Artist of the Week Wrap-Up: Keith Haring

I'm making an early post for the wrap-up this week since Wednesday's class currently has FOUR openings. The kids today had a great time making life size Haring-inspired "portraits". We had to spread out of the classroom into the kitchen and front hall to have the space needed for these creations. There was a lot of cooperation as everyone helped measure, cut, gather rocks to hold down the corners, outline and then move the giant wet paintings to the basement for more drying time.

Sign up by 6:00 pm Tuesday, February 24th to get into Wednesday's class!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4ea4a72fa46-heatherannes1

Spring 2015 Art & Music Class Schedule is Posted

Announcing the addition of Friday night classes! Open to anyone... not just homeschoolers.

To see the full schedule and sign up, visit here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4ea4a72fa46-heatherannes2

More information and policies here: http://foofynotfoofy.blogspot.com/p/homeschool-lessons.html

Icebreaker Questions about Me!

So you've found your way to Foofy Not Foofy and you are wondering who is behind this blog, these art and music classes, the handcrafted thises and thats? That'd be me! HeatherAnne Norbury. As my sidebar up there reads (assuming you aren't on a blog reader... if you are you should click through to see the pretty orange on my blog)... so anyway... as my sidebar reads, I am a homeschooling, crafting, cooking, canning, reading, overly busy but trying to keep it all together mama writing a blog. I teach art and music classes in the KC Metro and I also make handcrafts, such as jewelry and crocheted goods, that I sell in my Etsy store and at local craft shows.

I have two wonderful children and a loving husband who puts up with being the sole breadwinner even though we both have law degrees. Our home is a menagerie of pets (two dogs, two cats, two rats, one fish and two snails) and friends (rarely a day goes by without friends over). I am organized by nature so I continue to shovel in the blizzard to try to keep our home tidy and neat. I started Foofy Not Foofy to share craft ideas, canning tips, recipes, book and product reviews and other news, factoids, funnies and tidbits that come my way. The Foofy Not Foofy business has grown to include my art and music classes and my handcrafts. Here are a few more interesting things about me. Please comment with your own answers to some of these questions! I'd love to hear from you.

 1. Do you go by a nickname? Not anymore but for the majority of my life, I was Choo-Choo. My grandmother started calling me that when I was only a few weeks old because some noise I made reminded her of a train. It stuck. I was Choo-Choo until high school when I stopped using the nickname publicly. I used it again through college and law school, though it was shortened to just Choo. When you see me use Hawchoo on things, that is a combination of my maiden initials (HeatherAnne Welch) and my nickname. Some friends still call me Choo, which is fine. Just don't call me Heather. It's HeatherAnne... all one word.

 2. Who is the most famous person you ever met? Ted Williams. He was a close family friend of my grandparents.

   

Me playing piano for Ted at my grandparent's house. Circa 1982 maybe?

 3. What book has had the biggest impact on you? To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is my favorite book. It definitely opened my eyes to how completely messed up race relations were (and are) in this country and sent me on a path of trying to understand and help make a difference so that all people can be treated with respect and dignity. It also has one quote that I go back to again and again in my life. I even had a band named from it for a time. "It's when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." -Atticus Finch.

Band Logo - Artwork by my lovely and talented friend, Heidi

4. Are you a dog person or a cat person? Both, obviously, though I am currently owned by a 15yo Maine Coon named Maggie. So right now, I'm a cat's person. 

5. Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi? Coke and only Coke. It's the only soft drink I like well enough to drink empty calories for. I try to limit myself to one Big Q from Quik Trip a week... sometimes it's two. 

6. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving or Halloween. I really like Thanksgiving and it's relatively low stress levels, but I also really enjoy helping the kids make costumes and taking them around the neighborhood with friends for trick or treating. 

7. What is your favorite cereal? Fruity Pebbles. I haven't bought a box in YEARS and YEARS because I will eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner until the box is empty. Not really a healthy choice. So I just don't buy it. 

8. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? The first thing I remember wanting to be was a ballerina. I may have been in 1st grade. After that, it switched back and forth between architect and veterinarian. My daughter wants to a be a veterinarian. As homeschoolers, I love that we can focus on things that inspire her passion. We do a LOT of science and a LOT of unit studies on animals. 

9. What was the last movie you saw? My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks. We might be a family of bronies and pegasisters. 

10. If you could pick any actor to be president, who would it be? Morgan Freeman

Artist of the Week: Katsushika Hokusai - January 12th & 14th

UPDATE: The Monday class is FULL. Registration for the Wednesday class will CLOSE at midnight tonight. There is still room and time to register. 

For the week of January 12th, the Artist of the Week is Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese painter, wood engraver and printmaker. Students will learn about his life, art techniques and the time and culture in which he lived. Students will then have the chance to try out some of the  art techniques of Hokusai and from Japanese culture.

Monday, January 12th, 2:30 to 3:50 - Ages 6 - 9 

Students will "engrave" on foam plates to learn about printmaking and make Japanese lanterns.

Wednesday, January 14th, 2:30 to 3:50 - Ages 10+

Students will learn about linoleum block printmaking and using calligraphy in art.

To register for this or any of my other classes, visit http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4ea4a72fa46-heatherannes1.

