Art For Cats

I've posted before about this art blog and how much the kids like the projects she has. We tried a new pastel project today. It seems to really draw the kids, particularly Dominic, like a magnet. He loves pastels. We've almost used up my box of high school Reeves Oil Pastels in just a few weeks.

If you click here you can see Kathy's posting; here are my kids' interpretations. This was a very cool colour project - I love how vibrant the colours are with the oil pastels.

I'll leave whose is who's up to you to figure out...

Anyone For Tennis?

ServeReturn (same plants, just in case you're wondering if I've really, utterly, lost it)

Fairy Diva Pony Girl Gardens

The industrious FDPG, getting her garden ready for its close-up (I get to play Mr DeMille and document her). And yes, she is kind of glaring at one of those pots. I'd hate to be that Lumina pumpkin if it doesn't perform to her specifications. She's kind of like the White Queen in Narnia when things don't go her way. Just kidding. No, I'm not. You're not supposed to say things like that about your kids.




She planted the seeds (we wrangled a little about just how many millions upon zillions we were ready to see growing in my garden) that she'd chosen. This is only a small portion of what she wanted in that little plot of hers. In the end I gave her the option of ripping up the field where she and her brothers run around, or planting all those seeds. We compromised by me giving up more garden space and gnashing my teeth a lot.









Then she wrote the names of all the plants laboriously on the little wooden tags she'd made, and watered every single pot thoroughly.

We placed the trays on heat mats, on window sills, in sunny places and in aquariums. We even put some outside in the cold frame, which is a very cold frame at the moment, but quake not because we put them on another heat mat. An industrial strength one!

And now we wait, something FDPG isn't too excited about. She wants it all NOW.

I kind of relate. I kind of want it all now, too.

What Goes On Behind The Scenes

I'm not exactly sure what's he doing, but I liked the way the light fell on the floor at Max's feet and how all the colours in the room mixed together. And how my cluttered, too-small kitchen looks so, err photogenic (instead of cluttered and too-small). And how calm and quiet and pensive my teetering-on-the-cusp-of-puberty son looks. You can't see the dryer with its four day old load of half dry laundry, or the sink with its load of unmentionable dishes, or the kitchen floor with its muddy cat prints skidding across.

Nope, instead it all looks so calm and artistic. I must remember this moment. Cling to it. Like grim death. Don't panic. Women and children first.

Race To Which Mountain?

We went to the movies the other day: Race To Witch Mountain. I have vague recollections of a movie similar to this from when I was a kid, but they were so vague I didn't remember that the kids were aliens.

Or should I say beings from another planet? Hmmm, let's leave it at aliens. These teens used complete sentences and complex vocabulary; that's alien enough for me. Most of my teen relatives punctuate their every utterance with the word "dude" (which actually comes out more like "dewwwwwwwwwd").

The funny thing about going to the movies with kids is that most of my witticisms go right over their heads. I made some rude but appreciative jokes about The Rock, err, Dwayne Johnson, and Max said, rather incredulously, "Don't you like him? He's the guy from The Mummy. You love The Mummy." After admitting that yes, I did love The Mummy (one and two only, three was so terrible I nearly cried, even with the fab Michelle Yeoh), I fell silent. Mocking a muscle-bound smart-ass (with interestingly white teeth) who could scream around in a taxi AND backtalk Storm Troopers wasn't going to fly with the boys. They were too busy coveting those Storm Trooper costumes to find my wisecracks of any interest whatsoever.

Usually it's FDPG causing the distractions at the theatre; this time it was the boys. They both gasped audibly when the Storm Troopers appeared on the scene, and Dominic even shouted "Those are OLD Storm Troopers! From episodes three to six!" (I'm not a Star Wars fan so the fact that my 7 year old knows this obscure information sometimes floors me) When The Rock Jack Bruno wrestled their guns away from them the boys cackled. When Jack Bruno pointed at the sign in his cab that forbids passengers to carry weapons, the boys guffawed. When we glimpsed the Storm Troopers again near the end, Dominic sighed adoringly, then whispered "That was so funny, this is such a great movie" to me.

I chose this film because the only other choices of kid movies were Coraline and Inkheart and both of those seemed guaranteed to scare the bejesus out of FDPG. And yes, I do mean the bejesus. We could have seen that one about the chihuahuas, because I doubt that would have scared the behayzoos out of FDPG, but the previews gave me the willies. CGI dog mouths making witty remarks? Wearing pink outfits and parading up and down Rodeo Drive? Dancing? Ugh.

