Discover monthly STEM

This is just a little bonus. I like to do projects with my kids. I get tired of them sitting in front of the tv or some other electronic device. So I created monthly STEM and art challenges. If you don't know what STEM stands for- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Maybe you are looking to get out of your routine rut or maybe you just want to inspire your kids a little. You can google these ideas, but I like to see what my kids come up with on their own. Be prepared to provide some kind of direction.

January: all about snow:
Build a snowman: not with snow
Design a snowflake- no two are the same :)

Build an igloo- out of sugar cubes or make a big one that you can fit in
Make your own snow- Cut open an unused baby diaper, dump out the inside, add water and watch snow grow.

February: all about the heart:
Delivery zipline- how can you get valentines to your love?
Bow & Arrow- think cupid!
Candy box- you know you have to do it for school anyway!
Heart pump- how does a heart pump? Can you make one?

March: all about wind:
make a wind powered car or boat- They need to have a sail
build a windmill- handheld or how large can you make it
homemade kites are the best
What would wind look like- paint or draw what wind looks like.

here are two versions of what wind would look like

April: all about earth:
Solar oven- check here solar oven for an idea
earthquake resistance- can you make a structure out of blocks that can withstand shaking?
Hiking stick- find a stick the right size and decorate it up for your next hike
Water filtration- check here water filtration for an idea.

May: all about seeds:
birdfeeder- wood, plastic, or metal. whatever material they want
mini greenhouse- Two liter bottles are great for this whole month
Seed dispersal model- do you want lots of seeds or just a few.
seed art- seeds come in many colors and textures. Add some glue and it makes for great art.

June: all about growth:
Potato powered light bulb
Dye Flowers-what colors work the best?
egg drop test- who can make the best parachute for an egg?  

July: all about water:
Waterslide- a little plastic sheeting, water, foam, bubbles you name it
Dry Ice- Add warm water, bubbles, coke, or what you find around the house. Make some dry ice bubbles check out here. I just used a glass bottle.

Water pipeline- how to get water from the source to plants or people
Water painting- watercolors, water balloons filled with dyed water, squirt gun painting. There is so many options.

This post is getting too long. I usually just pick one day a week to implement these activities. It usually isn't about the final product, but about the process. Does that sound cliche? Maybe, but it is true. You learn way more from making mistakes than doing it perfect every time. So let your kids struggle through these for at least a little bit.

Discover Listening

Are you ever driving in your car (if you're a mom then you spend half your life here) and the radio just isn't playing anything worth listening to? Your kids are in the back of the car making a lot of noise, or you are by yourself and you start talking to yourself. You are not alone. This is almost a daily occurrence for me. Well, we wanted to discover new things to listen to so we could reduce the number of board driving hours or just to make us think a little different about life.

Everyone came with a couple ideas. I love our list because it reflects our individual interests. 

Here are a few particular ones that were suggested:

How I Built This (not how I made it :))- "This is a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built." It discusses how different companies came to be. Start with the Crate and Barrel episode.

Anything by Brene Brown- She has a couple TED talks and has been featured on different podcasts. Just search her. Her videos or talks will change how you feel about relationships. Setting boundaries, being vulnerable, rejection, perfectionism, ect...

This american Life- They have radio, podcasts, or tv episodes that discuss anything about american life

TED radio hour- Love this one! They combine a few different TED talks so discuss some point of view. One of my favorites: Slowing Down.

Revisionist History- "Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance." 

Extreme Genes- all about family history. 

Invisibilia- Why do you dress like you do? Can you really fake it until you make it? This podcast is a look at invisible forces that shape human behavior.

Short and Curly- This is a great podcast to listen to with kids. It asks questions such as "Is Dumbledore really a good person?" "Do you have to love your siblings?". It has created great discussions with my kiddos. 

For uplifting religious talks:

Legacy

BYU speeches. 

These cover a range of topics that will inspire you to be better. 

Go learn something new. Think about life a little deeper. Be inspired! 

