UPDATE to the Abbey Art Show Wrap-Up

UPDATE to the Update! 

It looks like I will be there tomorrow at 10:45, and can stay as long as 11:15 for whomever can come by tomorrow (Tues)--but will have to skedaddle after that, so please come at 11 at the latest, ok?

Please see the info on the last post about where I will be--upstairs over the Abbey.

Thanks, everyone!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, yesterday must have been a big day of Mother's Day plans, because only one person showed up to pick up art!  (Thanks, Charlotte! : ) I am now having people email me asking if they can make individual plans with me to pick up the art, but as you can imagine, I won't be able to make individual pick-up arrangements with so many families.  So, let's try a formal pick-up date one more time.  I am not over in Santa Cruz much during the week, but I would be willing to make one weekday morning pickup when I am over there if people preferred that over the weekend.  Or we can try for next Sunday again. 

So would at least some of you please respond to this post so I know which you would actually go to? 

Option #1: Tues or Thurs morning between 10:45-11:00 a.m. Please note that is just a 15 minute window!  My kids have a class nearby for one hour, so I can run over to the church and get people their art, but I will have to be prompt in leaving again to make sure I'm not late picking the kids up again. 

Option #2: Next Sunday I'll set out the art again in the hallway upstairs.  This time I won't be there early. : )  This time I also won't hang out and keep an eye on it--but the hallway is fairly quiet, so I don't think the art will come to any grief.  But if you are concerned, come on the early side!  I'll have it out between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

If you do not contact me, or come to get your art, I'll have to assume you are not interested in having it back, and I will have to throw it away. : (  

You were all so wonderful about getting the art to the Abbey in time for the hanging, for having those required cards, for adhering to the guidelines of the show--I was as impressed with you parents as I was with the kids for their art! : )  So I assume this past weekend was just really busy for people. Please let me know which of the above times you would come to get the art, so we get all these masterpieces back where they belong.

Thanks!

The Abbey Homeschool Art Show Wrap-Up

Thanks to all the families who participated in the Abbey art show! 

Your children did such a fantastic job with their art.  I heard several people around the church comment that it was one of the best shows they had seen.  I'm so proud of all the artists!

I really enjoyed meeting many of you artists and parents at the opening too.  Thank you, those who came and brought treats to share!

So now the show is officially over, and when I emailed last week to find out when it was coming down, I got a response back that they had just taken it down, and the art is ready to be picked up.  The art is lock in a room above the Abbey, which means it is safe, but which also means you can't just go pick it up whenever.  So let's make a pick up date:

This upcoming Sunday morning, May 12--Mother's Day!

9:30 a.m. till 1:00 p.m.

 

Come to the church and enter through the office door (just down from the Abbey main door, closer to the street), then go straight ahead and go up the stairs on your left.  At the top of the stairs, turn R and you should see the art, which I will have leaning against the wall in the hallway. 

At 1:00 I will be locking up any art that was not picked up, and then you will have to email me to make other arrangements for getting it. 

Thank you again for helping create such a beautiful, meaningful and successful art show!

The Author's Fair wrap-up

Well, you could hear the crickets chirping in here after my last post about the Author's Fair!

I understand.  It was a busy Spring for most of us, and many of you intended to participate but then when the time came to do it you felt like you could not do one more thing.  I get that--I felt that way this Spring too!

So this year our group book ended up being a two-family collaboration.  And guess what?  It still turned out adorable, and was a big hit at the fair!  Read what my E.S. Terry sent me in an email after the fair, which another E.S. had sent to her:

The other E.S.'s family wrote:

We all went to the Authors' Fair yesterday, and the kids were quite excited that people had read their works and left comments.  We looked at some of the other books, and one was a book of riddles ending with "Who am I?"  The kids have been busy writing their own riddles last night and this morning!  M's I wrote into a tracing program, so I printed his riddles out with 'conventional spelling' : ) and we decided to use those for his copywork. 

Thank you for encouraging the kids to take part in the authors' fair!  Nothing else has come close to giving them the inspiration to write - both before and after the fair!

 

Now how cool is that?  Our book was inspiring other kids to go home and think and write!

 

This fun anecdote was just what I needed to confirm in my mind what I already thought we would do for next year's group project:  build the riddle book!  This means that we have TWO projects going on for the Author's Fair of 2014, and you have ALL the information you need right now, a year in advance, to be working on them! 

 

--The "What Is It?"  Book of Nature Riddles  (formerly called "Our Big Backyard") group project, where each child/family can submit one or more pages.

 

--The "Book of Months" family writing project.  You parents are the bosses of this project, but I have provided suggestions and guidelines, and we can have a party where we come together and share these the month before the Author's Fair if you like. 

 

So I encourage you interested families to start working on your Book of Months now, so your kids have plenty of time to really get into it if they want and you don't run up against the deadline next year and be frustrated.  It would be a great summer project!  But as always, these are just things you can do or not, depending upon what your kids needs and interests are. 

