Lesson #33 Evie's Art out of my Art, Photography

As I was downloading pics from the camera I was surprised by some of the pictures. Evie had taken close ups of some of my newest paintings. They are really beautiful and I love the thought of all the little "paintings" she created with her own photography art. Here are a few....there were several,but these were my faves!

Lesson #32 February Red Tent "Adornment"

Evie and I after a long day and the Red Tent, what was left of our beautiful inner Goddesses shinning on the outside!

From our Red Tent page:
"February's Temple includes celebrating by dressing up as your inner goddess or inner beautiful woman. How do you connect to that? Is it with a pretty dress, feathers and rhinestones? Is it with a headdress and body paint? We're gonna need a camera. It is all about celebrating our inner beauty! Bring flowers, a potluck dish, body paints and henna if you have it, bindis and more! Bring an altar item which represents beauty or your connection to other women. Find a place on the altar for it!
Think about this question for this temple's meeting when we introduce ourselves:
**What gifts can you offer and share with one another at red tent and the community? **
If you have stories, poems, songs or dances about love and beauty please share them OR celebrations through any of the above about menopause or our other cycles as women."

Another evening spent connecting to my maturing young woman daughter, embracing her as she embraces her own changing self, and spending some quality time with other wonderful women creating a safe and sacred space!  

Lesson #31 Archery Regionals 2013

We are hoping to go to state, but here are some pics of Regional competition. Evie was in her zone, and most importantly she was really happy and relaxed this shoot.

Scores for competition so far this season:
275/300 (at 10 meters only)
265/300 (at 10 and 15 meters)
259/300 (at 10 and 15 meters)
267/300 (at 10 and 15 meters)

Top 24 of her team competing in Regional competition

Lesson #30 Poetry Tea Party and Valentines

Poetry Tea Party! Tea time with poetry, that is what we had! The kids read a poem they had written or one they found in a book. Some read several as they enjoyed their tea (or lemonade ) and the poetry books lying around the table. Evie chose to get all dressed up, and looked very lovely. We also exchanged valentines and shared treats. Lastly we did a valentine/poetry art project. They each made an animal/monster/alien out of hearts and paper, and then wrote or taped a poem to their creation.

Evie and Alexa

Lesson #29 Prayer Flags and Buddhism

Prayer Flags are usually hung in groups of 12

close up of most of Evie's six

my six from starting at the end by the tree

one of Evie's

one of mine

This year we have began to study a few different world religions. We have recently studied Buddhism and made our own prayer flags. Although we are not Buddhist, we can appreciate much that Buddhism has to offer. One thing that Evie found interesting and appealing is there is no deity in Buddhism. No heaven/hell, or forms of. Buddhism revolves around the fact that humans suffer, how we can prevent and eliminate suffering , I find this is very interesting. The path of enlightenment is one that many can follow and add to any religion, helping us all lead a better life, be kinder to others, and eliminate some of the suffering in our lives.

How do homeschoolers with no specific curriculum study or embrace a subject? Well for this particular subject we have used the section on Buddhism from the Usbourne Guide to World Religions, and the awesome internet resources it has already complied for you as our jumping off place. We researched the internet, watched some great instant documentaries on Buddhism, Tibet, India, China, Burma, and Laos. We love instant play documentaries! As an art project and soul shining activity we made our own prayer flags. Prayer flags in most Buddhist countries are wood block printed with sayings from the Buddha, or prayers from the sacred text of the Buddha. Traditionally in Tibet and other Buddhist believing countries, new flags are hung to help replace the old fading ones on the New Year Day. We hung ours on the Tibetan and Lunar New Year, and we lit incense from Tibet outside to blow in the wind with our flags.

What I loved most about making these was the heart, art, and time spent together in creating these prayers for our selves and others. We spent most of a month working on them. The thought is that in Buddhism, nothing is permanent, so the art on our flags is impermanent, the attachment of our art could lead to suffering, but we fill no suffering as our flags are now hanging in the elements.  The Buddhist thought that the wind will carry our prayers out into the world, surrounding and helping all they touch is a beautiful thing.

Lesson #28 Art Day and Mud Day

Once a month we have art day with some of our homeschool friends, and I lead the class. Sometimes we have a large group and sometimes a small one. This time due to several families being sick it was a small one, which is still great. Evie likes to spend time in the woods in the fall/winter when there are no bugs! She asked if we could have art day at our house, we never have because our house is so small! We had unnatural weather for January in KY, 67 degrees this day! So I agreed and we had friends over to make art and play in the mud. I didn't go mudding outside with them so I have no pics of that. However, from the dirty wet clothes and happy faces they had a great time.

We worked on creating prayer flags, talked a bit about the history behind them,and discussed attachment as part of human suffering. Evie and I have been making our own as part of our World Religion Studies,which I will post more about later. A fun time!

Lesson #27 The Red Tent

The Red Tent is something I hope to share with my daughter for many many moons to come...this Red Tent gathering took place at a friend's house in Lexington, Ky. There were about 50 women and it was a beautiful experience. It was wonderful for Evie to experience the empowering beauty of women coming together for the sacred purpose of sharing, creating, crying, laughing, singing, and eating with other women in all stages of life. 

This is copied from our red tent homepage:

"This is a gathering for women in honor of our cycles as women whatever phase of life we are in. You can come if you are a maiden, mother or crone. It's a movement started by Alisa Starkweather based a little on the book the Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Women come together, wearing something red. A sacred safe tent like place has been created with tapestries, candles and we eat, share stories, sing, dance, share our stories, laugh, cry. Each woman adds something to the temple and we together co-create this into something empowering, healing, creative and beautiful. Typically this will be held on or near the new moon. You are encouraged to bring a journal and pen. Please always respect the confidentiality of everyone in the group as we want to keep this a safe and sacred place for women to share." 

Somehow we were not in the pics taken, but I will make sure to take one or two next month. Evie is already excited to go and so am I!