The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

These little beauties are Indian Paintbrushes, the state flower of Wyoming. There is an interesting indian story explaining how they came to be. Tuesday we read "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush". There is a little indian boy named Little Gopher (if you ever disliked your name, just think of how poor Little Gopher would have made it in elementary school) who is too small and weak to go out with the Indian warriors of his tribe. But Little Gopher had a special gift...the gift of being able to paint pictures. Instead of fighting in great battles, he painted them so his people would always remember. He had a dream in which he discovers he is to try to paint the sunset and bring happiness to his tribe. He tries for years but can never make the right colors of paint to do the beauty of a sunset justice. But he doesn't give up and keeps on painting for his people. One evening he goes up on a hill and finds paintbrushes with the right color paint on them. He paints the sunset and takes it back to his village. The next day, the hills are covered with red, orange, yellow , and pink flowers. These were called Indian Paintbrushes.
For our bible time, we talked about gifts and talents and how we ought to seek out our God-given gifts and talents and use them for his glory. We talked about contentment as well. Lillie did a state collage page on Wyoming (See post below) and we then painted our own sunsets on wrinkled up lunch bags that I taped sticks to the ends to roll them up, much like the Indians used to do. We talked about how Indians used pictures to tell their stories. Here are their pictures...

Jackson has shown a real interest in drawing as of late. I bought him a little sketch book and have been letting him sit down and draw. I ask him to tell me what he's drawing and when he's done, I write the narration on the back. It has been very interesting.This is a picture of an airplane flying to an orange bus, running into a green car and a blue helicopter. What, you can't see it?
About two weeks ago, while the power was out again, I had the kids paint some terra cotta flower pots. We randomly dumped some wildflower seeds in and stuck them under our desk lamp. Jack's will have to be redone, his have not come up at all. But Lillie Anna's have shot up. She is so excited!