 

I have updated the labels for these two book projects so you can just click on the label "Book of Months" and it will take you to all those posts, etc.  : )

 

 

 

Author's Fair THIS Saturday--Final Details Here!

Last Monday we had our Old School Monday "book binding" party, where you and your kids could assemble their poems onto the book pages and be done.  Judging by the number of families who showed up, I am guessing this has been a very full season for most of you, as it has been for us, and either you decided not to participate in the group book project or you ran out of time to get your family's pages done before the party.  Either way, it's ok.  If you have not finished (or started!) your pages for our group book this year, but wish you had, you still have time.  Yes, it is down to the wire--the Author's Fair is this upcoming Saturday, May 4--but the pages are easy to do and I'll show you here how you can finish and still have them in our book at the fair, if you still wanted to participate. 

In the last post, I gave you the details for formatting and printing your riddle--but I am amending instructions because I found our poems looked best with approx. 20 point font boldface.  So that's a slightly larger font size than I said before.  If you use the smaller font size, no big deal.  But if you see this before you print out, great.

Also, minor detail that does not affect your work but which I wanted you to know:  my girls and I decided to change the title of the book.  We found in our riddle generating that while our riddles were celebrating the natural world, they were ending up all being very broad and not quite meeting the idea behind the title "Our Big Backyard."  So we are changing the title of the book to "What Is It?  A Book of Nature Riddles."  So as long as your child's riddle is about something in nature, it will work perfectly.

If you still want your kids to participate in the book project:

--Bring your child's riddle printed out and the riddle answer printed out on a separate page to the Ocean Grove table at the Author's fair no later than 10:00 a.m. 

(If you have multiple children making riddles, their answers can go on the same page, with plenty of spacing in between--you will be cutting them out, as you will see below.)

--Bring glue sticks.  You can assemble your child's page there at the fair and add it to our book.  I will have all the other supplies you will need to finish your page.  Please do not bring regular glue--it will not dry in time.  Tape might also work.

--In the past we have met at the Ocean Grove table and then given the kids a chance to present their book all together at the Author's Chair.  If we do so this year, we will be meeting at 10:40 a.m., with the goal of presenting the book at 11:00.  Those of you who want your kids to present the book at the Author's Chair, please RSVP to this post by leaving a comment.  If no one is interested, I'd like to know so I don't hang around the mall unnecessarily.  : )  If no one RSVP's, we will just pass on that this year.  

Questions or comments otherwise?  Please leave them in the comments too, so everyone may benefit from the answers.


Finally, here are my girls' pages, as examples of what the final pages will look like (click on the images to see them bigger):

The front side of each child's page will have the riddle, bordered with colored construction paper.  Notice the poem is offset to the right, to allow for the holes we will add to complete the "binding."

The back side of each child's page will have the answer and illustration. 

So as you read the book, each riddle's answer is revealed as you turn the page.

My girls had fun with these!  They used the online "riddle generator" interactive I linked earlier just as a brainstorming tool, and then came up with their own riddle styles.   You own child's riddle can be as elaborate or simple as you and he/she wants.

Special thanks to Kathy Oak and Lucy Hiatt, who generously donated some of their Ocean Grove funds to help purchase the papers needed for the Old School book projects last year and this year.  Thank you ladies so much!

Book "binding" party--NEXT Monday!

Ok, after a whirlwind Spring, culminating in the Abbey art show and STAR testing, I took a much needed mental Spring Break.  Only to realize, yesterday, that in doing so I neglected giving you all the final details about our Author's Fair book project this year, "Our Big Backyard." 

But I have a feeling most of you are like me, and are just now starting the project anyway. ; )  So if you have not started working on the project with your kids yet, it is not too late!  But, um, you'd better jump on it now, since we are scheduled to have our binding party NEXT Monday at the April Old School Monday gathering.  That gives you four days--so time to get busy! ; )

And please remember--this is meant to be a fun thing, not a huge hassle, so please keep that in mind as you help your kids with their pages.  The art may not be amazing (hey, that's what the Abbey art show was for) and the riddles may or may not make much sense.  ; )  But it's an opportunity for our kids to stretch their thinking, be creative, engage with words and ideas, and make art! 

If you have not already read the first posts about this year's project, please start here and here. 

Once you have read those, you know our theme and our writing style.  Now let's talk details of art and format:

The ART
--The art can be in any two-dimensional style and medium your child chooses!  I'm not going to direct my kids in a specific medium, but just encourage them to get out the markers and colored pencils.  For our family, this is not the time to try to get all fancy. 

--Your child's art must be made on a roughly 8" x 8" square.



The TEXT
--Please print out your child's riddle on a regular 8 1/2" x 11" piece of white typing paper. 

--The text should be centered.

--The text should be approximately 16-18 pt. font (whatever fits and looks good).

