The Lighting of a Fire or Two 09/09/2010
Posted by snoozerider in days out, environment, home education, sewing.Tags: drums, fire, forest school, home education, learning, sewing, woods
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Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. – William Butler Yeats
Well, forest school is drawing to a close. Tomorrow is the final session. It’s been a great experience for the boys who have learned how to use various tools (secateurs, loppers, bow saw); collected firewood; whittled sticks to make marshmallow skewers; fashioned cups from apples and oranges; built dens; created nature pictures using blackberries and raspberries as ‘paint” and of course, learned how to light a fire and keep it burning! The experience has hopefully been a fire lighting one in the sense that Yeats refers to above 
Continuing with a woody theme, we attended the Party in the Woods at Reffley Woods last weekend. Gman was particularly taken with a drumming workshop held in small clearing in the woods. He banged the drums while Waif shook his thang:
I’m not sure how we have missed visiting these woods before, given their proximity to home, but we will definitely be returning not least because we spotted a bumper crop of not-quite-ripe blackberries which we will be returning to harvest this week (if others don’t beat us to it!)
This week has hopefully seen the sparking of a love of sewing in Waif. He patiently sat and sewed a little drawstring bag for his Granny, and was very proud of the result:
Like this:
Painting and Sewing and Stuff 25/03/2010
Posted by snoozerider in home education, kids craft, painting.Tags: Gauguin, impressionism, kids art, painting, sewing, Van Gogh
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We have been continuing with our Impressionism’ theme and Gman has nearly finished putting his first lapbook together on the subject (pictures will follow!). In the meantime we have visited the excellent Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to check out their Impressionist collection (and were also wowed by the Ancient Egyptian stuff there) and painted some more in the style of famous painters.
Firstly, the boys did these paintings, inspired by Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”:
Gman's painting inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
Waif's interpretation of Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
Then, we had a go at using some unexpected colours for everyday landscapes, in the style of Paul Gauguin. Waif chose to paint orange grass, purple trees, a green and blue sun and a red sky. He loved choosing different wacky colours for his:
Waif's wacky colours
Gman was a bit more hesitant about the whole colour thing and initially referred to a colour wheel so he could select the “right” wrong colour (!) but he soon got into it. He chose to paint from a sketch he had made on the train to Cambridge of things he could see out of the window. He has blue and yellow grass, orange gravestones, purple barns and a green sky with blue clouds, with a purple window frame round the outside:
Gman's crazy colours
Gman has also been turning his hand to sewing some napkins this week. He has made two reversible napkins using the sewing machine and is very proud of them. He has even put pictures on his own blog: here and here.
Gman shows off his new napkin
Upcycling a School Uniform 11/11/2009
Posted by snoozerider in Uncategorized.Tags: sewing
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I am thrilled to report that Gman has made his first project on the sewing machine! He made a beanbag using a scrap of fabric rescued from an old school polo shirt. As you can see he is very proud and rightly so Will have him making Morsbags before you know it!
Gman shows off his beanbag!
