Fairytale woods

Local schools started back to school last Monday, and hence, so did we.

We started off our week with a bike ride around the farm fields and up to the top of the hills to do a little observation. Everything has been harvested already except the corn and the soybeans. The hay has been baled, the wheat is long gone.... and indeed it's getting colder.



We rode on into the forest where the children were met with quite a big surprise. I told them we were meeting some "friends" in the forest, but they certainly didn't expect these characters!













Einstein and I had discovered them on our last walk... and I was totally blown away at the sight of them. I hear there are more fairytale characters as you go deeper into the forest, but I thought we'd save them for another day. The kids were quite impressed with this group-- they ran around hunting for all seven dwarfs and then "helped" each of them do his work. It was very sweet to watch them at play here.... and that was just the beginning of our week.

Einstein was out of the country all week, and we had obligations every single afternoon--- such a busy, busy week!! But though I didn't manage to post anything, we managed to get a little bit of work done. Hopefully I can share that in the next day or so, but until then, I hope you enjoy these new woodland friends as much as we did.

Modeling with Beeswax

This week I told the Grimm's story Allerleirauh, and it was great fun. We pulled out our Stockmar modeling beeswax and tried to capture the story in a different medium.

First I drew a representational picture on the chalkboard. Sunburst copied that picture into her main lesson book, and then pulled that image into her modeling. I didn't tell her what to make, I just let her lead the way. This is what she came up with:

The King is on the left, and Allerleirauh is on the right. You can see her bright dress peeking out from her fur cloak. In the middle is the stove where Allerleirauh stirred the soup, and the brown bit is a spoon on a rack of some sort. Inside the pot of soup, which you can't see, is a golden ring. Behind the King is a door with a window. Behind Allerleirauh is a wooden bough with dried herbs for cooking.

She probably worked on this scene for 45 minutes or so. I sat next to her and sculpted my own vision of the characters on the left. What a large pot of soup I made! I tend to make enough food to feed an army in real life, so why should I be surprised that my modeling should turn out any different? The chalkboard scene we worked from is on the right.

To get started on your own modeling fun, I suggest you check out this PDF from Stockmar. Other manuals for their wonderful art products can be found HERE.