Edward Hicks and Pennsylvania Dutch- More Ideas

Because my winter kit focused on Pennsylvania Dutch style folk art and Edward Hicks, I have had some people ask for some more resources so they can learn more about Hicks and folk art. So in today's post I am including links to some resources you might find interesting.

Here are two lesson plans based on Edward Hicks:

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Jeanette-peace.htm

http://coreknowledge.org/CK/resrcs/lessons/01_Art_PeaceKingdom.pdf

Here are some books on Amazon focusing on Edward Hicks:

(You may need to click through to the actual blog post if you are reading this in an email or reader since the Amazon links do not always show up.)

Here are some books on Amazon focusing on Pennsylvania Dutch:

I hope you find something you can use in these links. As always feel free to leave any additional suggestions in the comments section.

And I still have plenty of winter kits left, so if you are looking to get started in a study of Edward Hicks and the Pennsylvania Dutch folk art style, be sure to check it out. In all there are 3 handicraft projects, 3 notebooking pages, an art print with corresponding drawing project, a complete lapbook and a nature journal focusing on mammals in this kit!

Mammals Lapbook PDF For Sale Now

I am now offering the mammals lapbook that my mom helped me to design that is included in my Winter 2008 Art, Handicraft and Nature Study Kit for sale as a separate PDF. This lapbook focuses on mammals. Components of this lapbook include sorting pockets and cards to learn about 5 different classes of mammals, a "What Is a Mammal?" mini-book, a "Mammal Trivia" mini-book, mammal vocabulary, more mammal classifications, mammal babies and more!

If you would like to purchase the 10 page set of Mammal Lapbooking Pages as a PDF, I am offering it for $3.95. To purchase the PDF you can use the Pay Now PayPal button on my blog sidebar. This is not automated, so I will have to email the lapbooking pages to you once I receive your PayPal payment. The PDF will be emailed to you within 72 hours after I receive payment, usually sooner. (I currently do not have Internet access at my house.) The PDF will be emailed to the email account associated with the PayPal payment I receive.

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Be sure to check out the other PDFs I have for sale. Links are in the sidebar of my blog.

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If you have any questions about the Mammals Lapbook PDF feel free to email me at heartsandtrees@yahoo.com.

*Please note if you purchase these pages they are for your own personal use and are not to be distributed or sold.

Watercolor Techniques #8 Watercolor Splatters

So after a long break, I have put together another watercolor tutorial. In this tutorial you will learn how to make watercolor splatters. This is a lot of fun, even if it is a bit messy. So get out your watercolors and have a little fun.

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For tutorial #8 you will need:

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolors (tube or cake)
• Assorted brushes
• Cup of water

(If you are reading this via a feed you will most likely need to click through to the post to watch the video.)

Feel free to share any projects you and your children complete using this watercolor technique. I love seeing what you all have done.

You can find my other watercolor tutorials listed in my sidebar.

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*And I still have some Winter Kits left, so be sure to check them out if you haven't already.*

More info here

Winter Nature Study and Snowflake Book Suggestions

I wanted to share with you all some book suggestions that I haverecently listed on my blog sidebar. Many people may have trouble with nature study in winter, and these books may help you, because they focus on nature study in winter:

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If you want to focus on snowflakes, here are some books you may wish to check out:

• You may also want to check out my video here from last winter about how to catch a snowflake.
• You may also want to make your own paper snowflakes. There are some instructions here.
• There are some templates you can print to cut very fancy snowflakes here.
• Here is a fun website where you can make your own snowflake: Make-a-Flake

Hope you enjoy these books and links. If you have any more winter nature study or snowflake ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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And I still have some Hearts and Trees Winter 2008 Kits, so be sure to check them out, if you haven't already.

Jan Brett Links 2

There are tons of games and printables available on Jan Brett's website.

Here are a few more things you might want to check out:

• Matching Animal Game
• Matching Numbers Game
• Print Your Own Calendar
• Design Your Own Gingerbread- Online
• Tons of Coloring Pages
• How to Draw a Hedgehog
  

I will be shipping all pre-orders of my Winter Kit on Friday, so be sure to get your order in by Thursday.

Jan Brett Links

Here are some links of activities you might enjoy based on Jan Brett's book The Mitten. My Winter Kit was mostly inspired by this book.

• Design Your Own Mitten- Coloring Page
• Bookmarks to Print
• Put the Animals in the Mitten-Activity Sheet
• Animal Masks from The Mitten

I hope you enjoy checking out these links. I will be back tomorrow with some more Jan Brett inspired ideas.

I will be shipping all pre-orders of my Winter Kit on Friday, so be sure to get your order in today if you are intersted. :)

And the winner is....

The winner of my little conest is Phyllis from bergblog! Thanks to everyone who participated and shared about my Winter Kit and blog on their blog. I wish I could send everyone a goodie bag.

