3D Cell Model Science Lesson

One fine school day, the science lesson suggested (but did not require) making a three dimensional model of an animal or plant cell.  I browsed online quickly and decided a cake would be closest to my comfort zone for making edible models.  When my husband descended for lunch and I casually mentioned we would be making a cell model out of cake, he instantly decided I was going to mess it up and do it wrong.  Besides, he was a scientist and had spent the better part of five years taking detailed pictures of cells, so who better than him?  I decided I could not doubly crush him: first by doing it imperfectly and secondly robbing him of educational quality time with the kids.  

And so.....behold.....the animal cell.....

I had suggested little labels so we knew what everything was, but Mr. Scientist told me that was unnecessary since HE knew them all and had "imparted all (his) wisdom to his offspring."

The Infamous Art Presentation

I love our homeschool co-op.  Ryan does too.   Every so often, the kids have to give an oral presentation to the class.  Last month, the topic was art and each child was to pick an artist to present on.  Ryan does not exactly know many artists at 5 years of age, so I suggested the first one that came to my mind: Vincent Van Gogh.....because of his beautiful swirly "Stary Night" painting.  In some cobwebby recess of my brain I slightly remembered he had a hard life.....but I had forgotten many things about Mr. Van Gogh. Things that quickly returned when we sat down with our stack of library books detailing the many troubles Van Gogh encountered.  Things like mental illness, depression, cutting off his ear, living with a prostitute and rumors of suicide.  Oy vey! 

We stumbled through those books as I attempted to soften the message.  I would get halfway through a sentence and then realize I could not read that to my five year old! 

  I paraphrased and omitted things.   I tried to focus on reading about his young life when he had ambitions to become a pastor and help people and the inspirational quotes Van Gogh penned to his brother.

Then we sat down to make Ryan's poster presentation.  He carefully wrote out his four sentences.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He wanted to be a pastor when he was young.  He was kind to those in need.  He had a hard life."  We practiced what he would say over and over.  We practiced talking about the names of his paintings and the vocabulary that went with them.  We talked about where he was born and some of the inspirational quotes.  Then we talked about how to play I-spy with the class with the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom (Who can find the chair? Who can find the bed? etc).

On the morning of the presentation day, we went over it one more time.  He had it down perfectly. 

He patiently waited his turn while all his friends gave excellent presentations on their chosen artist.  Then he proudly and exictedly began his presentation.  "Vincent Van Gogh was an artist.  He lived with a woman and her kid and then he left them.  He cut off his own ear.  Then he shot himself to death.  Who wants to play I-spy?"
The words just poured out.  So fast.  I was in shock.  My mouth opened to stop him but nothing came out because my mouth was stuck open.  My eyes panned the room to see every other living soul in that room was also doing their best imitation of a codfish.  Eyes bugging out, jaws on the floor.  This day will live in infamy as the day we brought the concept of self mutilation and suicide to our wholesome Christian homeschool group.  

Bathroom Re-do

When we first bought our house five years ago, I knew that someday I would want to re-do the "powder room" bathroom.  I was not crazy about the previous owners sponged on fish or the 70's style blue toilet, but it seemed to go together and appeared to have been newly painted at the time we moved in, so we left it. Recently,  it felt like no matter how I tried to clean the bathroom--scrubbing walls, the floor, the mirror...etc....it just seemed...dingy and dirty.  And I was sick of the blue trim and the blue toilet.  So, I asked my sweet husband if my Christmas present could be re-doing the bathroom.  

We tried to keep it low budget.  I was going for a light soothing gray....since the bathroom is a confined space and windlowless, I wanted to keep it light.  Well....the gray I picked turned out a bit darker than I expected and at first I was really worried and Josh thought he might have to kick me off the team...But once we painted the trim a bright white and put a white toilet in, it really started to grow on me. 

 One of the things I love the best about the re-do (besides the sparkly white toilet) is the white flooring.  Before the flooring was a grayish blue and the white tile really helps brighten everything up and gives a striking contrast to the darker walls. 

I found some small "apothecary" type jars at the dollar store ($2.00) to put cotton balls and q-tips in.  Maybe over the next few months I can add some pops of color, hopefully red or yellow accents to help set everything off.  For now, I'm very happy with the outcome!