"Completed." A lesson in finishing things.

The person who is trying to learn the lesson in finishing things is me, and Emmy is the teacher. We're both artsy, but she's more left brained than I am (she's right handed, too. I'm a lefty.) She likes to finish projects, whereas I really love to start them... and then start another one.... and then maybe start another one...

SO maybe you remember me posting this photo a few months back and telling you that Emmy was planning her art piece for this year's "Wasatch Back Student Art Exhibit" over in Park City. Well. This is how it all went down.

Mom: "Emmy, they just put up the information for the student art exhibit this year, and the theme is 'Around the World.'"
Emmy: puts her fingers to her lips and stares into space for a minute, then puts one finger in the air as her whole face lights up "I've got it! I need a huge ball. And lots of others things."
Mom: "Make me a list."

 We're big fans of paper mache, especially since she got old enough to do it herself. So the huge balloon was covered,

and hung on my porch to catch the drying breeze. 

Repeat six times.

Then pretend that I took some photos of us picking out some fabric at our local 'The Wal-Marts' because that's what we call a fabric store when we don't want to drive down the mountain, and then Emmy tearing the cloth into strips (she liked that part lots) and then paper mache.... I guess it would be Cloth Mache-ing it on top of the existing orb. 

I've sure you've caught on by now that she's making a globe. This is her patch work ocean. So then it hung in Daddy's closet for... a long time. We had a sudden trip to California right after this, and then we  did some other stuff, and it just kinda hung out for a while.

Then she noticed it hanging there and couldn't think about anything else until we continued. So we did.

The next step was to create the continents, which we did with the help of our trusty iPad. Love that thing. We googled a world map, zoomed in on each section, and just laid paper over the screen and she traced them! Built in Light Table, right there. 

Then we taped them to the globe to make sure they were the perfect size. 

They weren't.

We used them any ways.

It's all about perfection, here! We had lots of great discussions as we worked about the countries of the world and geography and land vs. water ratios and all that kind of stuff. 

Then she laid the paper on the fabric, traced it, and cut it out. 

And here we're going to imagine the photos of she and I mache-ing (that's not a word) the continents onto the globe. That was an adventure! There was a bit of trimming and tucking and stretching and Russia ended up bring much smaller than it should be, but everything else is basically proportionately correct, and when things weren't lining up I realized that we had completely forgotten about Australia (sorry, guys!) which we quickly remedied. Best geography teacher ever!

(*sigh*)

Once that had dried completely it was time for the flags. She only wanted flags for countries where she knew someone that was either there now or had been there before. I know there's a lot more than we put on there, but we got quite a few! 

It kept surprising me how many different things we learned about during the creation of this art piece. Meaning of flags, different types of government, how to google search, and so many more things. I love this style of learning. We have fun at our structured work; sitting at the kitchen table with our books and colored pencils with little minds buzzing away. But there's so much learning that goes on away from that as well!

That's one of the things I really enjoy about this way of schooling. The timing. It's all up to how we're feeling that day because there are no bells or other classes to get to or a schedule to follow. This can also be a stumbling point though, because there's no one checking in on you. The motivation has to come from the teacher (me) otherwise it doesn't always get done. The kids really like it, so their motivation keeps us going on the days when I'm less-than-motivated. Which does happen.

But if we get super caught up in the current novel we're reading, or in the science project we're working on, or in the art creation that is forming, we might only do that one thing all day long and call it schoolwork.

There's so much accountability that comes with homeschooling, but you're only accountable to yourself and to your children. No one else is demanding anything of you. This is liberating and also terrifying.

The way it works for me, is I try very hard to observe. What they're loving, what they're struggling with, who they're interested in, what they're eating, how they're feeling, what they greatly dislike, what they need. It's physical, mental, and spiritual. The whole package. And each kid is so different! Once I decide what they need or are ready for, we work on it. There isn't really a start or a stop to our school year, or a certain age that they "begin" school. It's just life.

Ending rant now.

 She made the flag of the country on one side, then drew a picture of the person she knew on the other side, then wrote the name of the country and the person on it as well. Here we have Brazil (Uncle Mac served his mission there) Peru (Uncle Levi was recently adventuring there) Ukraine (Aunt Jenne and family served as Mission President there) and the portrait is of Papa, who spent some time in Malaysia years ago (hey Dad, your hair is still black in her mind!). There's many more; Aunt Cami in Italy, my former Bishop who lives in New Zealand, cousins in Canada, etc.
Watching her make these was probably my favorite part of the project.

 Then we enlisted the help of the Dad, who made a stand out of wood to hold up the globe. Which Emmy, naturally, painted. To look like "Outer Space!"

 All this time, as Emmy worked, Claire was right along side doing her thing. Claire is equally interested in art, and it's so fun to watch her watch everything Emmy does.
Jonah likes to draw, and the things he draws crack me up, but he's not crazy about it like these two are. He'd rather build with Lego's for hours on end, which is so equally awesome.

 Once the stand had dried, she stuck the globe onto the pole and started gluing on the flags.

I think she was the most excited about me letting her wield the glue gun, which didn't last long. This kid has some amazing skills, but paying attention to things that could potentially harm her is not one of them. Bless her heart.

Off to the Kimball Art Center it went, and Saturday is the Opening. I'm sure you'll hear all about it. And now, to clean the mache off my Kitchen Floor/Art Studio...