This afternoon, we knocked yet another goal off of our Summer 2014 Love-to-do-List! Bea and a friend were “going crazy with hair chalk.” I actually took some lovely photos, with the girls making crazy “top-model” faces and getting their freak on. However, these more anonymous photos pics below will have to suffice for SOF! Unfortunately, […]
The old puffy paint bear sticking to Bea’s window has seen better days! After our scavenger hunt at the art gallery, the kids decided that they wanted to make some new window clings for their rooms! They landed on a “stained glass animal” theme…and so we got buzzing about how to make something more lasting than […]
This week, we are going to take another tour of the Art Gallery of Ontario, this time, with a specific emphasis on the body. I’ve noticed that when the kids have a specific thing to look out for or focus on, they have a better experience of the exhibits. For example, Toby was not really […]
Last summer, we created Face Paintings by painting with our faces! Today, to celebrate our Summer of Ability, and to knock yet another summer goal off of our Summer 2014 Love-to-do-List, the kids painted with their feet and toes! They came up with a fence full of beautiful abstracts that I’m now hoping to frame and hang in […]
On Friday, the kids had a friend over, and, already outfitted for the water, we did a little “face” painting before we hit the splash pad. What’s “face” painting? Painting with your hands at your sides…using your nose, cheeks, forehead, what have you. Here are the artists at work: The kids were surprisingly tidy with […]
Today, we painted with two types of ICE paint: Tempera and Food Colours! Here’s a quick DIY followed by pics of our results! TEMPERA Ice Paints MATERIALS Several Containers of Tempera Paint Ice Cube Tray 7 Coffee Stirrer Sticks split in half or 14 Popsicle Sticks Water METHOD Shake Tempera Paints Before Opening. Fill each […]
This weekend, we finished Our Big Summer Project – Our Outdoor Mural! Here’s how we got from point B to point Z, with a DIY recap at the very bottom of the page. Generating the Final Design Come up with a final sketch (or use an existing image) and print it in both colour and black and […]
Several years ago, decades ago, as the case may be, my husband and his parents painted an outdoor mural on a piece of plywood and installed it at the back left-hand corner of their garden. Whenever I even think of going over to their house, this is the image that comes to mind: a large face or mask, […]
July 18, 2012 Each summer, the kids create and fill up their “Yesterday Books” with pictures and stories of their Summer of Funner adventures. Sometimes, these are illustrated journal entries, and others, fantastic fictional histories. So, each July, we start off our Summer of Funner by choosing notebooks and decorating the covers, transforming them into our famous Summer of Funner Yesterday Books! […]
September 5, 2011 Over the past few days, I have been supposing that this last entry for our Summer of Funner 2011 would be something like one of those top-ten lists the media produces over the lazy days of the new year. I thought that I would write an overall assesment of our highs and […]
WE CAN’T BELIEVE IT! OUR SUMMER OF FUNNER 2011 IS NEAR TO A CLOSE! Of course, we’re going out with a bang…Over the last two days, for instance, Blaise has been holding a cartooning workshop with the kids, teaching them about how comics are designed and produced and helping them create their own comic strips. Yes, […]
August 24, 2011 On Monday, we lost Jack Layton. The leader of Canada’s official opposition party, and a former Toronto city councillor, Mr. Layton passed away after a heroic fight against cancer. Even in his last days, he stopped to consider all of us, writing a Letter To Canadians that has struck a chord with […]
August 17, 2011 Today we made Rob Ford Protest Posters inspired by the artists of the Ghosts of Gone Birds! _____________________________________________________________ This morning, I received a tweet from @GoneBirds with a link to a brand new poster advocating for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. You can also find this picture on the Ghosts of Gone Birds Facebook […]
August 16, 2011 Sure, we’ve painted with pineapple skins…We even attempted to grow one from a crown on our windowsill…Still, this year’s “Crazy Fruit Day” took the old “Pineapple Day” up a notch. Today, we played a Name That Fruit Game, we created Still Life pieces with ink and watercolours, and we operated a Blind […]
July 26, 2011 For Pizza Day, we created colour wheels, learned about fractions, and made cheesy pepperoni pizzas on the grill! Colour Wheels Nothing says pizza more than a colour wheel….? When the kids objected to my idea of making a crust-less fruit pizza for breakfast (they were too hungry to wait!), I decided to […]
Tuesday, July 12 If you haven’t noticed by now, this whole food day thing isn’t rocket science. It’s just a way of making the kids feel as if a few normal crafts, punctuating their regular independent play, and centered around a theme, have made the day into a kind of holiday! Today was Pomme Day, otherwise […]
July 5, 2011 I always like to start our “food themed” days off with a bang. So, for this first Tuesday of our summer holidays, I planned a few more activities than I would normally undertake on a single day. For “Strawberry Day,” I had four activities planned: making dough for strawberry handpies, painting with […]