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This coming week is going to be Jan Brett week on my blog, so be sure to check back for lots of links and fun things to do. I totally forgot to mention that what inspired most of the projects for my Winter Kit was the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. That's why I decided to focus on mammals and why we are sewing mittens. And the artwork in the book is very Pennsylvania Dutch inspired, so I wanted to include that in the kit too.

I will be shipping all pre-orders of my Winter Kit on Friday, so be sure to get your order in today if you are intersted. :)

Hearts and Trees Contest

In an effort to advertise my Winter 2008 Kit, I am hosting a little contest. To enter this contest you will just need to either use my button in your blog sidebar linking to my blog (the html code is in the scroll box below) or post about my kit or my blog with a link to my blog on your blog. You will then need to leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog.

I have a whole bag of handicraft and art goodies to send along to the winner.

The goodies include:

• 1 watercolor set
• a stack of 1/2 sheets of watercolor paper
• some plastic canvas and a plastic canvas needle
• some tissue paper sheets
• three sheets of felt (0range, yellow and pink)
• and whatever else I can find to throw in. :)

You can copy the html code in the box below to paste into your sidebar. I am not too technical, but if you have any trouble, I may be able to help you out. Thanks!

<center><a href="http://heartsandtrees.blogspot.com/2008/12/hearts-and-trees-winter-2008-kit.html" title="winter kit button 3 by AmandaChristina, on Flickr"><img width="211" alt="winter kit button 3" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/3081908894_f3f0cf2cee_o.jpg" height="161" /></a></center>

The contest will end Friday (the 12th). I will pick a random winner on Saturday the 13th. Thanks to all who participate! And you can find out more about my winter kit here. They are going fast, so purchase yours soon!

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival November 25, 2008

Welcome to the November 25th edition of the

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

There are a lot of great entries to this edition of the carnival. I hope you take a few minutes to enjoy each entry.

General Charlotte Mason Homeschool

Tammy presents The Further We Go On Our Homeschool Journey ... posted at Adventures On Beck's Bounty. In this post she shares with us how much she admires and appreciates Charlotte Mason's approach to education and shares some of her favorite Miss Mason quotes.

Jamie in Rose Cottage presents A Happy Talent posted at Rose Cottage, saying this post is some of her thoughts on the importance of play.

Lisa in her post The Essential Difference between Public School and a Charlotte Mason education shares with us her observations about an important difference between a Chalotte Mason approach to education and public school, posted at Hopewell Takes On LIFE!.

Mama Squirrel shares with us her 2nd grader's exam response in her post, Exam response: Understood Betsy, posted at Dewey's Treehouse.

History

Jeanne Webb shares her family's Charlotte Mason approach to history in her post Our Book of Centuries on her blog A peaceful day.

Math

Shannon shares with us her experience both learning and teaching math in her post Why is math so difficult??? posted at Mountaineer Country.

Nature Study
Barb-Harmony Art Mom reminds us that nature study is not meant to be a drill in her post Nature Study is Not a Drill: How I Learn to Be Flexible posted at Handbook of Nature Study.

Amanda shares two free PDF calendars to download that she has designed to help with your nature study observations in her post Nature Study Observation Calendars posted at Hearts and Trees.

lindafay presents Autumn Nature Study 2008: Wonderful WEEDS posted at Higher Up and Further In. In this post she shares with us her family's approach to studying weeds this autumn.

Music, Art and Handicrafts
Barb-Harmony Art Mom shows us how she organizes her classical music CDs in her post Organizing My Classical Music With Colored Dots posted at Harmony Art Mom.

Cindy presents Embriodery Project posted at Our Journey Westward, saying "This was a super easy handicraft that turned out far better than I imagined. I'm hoping others might find it a good handicraft activity for the winter."

Resources & Reviews
Angi presents Q & A: Boxes & Writing posted at Peakmore Academy, saying, "Freewriting & copywork --easy, cheap, useful, and enjoyable!"

Makita presents Labyrinths & Mazes posted at Twinkling Stars Family School.

Nature Study Observation Calendars

Calendars: It's a great idea to have children keep a calendar to record when and where they saw the first oak leaf, the first tadpole, the first daily walks and nature hikes! A day won't go by when something isn't primrose, the first ripe blackberries. Then next year they can pull out the calendar and know when to anticipate seeing these things again, and they can note new discoveries. Imagine how this will add enthusiasm for seen to excite them.

From Charlotte Mason Volume One, page 54

I really like the idea of using a calendar to keep track of your nature observations for each month. It would be so much fun the next year to look back and see what you had observed each day and compare to the current year's observations. You could also include a small sketch on the calendar if you wish. It could also be motivating if you wanted to observe something in nature each day- as you would have a space to fill for each day. Even if you just recorded the weather or what you see out your window, that would be something for each day. I'd love to hear your ideas.
I have put together a free PDF calendars for this purpose. It is a completely blank calendar you can use for any month you wish.

Blank Nature Study Observations Calendar

I would love to see how you and your family use my calendars, so feel free to leave me links in the comments section or to email me. Enjoy.