Great Educational Resource of the Week!

I can't draw. Though my dad is an artist, alas, I climbed out of the gene pool before I got that trait. I would like to be able to draw. Who is with me? Does anyone out there have that problem too? Well, I have a website for you! DrawSpace.com has free drawing lessons broken down into Beginner,Intermediate,and Advanced. From what pencils to use to perspective to drawing peoples faces, this website tells you all. Set up an account for free and then click on whatever lesson interests you. This will be great for kids who may not have access to someone to teach them drawing. So, surf on over and begin the journey from stick man to excellence!

Tree Huggin' and Leaf Rubbin'

Today we headed off to Oak Ridge for our first field trip. We visited the UT Arboretum today to take the kids on a nature walk and sketching trip. Thanks to my dad for driving me and my crew today. It was overcast and slightly cool... perfect weather to take a walk out into God's creation. I was reminded today of the blessings that God has given us. So many ugly things in this world today, it's easy to focus on the bad and overlook the good. I was reminded today of the beauty of God's handiwork. The kids did unbelieviably well today considering it was a fairly long walk (as far as out of shape mothers are concerned). My sister, as usual, did a wonderful job "teaching" the kids here and there. Chloe slept in the carrier the whole time, which has wrecked my back. I didn't even realize how long the walk was because it was so pleasant. Here are the pictures. Thanks to dad for letting me use his camera, as the batteries in mine were dead.

We had a pretty good collection of dwarfs ourselves. Hah!
Chloe looks broken in this picture, but she's just asleep, folks. I assure you

Bovine Update!

Cow was revived and is home recovering. Her loyal owner Jackson vows to feed her cornchips until she makes a full recovery. We are currently exploring fluff transplant proceedures and are just hunting for a suitable donor. I have an old pillow in the closet, but not sure if the fluff type will be compatible.

Who Says Us Davis' Don't Know How To Have Fun?

The following are from the "Davis Candid Camera". I didn't stage these, I couldn't come up with this kind of stuff.

Don't Even Ask...

Coming To Our Senses Part Two

Today, Lillie was off to visit one of her cousins for the day, so we didn't do any schoolwork. Yesterday however was one of those full days that leaves you feeling like to you've accomplished something. We started with the two basics, math and reading. Lillie Anna is working on reading the first stanza to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Autumn Fires". We are using the method of one word on a post it note and then she arranges them and I quiz her randomly on the words. This has worked wonders. Mostly this is sight reading, but we do some phonics as well. Then we moved onto some addition practice with our "counting jewels" which Lillie picked out last summer at WalMart when we were working on counting. They are really the glass smashed down marbles you buy at the craft department that you shove down in vases. But what Lillie doesn't know won't hurt her. I give her two cups. In the first cup she counts out the number that is the first in her addition problem. Say 2+2. She counts two into the first cup, two into the second (I make her count out loud) then she dumps (adds) them onto the table and counts them all together. She then reads me the problem back saying "2+2=4". We talked about how the skin is the organ responsible for our sense of touch. I read the story of "King Midas and the Golden Touch" to them. We talked a little about greed to incorporate some character study. Lillie Anna said she wished she had "The Chocolate Touch". I say "Right On, Sista!" Then we went on a nature walk around the house, picking up items and describing how they felt. I tried to engage the kids in a game of "King Midas Tag" where they would run around and try to "turn" each other to gold. They soon lost focus and just proceeded to run around like crazy.
Then we made some sand art pictures. You just draw a picture on the paper with glue and then throw some sand on it. Let it sit a minute and then shake the sand off. It makes a nice scratchy picture. It is , however, better done outside, as a bowl of sand is an irresistable temptation for children. It would be cruel not to let them dump it all out.
Well, told you we did alot. But it was great fun!

Coming to Our Senses Part One

We embarked on a unit study of our five senses today. Actually , last night on the way to the grocery store, I had the kids call out things they touched, tasted, heard, saw or smelled. Today was basically a general overview of the five senses. What they are and what parts of our body are used for the different senses. Today, we read "The Livingstone Mouse" which was a nice book about a mouse that uses all his five senses to find a place to build his future nest. It was cute. We glued strips of colored tissue paper to a coloring page of a mouse that I had cut out the eyes, ears and tummy to make a stained glass-like project.

We played a nice little math game called "Feed The Mouse" which was great to practice counting and number recognition for both Lillie and Jack. I printed out the mouse template and added a small paper plate to the back to make a sort of mouth to hold the cookies better.

Saturday, I had a "day off". Pam had the two oldest and my wonderful mom kept Chloe. Dad and I took off on a photo expedition. I'll post a few of the pics that I took here...



If you'd like to see all the pictures, check the link in the post below for my photo site Image Remix Studio
Finally, here are two pictures of Chloe...

My Favorite Hobby

I love to take pictures! I also love messing with my pictures using my Photoshop program. As long as you have a photo editing program, there is no such thing as a bad picture. I have had a photography website through Shutterfly for a year or so. Here is the link if you want to check out some of my "artistic" attempts at photography.