Discover Sundance Film Festival- or not

I have lived in Utah for most of my life and yet have never been to the film festival. Maybe some of you are like me. Always thinking you will go next year. Well, this was going to be the year. Dawn was going to get the information, we were going to get tickets, and we were going to have the real Sundance experience. Sounds pretty dreamy right? 

What really happened-

Tickets go extremely fast for the festival. We were not at all prepared to set our clocks and be ready to buy first thing in the morning. So, we missed the buying of tickets for the day we wanted to go. You see, if you live in Utah there is a special day that you get to buy single tickets to the festival. It is a pretty great perk that apparently a lot of people know about. We missed it, but no big deal. There is always stand-by lines. In fact you can request stand by on-line and you don't have to stand in the line all day long to get in. Pretty cool of the festival gods to help us out like that. 

We headed up to Park City. The weather was clear even if it was only 4 degrees. Nope not exaggerating, literally 4 degrees. Traffic was great, we parked up by park city resort, got on a bus to main street within 5 minutes. Everything was going so smooth. 

Here we are rockin the bus. Standing room only, but warm. 

We started our adventure at the base camp. There was this cool set up with heated benches and blankets.

There was a makeshift room showing beautiful sites from Canada and you could print out polaroids of you being there. Now you might be wondering why I am so geeked out about this little display. It may have something to do with that it was the only part of the festival that we participated in. 

Due to personal issues we had to call the night early. 

The best part was dinner at 501 main. It was delicious. 501 main 

It did look like it would be pretty easy to get into a show if you really wanted to. There were stand by lines around that didn't look too long. 

Next year, I think I will buy a pass and plan a little better. :)

Check it out if you are in the area. Sundance Film Festival

Discover HOT yoga

Why you might ask is the hot all in caps- well it was really hot!! I was dripping with sweat before the class even began. Seeing as it is a beginning to a new year and everyone tries to be healthier at the start of a new year, I thought it would be fun to try out yoga. So off to class we went. After a brief explanation from the instructor on what to do if you are going to pass out 😂 , we dived right in or should I say we half mooned the heck out of it! It was one hour of stretching, balancing, working, and sweating. I loved it. Brick Canvas has a nice facility with showers and lockers if needed. One of the best parts of their set up is that you first go into a little room where you can leave your shoes and stuff and then you enter the yoga room. This keeps the room very warm and very quiet. Two of our members, who will not be named, got in trouble for talking. This is against the rules! Here are a few things we learned:
1. bring a large towel- I am not joking about the amount of sweat that was coming out of us
2. bring a hand towel
3. maybe don't set up your mat by your friends so you are not tempted to chat
4. wear as little clothing as you are comfortable with
5. if you are going to pass out, kneel down on your mat until you recover
6. bring a lot of water.

This is us before:

And this is us after:

It was a kick butt class! Brick Canvas has a great introduction rate if you live in Utah 21 days for 21 dollars. 

Discover Christ

Happy Holidays! I love this time of year. I love celebrating by seeing the lights, eating yummy food, visiting family, and parties galore. This year I decided as part of our discover group that we should focus this season on Christ. After all He is why we do all this celebrating! For two weeks we did 14 things (one a day) that would bring us closer to Christ.

1.Read one story of Christ healing from the bible

2.Find 3 Quotes about the savior from someone other than a Prophet/Apostle

3.Watch a video on Christ or find a picture of Christ and display it where you will see it all day.

4.List Christ's attributes. Pick and study one today

5.Do the light the world challenge for today. Jesus Worshipped His Father and so can you (see mormon.org for explanation)

6.Read 2 prophecies of Christ's first and second coming

7.Listen to if the Savior Stood Beside me song. Picture Him by you all day today: how will you act and speak?

8.read one of HIs teachings. How can you apply it to you?

9.Be HIs hands today. Look for ways to lift those around you

10.Read a talk about Christ

11.Read the account of the Atonement. How does it apply to women?

12.Listen to songs about Christ today instead of the radio. 

13.Do the Light the World challenge for today. Jesus taught others and so can you.

14.Watch, listen to, or read the Nativity story. 

