Magic Marker Monday: Peace Day

Did you know that September 21 is International Peace Day? I did not. James' sister did.

How did she find out? She was bored and looked at her calendar for something to do. This is what she made, as her part of spreading the message of peace:

Her calendar misinformed her, slightly.

She then took the half dozen messages to all the neighbours we know near our house.

So proud of her!

Yes that was Saturday, but today is Magic Marker Monday.
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Magic Marker Monday: Fair Contest Entry

I took James and his sister to our County Fair this weekend. It's a summer tradition for my family. It's been harder and harder for us to finance outings like the fair, however. Last year, I stumbled across a great way to get in free: enter a contest.

In May I watched the public notice shelves at our library. When the fair contest book and entry forms come out, a healthy portion of them get delivered to the branches. The 3 of us sat down and ... procrastinated. Until the very afternoon the entries had to be postmarked. Then, I rounded up the kids, markers, and crayons: Time to colour!

Here is James' (a little blurry):

Entries were on display in the craft hall, in big binders

and his sister's:

and mine:

A couple of weeks ago, our entry tickets and participant ribbons came in the mail. So not only did we create something, we got prizes for doing so. I think this could be the start of a new family tradition.


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Magic Marker Monday: Rainbow Me

I am just now getting around to unpacking James' take-home packet from summer school. There was some good work going on there. I love how James is able to express more and more about what he is thinking. I love seeing his drawings and bursts of colour.

I really like all the information going on in this exercise:

I think it's interesting that he sees himself with brown hair, when I see it as a mix of brown and gold, with some reddish-gold highlights. I am betting the orange food that he loves is cheese puffs. Cheetos, in particular.

The upright bodies, long legs, and explosion of toes tickle me no end. Is that a crown on the right hand figure? His sister is rubbing off on him!


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Magic Marker Monday: Artistic Boom

Some artwork came home in James' backpack on Friday. His teacher currently covers 3 bulletin boards with class projects -- which is a big ramp up from his other class. I thought I'd share. Some of it's going on our fridge.

First, they're fun to display. Second, to enjoy the results of James being in a classroom with an aide who are a much better fit for him:

Not sure what this is, but I love all the personality coming through.

I did a similar piece when I was in Kindergarten, many moons ago.

And something that touched my heart, a gift from a friend:

On the back it reads "From B____, to James"

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Magic Marker Monday: Portrait

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at James' grandparents' house. My mom's family is all Irish and one does not let the day pass by. I've visited the home counties of Rosscommon, Westmeath, and Tyrone, back in my traveling days, and (even farther back in time) danced with my Irish dancing troupe in the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade (totally pre-Riverdance).

Thanks for the fun, Google! In my day, however, there was less foof, and our hair was our own.

James decided to draw pictures after dinner, something he rarely chooses on his own. He drew a picture of Mommy, so I have to include it here:

Note the party hat and jolly crossed eyes -- c'est moi!

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Magic Marker Monday: Library Art

We've caught up with our reading weeks for the library's summer reading program. Once we get about four weeks in, the prizes start happening. Prizes! As in, additional prize on top of having access to a free library in the first place, with Read-to-a-Dog programs, puppet shows, story times, and computer edutainment games.

James and his sister both received book bags, with crayons to colour a picture of their summer reading dreams on the outside. I loved them both, so here they are:

 James scribbled dutifully in each colour. When pressed to reveal his dream, he said "Reading to Leo." Neat!

Big Sister's was more intense:

"Is that a carrot?" I asked her.
"No mom, it's a bomb to sink the ships," my darling Tank Girl replied.

Bombs being dropped on whaling ships to stop the whale hunting. See the whale getting away while she cheers? I think we'll be checking out some Green Peace books next.

The librarian was impressed and called her bag design concept the most original she'd seen all summer. Then she helped her pick out books on gorillas, whales, and human evolution. I seriously Heart our local library and librarians.


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Magic Marker Monday: Irish Card

James' grandparents have a dog that was born on St. Patrick's Day five years ago. This makes for a great excuse to get together and celebrate St. Patrick's Day for my family, which is all Irish on my mother's side and almost always up for a party.

Even though James is afraid of dogs, he likes visiting Nana and Apu's house. Big Sister, however, is a Dog Whisperer, and loves all animals. She made a wonderful birthday / Irish card for the celebrated hound:

Materials:
Copy paper, ball point pen, origami and scrapbook papers. Glue stick and scissors. Imagination!

She made him a cake too, out of dog biscuits, cheese, and carrot slices. What a lucky dog!


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NYE Countdown: 7PM

Dinner time is over! You are still eating the same thing for dinner: about 7 chicken nuggets (not too hot), pretzels or bread or tortilla chips, and apple slices (red apples only). After dinner, you are staying up longer. You used to go to bed by 7:30. Now it's between 8 and 8:30 (well, 8:30 on weekends).

You are still getting me up way too early in the mornings, but at we at least have our system. Before 6am -- lie quietly in bed, with Mommy hoping and praying you fall back to sleep. 6:00-7:ishAM - you can turn on the light in your room and play QUIETLY (with your door shut)  until 7(ish).Breakfast for you is normally 2 toasted blueberry waffles, with nothing on them. You get milk with a bit of Miralax, to keep things moving on through.

Here are some new things about you this year:

You started to write .. and even tried a bit of drawing.

You liked writing your name. This is how you started. Now you can write it on a lone on your homework sheet.

You started to dress up and play. You have a fantastically zany sense of style!

You also got so much better at dressing yourself. You're even better than your big sister at this.

You started wanting to take pictures, and became much more thoughtful about the ones you took.

You started understanding that you can type letters and words in computers to make things happen.

Magic Marker Monday: Making Mail

For some reason, James really wanted to go to the post office today. So I told him we could if we had something to post. So we made cards to send to the grandparents.

James picked the theme: Space Station (ship):

I helped him only a little with writing the messages:

And he picked the stamps from Up for the envelopes.

I love this whole Pixar stamp series, by the way.
And I hope to pass my love of writing letters on to my kids.

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Magic Marker Monday: Happy Halloween!

One of my favourite things to do - drawing pictures together. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

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