Restoration Place

Week in Review

Baltimore's Conservatory & Botanic Gardens ~ Local Outing

The full name is the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens (HT: Kid Baltimore), and we visited last Friday. It was a very brisk February afternoon, a perfect way to a couple of hours at the end of a week when we really needed to absorb some beautiful atmosphere.

The Conservatory & Botanic gardens were established in 1888. The intriguing Victorian-era buildings are visible from the road. Have you driven to the Maryland Zoo and wondered what those historical buildings were? The arch-roofed building out front is the Palm House, and it is one of the last Victorian conservatories in the world:

There are several houses/rooms, each dedicated to a different habitat: Mediterranean House, Tropical House, Desert House, Orchid Room, and the Palm House. Each is spectacular in its own way. We explored them all, but spent the most time in the Tropical House and the Palm House.

    

  

  

 

We brought along our sketching supplies, knowing there would be an enormous selection of unusual plants to choose from to record in our nature journals:

 

 

    

 

The Orchid Room:

The kind lady who was at the front desk when we first arrived (of course, I forgot to get her name!) gave us a tour of the Orchid house, and explained what made orchids so unusual. We were given a mini-education in orchids, and she even recommended which kind to try to grow ourselves. We were very grateful for the time and personal attention she gave us.

The Palm House:

The children and I oohed and aahed our way through the entire visit. As were were leaving, the children asked when we could come again. Maggie said, "Mom, we could visit every day for a year and still not see everything here!" Yep.

We also couldn't help but think of Miss Rumphius.

Ben, Mr. Putter and Tabby, and Me

Ben's become an early riser lately. So my early morning routine has been altered to accommodate him and his voracious appetite for being read to (not that he doesn't get read to...oh, my! We always have special picture book reading time together after breakfast. He's double and triple dipping lately! ~grin~)

We're all about Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea and all the other funny books about Mr. Putter, his fine cat, Tabby, Mrs.Teaberry (their good neighbor) and her dog, Zeke, right now. This is Ben's favorite stack of books for our couch time together.

"Ok, Mom, here are the books! I want Henry And Mudge, too!" That pile is hauled to the couch, too.

Ben: "Mom, what are you doing? I want you to read to me!"

 

Me: "I thought we would stack the books neatly and take a picture of them so we can tell moms who read the blog about the books. How about that?"

 

Ben: "No, Mom, not like that! Show them like this! On your blog! But don't let them see my hat!" {But your hat is adorable! I love how you put it on in the morning! They will love your hat!}

 

Ben: "Ok, Mom, like this! Put the books like this! Spread them out! And they can really see them! And I want you to read to me!"

Me: "All right. And let's put my coffee next to the books, so they can see how much coffee I drink at this time of the morning, and I'll tell them I'm on my third cup. Because I am."

 

Ben: "Mom, are you going to read, read, read to me now??"

 

Me: "Yes, Ben. I would love, love, love to read, read, read to you right now!"

Ben's photo of his hat. He wants you to see it, but not on him:

Art Curriculum ~ ARTistic Pursuits

We recently discovered ARTistic Pursuits art curriculum by Brenda Ellis (home educating parent and professional artist) and now that we've done a few lessons, I've got to tell you about it.

We're using one book from each of the two different levels: Grades K-3, Book One: An Introduction to the Visual Arts and Grades 4-6, Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition. I use the first one with my 4-, 6-, 8-year-olds, and my 11-year-old uses the second book independently, though she likes to join in with the others' art lessons and projects.

Here's Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition for grades 4-6:

 

It includes 64 lessons in 16 units, and each unit is divided into four lessons: Building a Visual Vocabulary, American Art Appreciation and History, Techniques, and Application. Maggie (11) reads and completes the lessons on her own, averaging about two per week. Maggie feels her drawing is greatly improving, and she's thrilled with the results!

 

She can't remember which lesson the cat drawing was for (we must get better at marking and organizing her drawings) but it's a big change from the way she used to draw her cat, a favorite subject.

The book I'm using with the younger children, Grades K-3, Book One: An Introduction to the Visual Arts (forgot to take a photo of that one) has 32 lessons. Each lesson includes a short introduction that I read to the children (5-10 minutes each), observing and talking about an artwork by a master (included), then an art project which takes us about 30 minutes. From start to finish, it takes about one hour. We do one lesson each week. It's very easy to use and fun! That's counts for something with this homeschooling mama. ~smile~ Every time I say, "Art time!" they cheer.

But the best part of all is to hear my child say, "Mom, look! I'm really doing this! I really made it!" I've been hearing that a lot while using ARTistic Pursuits.

One final thought: Ideally, I'd love to enroll my children in an in-person art class taught by a professional. I can't make that work for us right now, so I'm extra pleased to be able to offer experiences in art through this curriculum.

Hike at Gunpowder Falls State Park ~ Fallston

The river, the woods, and the mossy rocks called to us Monday afternoon. We had to go exploring at Gunpowder Falls State Park. The area we visited in Fallston (off/near Laurel Brook Road) is usually very busy in the summer because people like to cool off in the river, but on this February day it was empty.

 

Leaving...the drive itself is half the fun. There's so much to see in beautiful Fallston:

Some favorite houses (one new, the others old) along the drive...I'm not such a great roadside photographer, especially when the vehicle is moving, even very slowly. If you're local, you probably recognize them. Maybe you even live in one of them--wow!--:

Random Life Stuff

1. I had a bad fall on the ice on our driveway late last week and that led to three days' rest at home. It really rattled me, but I'm much better, though it may take a few weeks for the knot on my head to heal.

2. I joined Facebook (finally!) recently, thanks to my good friend Deb's encouragement (she gave me the nudge I needed to start blogging, too!) and I'm so happy to discover a new way to be connected with family (all of whom live elsewhere) and friends (many of them live far away, too). What took me so long?

3. I will soon gather with home educating friends for another much needed night of Restoration. We'll gab, laugh, encourage, listen, eat goodies, and be refreshed in one another's company. Deb and I came up with the idea (well, it was God's idea first) to create a gathering for smallish group of home educating moms for the purpose of being restored.

4. Just when I thought I had my children and their particular stages all figured out, they're changing on me again! It's challenging! Hard work! Sometimes I sneak off to the bathroom to hide for a few moments. I just have to collect my thoughts, take a deep breath, and PRAY. Then I come out, make a cup of tea, and do the next thing. Do you have to do that sometimes, too?

5. It's February, and that gives me such a lift. ~smile~

Makes me happy:

Deer Skull ~ Winter Find

I know some of you don't like to look at animal bones. Go ahead and click away from here because this is a big animal bone find! ~smile~

When Karl and his friend were hunting last week, they also looked for "sheds" which are the antlers of male deer (bucks) that fall off this time of the year. His friend found a whole deer skeleton mostly submerged in a marsh and gave this deer skull--with antlers intact--to Karl to give to Jacob. He knows Jacob is an avid animal bone collector, and this is a very special find.

The skull needs to be soaked in bleach before it can be closely examined and added to Jacob's collection.

Winter Tabletop Garden ~ 2 Week Update

It's been a little over two weeks since we created our winter tabletop garden, and we've seen some growth:

The rutabaga is just sprouting and the turnip is bursting with healthy leaves. The rest have yet to show any green:

The cats keep drinking the water out of some of the jars and knocking the vegetables down into the water. ~smile~ We fish the veggies out, poke the toothpicks back in, and refill the water. I plan to move the tabletop garden to south window of the house where they can get more consistent sunlight and warmth.