Index-Card-A-Day Start

We made a start on Daisy Yellow's index-card-a-day challenge (which you can read more about here)

From top to bottom is my card, then Gman's, then Waif's:



You can sign up any time before 15th June, so what are you waiting for?

Index-Card-A-Day

After Barb decided to take a summer break from Sketch Tuesday this year, we have been looking for something to fill the gap...and here it is! It's an Index-Card-A-Day challenge, c/o Daisy Yellow. Throughout June, July and August, we will each do something creative with an index card. Ideas from Daisy Yellow are:

♥ draw ♥ doodle ♥ write ♥ collage ♥ paint ♥ cut ♥ haiku ♥ stamp ♥ stitch ♥

We will do these and more I'm sure. It should be fun, why not join in too?!

The Dalai Lama: Foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama by Demi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a lovely book, telling the life story of the 14th Dalai Lama. I read it with my boys, aged 11 and 6, and both enjoyed it. They particularly liked hearing about the Dalai Lama as a mischievous boy!! A well written and beautifully illustrated book - one to treasure.



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Sketching Spices

This week's Sketch Tuesday assignment was to sketch a spice or spice jar. The boys both relaxed into this one beautifully and produced these sketches:





Didn't they do well?

If you haven't discovered Sketch Tuesday yet, then hop on over to Harmony Art Mom to find out more :-)

As well as the sketching, both boys have started an art journal. Gman is using his very much in the style of a private diary, so won't be sharing his, but Waif is enjoying using his as a place to experiment with paint, collage and (best of all!) mama's ink and stamps. Yes, it does get messy, but I'm so pleased they both decided to do journals, cos I have found this such fun myself.



On the non-art side of things, both boys are enjoying studying via lapbooks. Waif is busy putting together one on pandas; and Gman is working on two at the moment - one on Buddhism, the other on pandas. I think they will complete these in the next week or so. Project based learning certainly seems to suit their learning style.

Book Review - Buddha at Bedtimme

Buddha at Bedtime: Tales of Love and Wisdom for You to Read with Your Child to Enchant, Enlighten and Inspire by Dharmachari Nagaraja

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I cannot begin to describe how much I love this book! I bought it to help my two homeschooled boys (aged 11 and 6) to learn about Buddhism, but hadn't anticipated that they would ask nearly every evening if we can do "buddha" tonight please mum? There is a nice section on relaxation for kids, as well as three different guided meditations, and an explanation of Buddhism and its relevance today. Then there are the stories, which are based on the traditional Jataka tales, and are beautifully told - the language itself is meditative, and the illustrations are gorgeous. You certainly do not have to be a Buddhist to appreciate these stories.



The only (minor) criticism I have is that the illustration of "Buddha" throughout is not Buddha, but Ho-Tei. Maybe they will sort that out for the next edition :-)



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Book Sharing Monday - A Seed is Sleepy

Last month, I shared "An Egg is Quiet". This book is by the same author and illustrator and is another example of an informative and yet poignantly beautiful book.

Lapbook Crazy!

This month, the boys have mostly been making lapbooks...

Gman decided he would do a lapbook about dogs:





Waif plumped for a lapbook on birds:





Both boys worked really hard and are jusifiably proud of their work!

More pictures of the lapbooks can be found in my Flickr sets here and here.