Last Friday, the boys and I went to the Pence Art Gallery in Davis. We took part in their ArtSmart program. We had a chance to learn more about their art on display and the the boys created their own african masks. Sadly I forgot my camera – so I had to take pictures from my phone.
J2’s mask
J3’s mask
J1’s mask
And a smattering of everyone else’s work:
Found this one on Principled Discovery’s blog – I love it when we can laugh at ourselves (and, I can totally see this happening with my 3 boys!). Our favorite line: “We are homeschooled. That’s not supposed to happen!” LOL
We really enjoyed the story builders! Writing was something we both dreaded…but we had such fun with it! J1 asked me if I’d keep his stories like Grandma O keeps Daddy’s stories. I told him I’d really like to keep them to read to his children just like Grandma O does.
What I have is the Christmas story builders – currently onsale on WriteShop’s website – which is a series of cards to help you build a story. There are cards for characters, settings, plot and character trait. I posted J1’s story “The Magical Doll“. Hope you enjoy it…and try out the story builders for yourself!!
By J1
(a work in progress)
In the year 2,000,000 AD there was a cruel mother in a toy store. She knew that her son wanted a bouncy ball for Christmas. Instead she got him a fairy doll.
When he opened the present and he was shocked that his mom got him a $50 doll instead of a $.10 bouncy ball. The mother told him to go upstairs and play with the doll. He did so, and when he opened the box he noticed something had fallen out. The boy picked up it up – it was a wand. He used it. Then he noticed that the wand was glowing and small gold stars were falling out of it. Then he wondered if it could be a real wand. So the boy wished that his mother would be more loving and thoughtful instead of mean and nasty.
So it came true! His mother was nicer and loving. And, so the boy lived happily ever after until they died.
The other day on Twitter, I read that Kim Kautzer at WriteShop was gifting some Christmas Story Builders for the Holiday. As I feel that writing is something we really don’t do well – and I’d heard about Story Builders but never actually used them – I jumped on the chance to try them out.
So, today I let him start his story by choosing his cards. He randomly choose:
Character:Â mother
Character Trait: mean spirited
Setting: toy store
Plot: comes to life
I’m really hoping I’m not the main character! If I’m not, I’ll share his story here when it’s done! If I am…well, he’ll be grounded! 😉
(Just read my blog post to J1 – and he laughed and said “Crud, I need to rewrite it!” LOLÂ Funny kid!!)
