A couple times, the girls and I have done a little bit of homeschool on the grass by the river, while the cleaning lady cleans our apartment(!!!). The girls definitely like it better than I do. I should probably loosen up a little! But I feel like I'm yelling when I read. Again, need to loosen up! Today, we read for a little bit and then I let the girls play before Maeve's nap. All three of my daughters were 20 feet down the river bank from me. Maeve was so, so happy to just be a part with her big sisters. And Holly and Greta were celebrating every time Maeve stood up. It was seriously the sweetest and completely worth the yell reading. 

PS: we brought two headbands for Greta, but both of them broke. Greta has worn a headband every single day for years. I'm totally hesitating buying her a new one because I love her hair without a headband.

A joy of homeschooling... taking the morning off to go see the eagles at Couer D'Alene lake. 

We loved being outside on this chilly morning watching these magnificent birds. 

Cluade Monet wraps up our study of artists for now. I'm sure we will do more, but, for now we will take a rest. Monet was such a prolific artists and correspondingly, there are many children books written about him. We had no problems borrowing books about Monet from the library! My favorite two books about Monet are actually from the same series, Katie and the Waterlily Pond, and Katie and the Impressionists. 

For our art work, we painted a water scene with cotton balls, and then made water lilies once it was dry. For the second art project, we stamped with flowers, and once that dried, we scraped blue paint across to make a water scene. I'm so happy with how this turned out.

Now hopefully, I'll have the energy to move onto one or two sewing projects. 

Continuing with our art lessons, we read about Georgia O'Keeffe. I love the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. I love that she's a woman and I love that she painted what she liked. 

We read lots of library books about Georgia, my favorite was Georgia O'Keeffe in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased. I took Holly and Greta to our local rose garden and they sketched what they wanted to paint. Later, I encouraged them to use bright paints to paint their flowers. I love how their art turned out. 

And a couple of great quotes from Georgia O'Keeffe. Trying to tie in some writing with the arts. 

"To Create one's world in any of the arts takes courage."

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."

This is one of the things I love about homeschool. 

Our most recent art project was Jackson Pollock mimicry. One thing you ought to know about Holly and Greta is that they know how to consume art supplies at the fastest rate possible and therefore they had no problem dumping a ton of paint on poster paper. They really enjoyed this art project!

Unfortunately there are not a lot of children's books about Jackson Pollock, but we did read Action Jackson. We also borrowed from a the library a book with photographs of his work.

I recently visited the Chicago Art Institute and my girls were so jealous that I saw works by Mattisse, Pollock and Georgia O'Keeffe in person! That enthusiasm for art makes all of this worth it. This is one thing I love about homeschooling!