Inspired by Monet

 Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to an almost 5 year old girl and 19 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Bon Jour! Today we traveled to France, made the French flag, learned a few new words in French, toured a bridge in our local native plant center, and created our own landscapes inspired by Claude Monet all thanks to our Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum!

Our day started out by finding France on our blow up globe from MGT.

After my daughter found it, we learned the words "Bon Jour!" and "Au Revoir" 

and practiced saying it and waving to imaginary friends out of our window.

We then compared the French flag to the Italian flag (which we learned about last week).  

Using torn paper and glue, my girl created the flag of France and I placed it on our wall.  

We had a beautiful picture provided from MGT of Monet's Garden in Giverny  .

Looking at this bridge inspired me to take my kiddos on a quick field trip to a local bridge that once overlooked a pond.   It's dried up now, but the ground is so fertile it has now transformed into a garden of the native plants of our area.  While we walked along the bridge, the children pointed to flowers, chased butterflies, and inspected plants.  

Although we didn't see any lily pads, we had a wonderful time exploring 

what God has graced us with here. 

When brother went down for his nap, my daughter and I headed to the table to make our own 

Water Lily Pond.  MGT supplied us with everything! Even this amazing bridge cut out.  The only supplies I brought to the table were scissors, glue, and crayons. 

I asked my daughter to study Monet's Garden in Giverny asking her:

-What colors do you see? 

-What things are pink? green? blue?

-How will you use your blue paper? green paper? What about the tissue paper?

-Will you make your own bridge or use the cut out?

Then we got to work.  I say we because I could NOT WAIT to use these materials to make my own artwork! :)   She drew a lily pad on her tissue paper and included a flower on it.  She needed a little help cutting it out which I did, but she also cut out some of it. 

I didn't take tons of pictures of the process since I was working on my artwork alongside her.

We did have great conversation!  She told me about the dead tree she was drawing, but that it could still produce orange apples.  The pond inspired her to make a frog on her green paper because you would find frogs on lily pads.  Using our Ed Emberly How to Draw Animals book, we went through step by step how to draw a frog, which she drew on her green paper.  I cut it out for her, and my girl glued her frog on her lily pad where he belongs. 

He's my favorite.

Our finished work. 

There is so much that I love about this lesson.  I loved making art, the conversation I had with my girl, traveling and learning French, and exploring a bridge and the nature surrounding it.

I am so grateful for the inspiration from our MGT lesson because these moments I treasure,

 and I know they probably won't remember because they are so little.

And that is the reason why I keep this blog.   They can look back and know.

Until then... have fun learning, friends!