 

At the end we met, only a few of us, and shared a bit about what we discovered. 

This beautiful picture by J. Kirk Richards was a great centerpiece to our sharing. Many quotes by C.S Lewis were shared and stories from others who have inspired us to be better and more "Christlike". 

This was a very personal discovery for all of us. It turns out that we all focused and learned what we individually needed to learn. Here are a few quotes to lift you in turn.

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” 

― Pope John Paul II

“It was no accident, no coincidence, that the seasons came round and round year after year. It was the Lord speaking to us all and showing us over and over again the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It was like a best-loved story being told day after day with each sunrise and sunset, year after year with the seasons, down through the ages since time began.” 

― Francine Rivers, The Last Sin Eater

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”

― C.S. Lewis

I am grateful for my Savior. For His miraculous birth, life, and death. I am grateful to have Him as an example for who I am supposed to be or who I am capable of becoming. Merry Christmas. Remember Him as you celebrate. 

Discover helping a friend

One of my friends and members of our little group has such a cool charity that she started back in 2006. It is called The Forever Bear Foundation. Check out her site Forever Bear Foundation

 Isn't that the cutest little bear? I have to say they are very soft and cuddly. What makes these bears special? Well, they go to siblings of babies that die at birth. The founder lost a baby girl when her oldest was just 4 years old. As you can imagine, it was hard on the family. Her little 4 year old had a particularly hard time with the passing of his little sister until he was given a bear. That bear provided much needed solace at a difficult time. In memory of their lost daughter they started this foundation to help others that go through the same thing.




With orders for 350 bears, a deadline, and t-shirts to put on all of them she called on our group to help out.

We are missing three more in the picture, but we were on FIRE dressing those bears so we missed a second picture! It pays to be on time :)!
We had quite the sweat shop set up. One person throwing the bears to the rest of us and two more at the end counting them out to get our numbers right. And, if you can believe it, there was no food involved. We managed to make it through without any chips and queso -ha. It is the best helping a friend.

I am amazed at the greatness in those around me. The founder has inspired me and I am sure many more with her desire to turn something so difficult into something that brings so much joy. Go help a friend. Sometimes it is the people closest to us that need our help. Think of the difference you can make in just your neighborhood or even city. The discovery for me was that little things make a big difference. Thank you friend for letting me be apart!

Discover Art- field trip

This week we, meaning only two of us, went to an open house for J. Kirk Richards's art. We brought our husbands along this time!

Photo credit goes to me. Ha! I stink at taking pictures, especially selfies because I have short arms and I can't get the camera far enough away. Ok, I digress. Back to the art. A member of our group, Michelle, knows Richards and received an invite to his once a year open house. He literally opens his house to view his artwork. I mean we walked in his bedroom and bathroom to see some of his art. 

There was finished paintings, sculptures, works in process, and just sketches. Over all, 100 works to view. It was an interesting way to view someone's art. In their home, with their family blending into the crowd, and a bit of their personal life on display. We even went in to the garage where the cats sleep :). 

"J. Kirk Richards is a favorite among admirers of contemporary spiritual artwork. His love of the textural, the poetic, and the mysterious has translated into a unique take on traditional Judeo-Christian themes" 

It was amazing to see his talent exhibited in different mediums.Mostly religious subjects. I think this would work great into our discussion on Angels... maybe next time.  

You should check out his artwork.J Kirk Richards Beautiful stuff! I loved this one above with the angels. It was stunning and brought great light to the room. A lot of his art is done in darker hues, so this one really stood out for me. I love art. I love that it can make us feel different emotions just by viewing it. I don't have any skill myself with the visual arts, but I appreciate it immensely. 

Try some art yourself. Here are a few sites I have used to help me on my artistic journey. 

www.instructables.com- You can learn how to do just about anything on this site. 

www.drawspace.com- "anyone can draw" is their motto"

www.artforkidshub.com- this is great for kids. Even my 5 year old loves to watch these tutorials and busts out some great art. 

Post some of your art for us all to enjoy :)