We are having an easy, relaxing week here (hopefully).  We aren't doing much school but we are catching up a bit on a couple things and still reading.  Yesterday Gavin finished his Picasso painting by gluing geometric shapes together to make a theater performer.

I've decided that from now on we are just going to do our artist-of-the-month work and not follow the Artistic Pursuits curriculum anymore.  I think the Artistic Pursuits is a good program that we may pick up again in a couple years, but for right now it is too technical for Gavin.  Art is not really his thing and learning about line, shape, etc. is not interesting for him.  However, he really enjoys learning about the artists and their styles and I think he's learning more through these projects then he is from the formal curriculum.

We've been reading chapters from 'Everyday Life in the Colonies'.  We read a chapter about making soap and a chapter about making candles and now we are reading about telling time without clocks, which of course talks about sundials which we learned about when we were learning about the sun so Gavin has enjoyed seeing how they were used everyday.  So our project was to make candles.  Our process was not nearly as difficult as the process in colonial times but we had fun anyway.  We were supposed to do it last week but didn't have time.

I melted blocks of wax in a pan while Gavin put wicks in old jam and canning jars.

Then Gavin put a little red food coloring in the wax.  It made a neat bubble effect but after it dried the bubbles streaked so it doesn't look that great.

While we waited for the wax to dry Gavin played with the Duplos.

Austin has been playing with the Playmobil knights.

Here is our finished candles.  We haven't tried to burn them yet.  I'll probably put them on the table at dinnertime.

Austin was napping while we made the candles but he wanted his picture taken with one when he saw me taking Gavin's picture with them.

We have read these books today.

This book was interesting because it focused more on the French settlement of Canada instead of British America.

We have read this book before and is a favorite.  It's a true story about a three-year-old girl in New Hampshire in the early 1700s (before the American Revolution) who got lost in the woods after wondering off her family's farm.  She was lost for four days before they found her but a black bear had been staying with her and protecting her.

And we read 'Milly and the Macy's Parade', a semi-true story about how the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade got started.  It's a cute story!