some friends (big & little) this Easter.  While the experience was chaotic at times (there were many kids there of all ages!) there were also profound moments.  Notice how the back of "Jesus" is bloodstained and torn as he carries the cross with the help of his friend.  So often I skip to the happy ending of the story - the Third Day when He is risen from the grave.  That day wouldn't have been possible without the days before.  Painful and horrible .....

Another kind of Easter beauty!

An Afternoon at Co-op

Last week we started our unit on microscopes and cells.  Everyone had fun testing the microscopes out.

We also took the opportunity to package up the art cards we are selling as part of Project: FLOW (For Love Of Water).  Our goal is to raise $4200 to buy a water reservoir for people in Africa. 

Shakespeare

Our family is excited to have just started a Shakespeare family workshop with Bravewriter.  Our first project was to create a model of the Globe Theatre (the paper model proved to be tricky to work with).

 

We spent some time learning about the life and times of Shakespeare and were all shocked at the number of phrases he coined that are still commonly used today.  For example:

• A sorry sight
• All of a sudden
• All that glitters is not gold
• As dead as a doornail
• Dash to pieces
• Eaten out of house and home
• In the twinkling of an eye
• Love is blind
• Night owl
• Vanish into thin air
• Wild goose chase

Easter Resurrection Garden

In preparation for Easter this year we made a "Resurrection Garden".  It is a simple landscape that represents the Easter story by having wooden crosses in the background of the "tomb" with the stone rolled away.  The kids sprinkled grass seed liberally on the dirt "hill" created by the tomb and created a pathway of stones in front.  We used craft ribbon to hold the sticks together to form crosses.

The kids had to remember to water the grass seed liberally and frequently each day - this has been a super simple way to prepare for the Easter season.  Ever time we water the grass we are reminded of what Jesus did for us.

Our grass is now a bit wild looking (after a couple of unsuccessful "haircuts").  The grass took about 10 days to sprout so I would probably start this a bit closer to Easter next year. 

Programming with Uncle Ted

Matthew has started a JAVA programming class with Youth Digital to design a mod for Minecraft.  Thankfully his Uncle Ted can help him out when he gets stuck!