I prepped FDPG by showing her a few Quicktime previews. They looked a little suspect (Bejesus Meter Reading: 7/10), but she assured me that they did not scare her in the slightest. The boys were quite taken, as they usually are, by the explosions: "Cool!" "Whoa!" "Did you see that?" And since I had had it with school for that week (I think I have a case of belated Winter Blahs), Race To Witch Mountain it was.

I've already given away what the boys liked best about the film, so I won't say much more, except that the two kid actors in Escape To Witch Mountain (the original Disney film from 1975) have cameos. And the lovely Carla Gugino, who I've always had a soft spot for, was horribly misused here. They stuffed her into clothes two sizes too small, gave her a bad haircut (not to mention some dreadful lines), and expected her to shine, but she didn't. She looked tired and exasperated (maybe Dwayne's teeth hurt her eyes). Ciaran Hinds did alright though, despite lines like "I think we both agree it's been worth our previous failures," "Whatever they may look like, they are not children, gentlemen," and "Secure the perimeter!"

(When Richard and I used to travel with the kids and stop periodically at play areas, we'd get out our little walkie talkies and follow the kids around, whispering to each other in the playground: "have you secured the perimeter?" "yes")

And the two kids who played the aliens were surprisingly impressive: they had the right touch of oddly placed facial features and they could deliver such lines as "The information you are seeking is not within your realm of understanding" and "The urgency of our trip has not decreased" without sounding completely idiotic. They should have left out the Meaty Treat joke, though. (Sheila's Wince-O-Meter Reading: 7/10)

Yes, there were a lot of banal bits, and yes, some of it was utterly unbelievable, but on the whole I think my kids loved it. There were just enough action sequences and explosions for Max, just enough strange people in alien costumes doing frat boy things for Dominic, and the girls were smarter than the boys, which was right up FDPG's alley.

Those Goofy Greeks

A new homeschooling friend of ours hosts a Multicultural Lunch once a year. This was our first year. The general idea is that you pick a certain culture you like, or some country you've always wanted to visit, or even the historical period you're studying, and do a mini display about it. Then bring it to the lunch, along with some food from that period/country to share.

We'd just finished up with our Greek Unit That Refused To Die, so our food contribution was a little on the Spartan side. (oooh, Sheila, you don't really think that was funny, do you?) We made some hearty peasant bread, some hummus (as opposed to roasting chickens or goats and in lieu of fresh figs), and ground some dates and walnuts together with cardamon powder, and rolled them into little balls.

And then we had to get our presentation board together. We had the standard map, the usual art work (clay pots, mosaics, hand made coins, coloured drawings from pottery), and some written work about things the kids favoured most, but we were lacking something to tie it all together.



Until I glanced down at the picture of FDPG in her Halloween costume.

She was dressed as the Greek goddess Athena. In a white chiton.

"Max!" I said, "Quick, get this on (I handed him FDPG's white chiton), then stand over there and pretend to be pointing at something. Look mischevious."

So he did. I took a few photographs of him.

"Dominic," I said, "Do what he did."

And he did, too, although Dominic's 'mischevious' extended only to pointing and staring at me with a dead-pan expression. I took some photographs of him too.

Then I printed them out. Then we carefully cut them all out, ignoring Max's "I look like a geek. Don't use this one. Argh, do I really look like that?" remarks.

We put this picture next to an explanation of How The Greeks Ate.
The boys started laughing. They rearranged pictures so they were introducing things. FDPG started jumping up and down wit excitement. So far so good.

Max copied his favourite joke from Terry Deary's Horrible Histories: Groovy Greeks. I pasted a picture of him pointing gleefully at it. If your eyes are as bad as mine, then you might need me adding that his word bubble says "Now that's funny!"
FDPG did what she does best and acted like her charming, bossy self. Only this time she's bossing Zeus around. I had a restful reprieve.
This is my particular favourite. Dominic, aka Young Greek Boy, is saying "Isn't he a little overdressed for dinner?" while our cartoon hoplight's rebuttal is "Aren't you a little underdressed for the Peloponnesian War?"
It was a fun day, getting this ready. It was a fun lunch too. Nothing like a little light humour to go with your lunch.

What Goes On Behind The Scenes