Slices of Life

We went to the Boston science museum and spent a lot of time learning about the science behind all of Disney/ Pixar movies.  It was awesome! The boys got to try their hand at programming blades of grass in a field, working with camera placement and focus, they manipulated lighting, toyed with furniture placement in a room, changed lighting color and effects, took 2-D shapes and made them 3-D, and so much more.  They loved it! When we finally felt like we saw most of it we headed on to see the rest of the museum. Here are some highlights from our trip: moving cameras around  programming grass  experimenting with lighting  programming a school of fish  stop motion animation station Watching the video they made using stop motion  We played with microscopes looking at pine cones, butterfly wings, and food.  Then Alec decided to see what his sleeve, scab, and fingernails looked like up close.  The boys ...

I knew Thanksgiving was this week; I did.  But somehow I thought we still had more time to do stuff.  I had thought we'd head out on a field trip, finish up our school units before December, and..... well, I don't know what else but somehow I thought I had more time before all the holiday madness.  Luckily, the boys are pretty unfazed when it comes to working before the holidays and even with just a short two day week this week we managed to get SO MUCH done! History--  We read Leah's Pony and talked about the stock market; what it is, how it works and how it started the Great Depression.  We read Rudy Rides the Rails and learned about the signs hoboes used to communicate with one another.  We read Finding Daddy: A Story of the Great Depression and learned about how many people turned to singing, dancing and acting as a way to support themselves and their families during the depression.   We took a picture walk through the book Years of Dust ...

 It's the day before Thanksgiving and I don't have one single decoration up in our house.  Now I'm not one to go all out on the holidays but I do like to have a wreath, maybe a centerpiece and a few odds and ends on the mantle; just enough to make the house feel a tiny bit festive but without seeming like a lot of work.  So I convinced Alec to help me make a new centerpiece. We made leaf luminaries and they are just darling!  Want to know how to make them?? To make the luminaries you will need: Mason jars- we used pint size jars Printed napkins or tissue paper in festive colors Scissors Glue Water Brush   Step 1:  Cut up the napkin or tissue paper into small pieces.  Our napkins were 2-ply so I pulled the plain white backing off the backside to make them thinner and more c-thru.  We then cut the leaf shapes out of the napkins.  pulling the napkins apart The images we cut out  Step 2:  Mix up some glu...