For more information on terms and policies, visit http://foofynotfoofy.blogspot.com/p/homeschool-lessons.html

Multi-Child Discount

It just occurred to me that a multi-child discount would be useful for my homeschool classes. I am now offering a discount of 25% off your total bill if you sign up more than one child. Children must live in the same household and must be siblings, half-siblings or step-siblings to qualify. The discount can be applied across multiple classes. In other words, the children do not have to be attending the same classes.

And, remember, childcare for younger siblings is available for most sessions so you can use the opportunity to get some errands run... or just go have a quiet child-free cup of coffee at one of the many nearby coffee shops in Lee's Summit.

Many thanks to CWH for letting me use an image of her multiple children for this post.

Homeschool Classes - Fall 2014

When it became apparent that I needed a way to contribute a bit more to our family's bottom line, I pondered, contemplated, mulled over and meditated on what I could do that would fit into my busy schedule. During this time, I found myself in the middle of teaching a class on Andy Warhol and Pop Art to a great group of kids for my homeschool coop. And the light bulb went off! I was already doing the thing that could help with the bottom line... I just needed to rethink it as a business and not just as a coop offering.

With the incredibly unoriginal name HeatherAnne's Homeschool Classes, I am launching my new venture. I'm taking it pretty light this fall with offerings in art and music theory. I will also be taking on a few private piano students. Please take a moment to check out my offerings for fall! And feel free to suggest something! In addition to art and music, I also love teaching math and science and have a law degree. (I'm already thinking of either a high school moot court or Bill of Rights class for the spring).

You can see the fall class offerings at the following link or by clicking on the "Homeschool Classes" tab just under the blog's home page banner. http://foofynotfoofy.blogspot.com/p/homeschool-lessons.html

So what is Forest School?

The first time I ever heard of Forest School was from the following Ted Talk about hackschooling.



The name sounds AWESOME, right? What's not to love about something called Forest School... even though I had no idea what it was. The Wikipedia article was not all that helpful and www.forestschools.com is only really helpful if you live in the UK. And in reality, none of these definitions came to be what our Forest School is like. Every Forest School is different as defined by the varied locales and the individuals who attend. My most promising lead was from my friend Jerritt, who attended Forest School with her kids!... and lives half a country away. So it became evident that if I wanted the Forest School experience for my kids, I was going to have to create it myself.

So then, what is Forest School? It is fun, it is educational, it is freedom to explore, it is turning nature into a self-guided classroom, it is wet, and it is often muddy. The first step to starting a Forest School is to find the right forest. Wild, but maybe not too wild and relatively conveniently located since the idea is to visit the same place year round at least once a month but possibly more often. While many excellent choices were around the KC Metro, since I was going to be the "leader" of this muddy band of nature lovers, I chose a location close to me. The park where we go has a rocky bottomed creek, bluffs full of fun rocks to climb on and lots of beautiful green... all behind a park with ample parking and a play ground. The nature area is hemmed in by the park, a neighborhood and two streets so the kids can safely roam without getting lost. The creek always leads back to where the adults are. On the other hand, when you are in the creek bottom chasing tadpoles, those "civilized" spaces might as well be miles away for they are not intrusive to the peace of the nature area at all. 

We go year round... every second Tuesday and any (bonus) fifth Tuesdays. Rain or shine or snow. (We do skip dangerous weather). Because the creek is in a small dip (it's not really deep enough to be a valley), the temperature there is often warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and the winds aren't as strong. Once there, the kids just... go. They play. They explore. They swim (even when it's 60 degrees out and the water has only just thawed). They get muddy. They get SOAKED. No agenda, no curriculum, no lesson plan. Nature teaches them. And even the most screen-obsessed kid jumps in with both feet, literally and figuratively. It's a beautiful thing. There are no rules (though parents are encouraged to require a buddy system of exploration). Every family lets their kids explore with the supervision with which they are comfortable. If I have an interested audience, I'll point out different plants and explain their medicinal and culinary uses. But mostly, it's all kid lead exploration. And in a couple hours, worn out and wet, we'll ascend from the creek bed reconnected a bit to nature and to ourselves. 

Wordless Wednesday - Proud Boy

Wordless Wednesday - Art Lab

Wordless Wednesday - Forest School

Liberty's Kids Deal

The video series Liberty's Kids was a key component to our homeschool unit study on the Revolutionary War .It is really well done and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

Amazon has a great deal on it right now... the complete series for $7.99!!!

Intro to Poetry... humorously

My son wanted to learn more about poetry this year during our homeschool studies.  While we haven't really tackled the subject in depth yet, I did find a poetry book that has us ALL reading poetry on a regular basis.... I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats .  It's hilarious.  There's barely a day that goes by that someone isn't reading aloud from it.  LOL.  While not a traditional way to introduce poetry, it's definitely a humorous way.

Homeschooling

We decided to homeschool this year... a decision long overdue, I'm finding, as I try to undo some very bad habits my gifted son developed while not being adequately challenged.  (sigh)  Now that I feel like I've found SOME balance, I'm looking forward to getting back to my blog.  Still foofy... yet not foofy.  :-D

Here's a cute picture of a sweet big brother sewing a Build-a-Bear from a kit he won for his sister.  More soon...