School at Work

I had a large amount of work that I needed to get done for my company like updating my website and getting prepped for some jobs we have coming up next month. So I was talking to Cham about how I could get the kids school done with all I had to do and he suggested that I bring them to him at work for a couple of hours so I could get some work done and they could still get their school work done. When I dropped them off I couldn't help but feel slightly anxious for him and afraid that they would be completely obnoxious while he had them. When I picked them up he said it had went well once he figured out that the kids sitting at the same table together was out of the question. But once he assigned them different rooms to work in everything went mostly smoothly.

Chamberlin & the kids doing school 

at his work kitchen table

Creature Feature: Turkey Tales

We made it to creature feature today and got to learn about the history of wild turkeys in Missouri. The kids especially enjoyed making their own turkey calls although they were having problems with the finer points of actually making it work.

Amanda telling the kids about the serve depletion 

of wild turkeys by 1925 due to over hunting

The Missouri turkey history timeline 

 Arowyn getting to pet the turkey fether

 Amanda explaining the difference between 

male and female turkey scat

 Teagan gets to try to draw a turkey track

 Arowyn touches the turkey foot

 Amanda demonstrates a wooden box turkey call

 Arowyn making her own turkey call

 Arowyn & Teagan demonstrating 

how they use their turkey calls

Cub Scouts: November Pack Meeting

Teagan was made an official member of his cub scout pack today and earned his bobcat badge. For earning his badge he got his face painted during a special ceremony. Which I missed because I sent him with daddy and of course he didn't take a camera with him. But I snapped these when he came home.

 If you look under his right eye you can see a 

red scratch and the beginning of a shiner from 

where he got elbowed in the eye by another 

boy in the rush to the cookie table after the 

ceremony. Who knew trying to get a snack 

could be so rough, he was quite proud of 

his black eye of course :)

Teagan with his face paint

 He was told that when he got home he was to kiss 

mommy so I could enjoy wearing face paint to.

He might of smeared me with face paint but I got him back!

Teagan's Art

Teagan has been dying for chance to try painting on a canvas with the acrylics like Arowyn does so today I got him set up and let him loose. I had my fingers crossed because I was just a little afraid that this would turn into a really big mess really quick. Amazingly though he actually did a really great job of keeping himself and his surroundings clean through the entire project without any of my assistance. When he was done he told me that the painting is about a robot who comes to the moon once every year to dig holes until he finds something for his birthday. In the painting the robot is standing on the moon with holes where the robot has dug and he is standing in front of a starry sky and you can see the red diamond he found in his digging on the middle right hand side. He had a lot of fun creating his painting and was extremely pleased with himself and his creation when he was finished.

 Teagan blotting his paint brush

 Teagan painting the dark sky in

 Teagan painting arms on his robot

 Teagan signing his painting

The Robot Mystery

painted by Teagan Meek

Living Room Hockey

Arowyn was inspired watching Cham and I play hockey at the Macon Roller Rink last night and pulled out her and Teagan's hockey set. She put up some boards in the form of Magnablocks to help the puck, which was really a ball of tape, stay on the rink. We had a lot of fun and she is now trying to talk me into getting her and Teagan some skates and pads.

 Arowyn stops the puck

Arowyn lines up her shot

Arowyn’s Art

Arowyn decided today that she wanted to try painting a picture off of a photo she found online. In her rendering of the orca he does look like an orca albeit a slightly overweight version of his photographic self.

The Big Orca
painted by Arowyn Meek

The photo that Arowyn found online
that was the inspiration for her painting

Atelier Art Level 1 Lesson 3

Today's art lesson was all about texture and how it can be used in art. The kids got to pick out their own different textured fabric and using construction paper as well they created animals. Arowyn decided to make a bear and Teagan made a dragon.

Arowyn & Teagan choosing their construction paper

 Teagan gluing down his dragons' tail

 Arowyn cutting out her bears nose

 Teagan gluing his dragons ear

 Arowyn placing the mouth on her bear

 Arowyn's finished bear

Teagan's finished dragon

Maxfield Parrish Picture Study, Week 3

Our picture study this week was of Maxfield Parrish's work The Sandman. Unfortunately the reproduction of this work in our book only took up a quarter of the page and was in black and white so we looked it up online to get a better look at this picture. We've been mostly sticking to his illustrations for children's books and such so far which the kids have really been getting into and each time they have more and more to say about the new picture we are studying.

The Sandman

illustrated by Maxfield Parrish

Computer Repair

Chamberlin’s computer went belly completely up without warning yesterday so this morning this is what I woke up to going on in my living room floor.

 Chamberlin & Teagan diagnosing the problem 

while the Baby Bobble heads look on

 Disconnecting the faulty power supply

 Teagan holding the bad power supply

 Sliding in the new power supply while Teagan helps 

baby Wicket and baby Chewbacca to get a better view

Adjusting the power supply 

Chamberlin holds the power supply in 

place while Teagan screws it into the casing

Teagan putting the last screw in 

Teagan decided that they should pray for 

the computer that it will work again

Teagan reconnecting the power supply 

Teagan connecting another set of wires 

Teagan connecting the cable 

for the fan in the casing 

The fan lights up! 

After much hard work and prayer they 

have resurrected the computer YEAH!