HS: Week 3

This week we are "rowing" Harold and the Purple Crayon. After reading the book on Monday, the boys used purple crayons to create their own masterpiece.  Then they glued purple yarn "over" their lines (or at least that was the idea).  On Tuesday, we did an "Act It Out" activity after reading the book which I knew the boys would love since they had gotten such a kick out of getting to pretend that they were the mouse of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  This time, they got to carry around a purple crayon and imagine that they were Harold on his incredible journey.  They even spread out a picnic lunch with 9 pies (the part of the pies was played by 9 alphabet blocks) and they dutifully bit into each pie before passing it off to baby Elinor who played the role of the deserving porcupine.  

Chandler's Masterpiece

 It is way too hot in Texas right now, but we were able to walk through the story by drawing out each stage of Harold's journey. 

Chandler making pink polka dots in my moon

Owen Ray recreating Harold's city full of windows

In celebration of the superior color of Harold's beloved crayon, we tried our hand at actually mixing red and blue (of various art mediums) to make purple.  I don't know that we actually successfully made purple, but the boys seemed to enjoy mixing paint, chalk, and crayon together, so... whatever.

As long as we had the water colors out, I figured I might as well do something fun - white crayon + white paper + water color = magic.  It was a success mostly because now the boys think I have secret powers that involve invisible writing.

Chandler's secret message watercolor reveal!!!

Later in the week, the boys and I got to make our own "very deserving porcupines" using playdough and tooth picks.  This is a dangerous business, y'all.  The spurred on lots of research about porcupines and the way that their defense mechanisms work.  It was great fun that the boys made porcupines over several different days.

We ended the week on Friday night with a "Not Back to School BBQ" hosted by our local homeschooling community.  I got a chance to meet some other neat homeschooling families, and got to spend time with my buddy, Stef, who homeschools her precious son (and also helps Ellie to walk).