Things That Are Too Wonderful to be Owned

So we read this amazing book called "Who Owns the Sun?" that was written and illustrated by a 14 year old girl in 1988. We decided to try and copy her watercolour paintings. The boys each chose their favourite painting in the book. We used our homemade liquid watercolours to paint the backgrounds... waited for them to dry and then used traditional watercolours to paint the foregrounds. They turned out wonderful.

Original "Who owns the wind?" by Stacy Chbosky

"Who owns the wind?" by Daniel

Original "Who owns the sun?" by Stacy Chbosky

"Who owns the sun?" by Jacob

Homemade Liquid Watercolours

So, first off, this wasn't my idea... I saw it on Pinterest.

I was helping clean out the church Sunday school room and offered to go through the giant container of markers and throw out the no good ones. Now I must confess I had ulterior motives... Namely homemade liquid watercolour paints. I've never tried liquid watercolours but apparently they are great for kids. Anyways, the boys helped me sort the markers into still good and not good piles. Then we took the not good pile and divided them into green, blue, purple, yellow, and orange/red. We threw out the black and brown ones, but in hindsight I think we should have used them too.  Anyways, then we threw out all the lids and put our markers into jars with water, like this:

We let them sit for almost one week....

Voilà! Our very own homemade paints! Check back to see how we used them....

Lego Challenge #17

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Can you show Metamorphosis in action with Lego?

Transform your design into another in as many or as few stages as you want.

An idea to start your creative process might be to make two objects; the first stage, and the last stage of metamorphosis. Then design an object that has elements of both in it, to show the in-between stage.

This can represent an actual living thing, or it can be a totally invented entity.

Jacob: It's a dragon. It blows fire and has powerful legs and pokes on his body. He shrinks into a card with a mouth and eyes. His wings and tail shrink too.

Daniel: It's a transformer. When he turns into a car there are helmets on his eyes. He turns into a car at night. There are three steering wheels: one for the flashing lights, one to move the eyes, and one for the wheels.

Lego Challenge #18

**This was borrowed DIRECTLY from this site.**

Quest #18 - Flags

What is your favorite flag? Is it a flag of a country, a state, a province, a city or a town? Or is it one you've invented?

Create this flag design (you could use a 2-dimensional mosaic approach), or use the colour or design of the flag to inspire you in any number of ways.

Tell me about your creation and why you picked this particular flag.

The boys worked together to build several flags and Jacob wrote down all the ones they made. I have no idea which one is which though!