--Your child is welcome to choose the color and font style, but please use boldface.

--The answer to the riddle should be printed out exactly the same font style and size and boldface, but on a separate piece of the same kind of paper.

(If you have several children submitting pages, you are welcome to print their answers on one page, as long as you leave lots of room in between them, as we will be cutting them out on Monday when we assemble the books.)


Does this all make sense?  Am I forgetting something important?  If you have questions, please leave them in the comments to this post, so everyone may benefit from the answers. 

So, see you Monday, April 22 from 11-2 in the usual Vintage classrooms!  *And bring your supplies!  We will be using scissors, glue/gluesticks, and maybe pencils and markers.    

REEL Kids Adventures Series

I really love books.  And I really like to own them in our own library, which is probably the death of me.  Anyhow, my oldest daughter (age 9) recently picked up a set of books that I was holding onto until I thought she was ready (though she could have read them earlier).  It is a set of 10 books, which can be read independently - called "Reel Kids."  I personally know the author - Dave Gustaveson.  He has been serving in YWAM for a long time, and he's incredible!  These books are full of culture, adventure & challenges along the way.  The 3 kids in the story actually travel to different countries in need of Jesus, and video-tape the culture.  Its a wonderful blend of God's faithfulness & power in the middle of adventure!  Anyhow, I highly recommend these books if you have $ to invest in them.  YWAM Publishing is selling each set for $19.99 right now (5 books, each set), and you can probably find them cheaper on Amazon. 

 

Here are some handy links if you want:

Reel Kids (books 1-5)

Reel Kids (books 6-10)

YWAM Publishing

 Amazon link to Reel Kids

The Abbey art show--final details!

Allrighty, folks!  We are in our last week before the art pieces are due at the Abbey.  So now is the time for me to share with you all the last bits of information you will need before the show.  I asked Philip, the assistant to the Abbey art director, a bunch of questions, and here is what I learned:

 

Dropping off your art:

They will start installing the art when the Abbey closes at 8:00 p.m.  next Wednesday, March 27.  This means you need to bring the art to the Abbey before 8 on that day.  Anytime that afternoon or early evening should be fine--I will make sure the Abbey workers that day know the pieces are coming, so they can direct you where to leave them.  Unfortunately, there is not a space to secure all of the art before the day of the installation.  I do not responsibility for your children's masterpieces, but I will be glad to work out necessary arrangements with families who might be out of town for Spring Break.

 

 

How you can help with the installation:

I have heard from one family offering carpentry services with the installation.  Great!  May I suggest  you either show up right before 8 the night of the installation ready to offer your services, or email Philip in advance at phillip at lincolnstreetstudios dot com.  Thanks!

 

 

How to label your child's art:

Please make one placard for each piece of art you submit.  The placard should be on white cardstock cut to 3 x 5 inches.  The information you should include on the placard, in this order:

1.  Name of piece

2.  by Child or children's name(s), age ____

3.  Medium used for the piece (for example, watercolor or paper mosaic)

 

Please print out these cards (i.e. please do not handwrite), using any font you desire as long as it is approx. 18 pt. boldface.  Please center the information on the card. 

 

When you drop off your art piece, please make sure the placard is safely taped to the back (but in a way that will not harm the front of the placard, as these will be hung by your child's art).  

 

 

The art show Opening!

The Opening will be held Saturday, April 6th there at the Abbey, from 4-6.  Please invite your family and friends to come and celebrate our children's artistic achievements! 

 

 

How you can help with the art Opening:

I have also heard from two parents offering to bring desserts to the opening.  Yes, let's make it a party!  Let's make it a dessert/snack potluck, and everyone who can, please bring a finger food to share.  Let's try to avoid messy things like chips, please, as the Abbey will be hosting their monthly Open-Mic Night at 7, and we don't want to cause extra work for the Abbey staff.  So I'm thinking veggies and dip, cut up fruit, and of course finger-lickin' desserts like brownies and cookies!  

 

Is there anyone who can help provide napkins?  Small paper plates?  (Please, no plastic.)  Please leave a comment below and let me know.  Thanks!

 

For drinks, we will rely upon the fabulous offering of the Abbey, who is being so generous to host us  We can show our thanks through our patronage. : )

 

 

The show will run:

The show will be up for the month of April!  

 

 

Any more questions?

Please do not email me if you have questions, but instead leave them as a comment to this post. This way everyone may benefit from the answers.

 

 

One last thing:

I just want to remind everyone that this show does have three required elements:

1) the overall theme of "New Life"

2) the construction theme of layers

3) the mounting of each piece, using the black matte board specified in the earlier post.  This board is found at Palace Arts, and comes in pre-cut sizes over in the framing department.  It is black with white core.  There is also black with white core matte board in the do-it-your-self section to the back left corner of the store.  Just make sure it is black with the white core.  It is not foam board, but like heavy paper stock.

I look forward to seeing everyone's creations!