One of my goals is to learn to paint a bit.  My grandmother was a wonderful painter.  I am not too sure that I have inherited her talent, but maybe I can learn.  I have been watching some youtube videos and practicing with Emma on the weekends.  We often will pull up a painting on the internet and try to recreate it.  This weekend we decided that it was time to do some fall paintings.  So here are my latest designs.

         

So we did some of the Microsoft summer program that I had scheduled, but the kids were not really into it.  So we changed plans.  We decided to allow the kids to take a fun online class from outschool.com.  They have hundreds of classes on almost any topic imaginable.  Zane chose to do a 3D game design.  He made 4-5 online games.  Here are the links to some of his games.  It is called Touch ’em All.  The idea is to touch each block before getting to the end. https://agentsheets.com/Ristretto3D/public/Ristretto3D.html?nid=1411276&mode=play

A second game he made was Tumble Blocks.  The idea here is to move your block to the end without falling in the lava.  It was a bit trickier.  https://agentsheets.com/Ristretto3D/public/Ristretto3D.html?nid=1409876&mode=play

And here is one that is a maze you have to work through. https://agentsheets.com/Ristretto3D/public/Ristretto3D.html?nid=1408970&mode=play

 

Gabe chose to take a Minecraft Architecture class.  It was really interesting.  He learned about several architectural styles from ancient times, to the renaissance era, to medieval times, to modern, including strange and unusual architecture styles.  After learning about the style, he took virtual tours to “visit” some places with these types of architecture.  Finally, he jumped on his Minecraft and designed his own renditions of the style.  Here are some of his designs.

Emma chose to take a sewing class for her American Girl baby dolls.  She made a cute skirt, some cozy pajamas, bathing suits for all three of her babies, and a lovely dress.  She learned lots about sewing (as did I).  We are both wanna-be sewers.  So this was a great way to get our feet wet.  Here are her designs. We even made a skirt to match her baby doll’s for Emma.  You can see it in the pics below also.

          

They LOVED doing these classes.  We are looking forward to seeing what they will be taking next summer.  I hope you all enjoy their creativity.

So we’ve been doing some more activities in Word and Excel and Powerpoint.  I wanted to share a few of those with you.

We were working with changing and removing backgrounds.  It was fun to play around with the pictures to see what we came up with.  Here are my cute little snowmen.