Art in Action

In Finland children in elementary school have one to two art lessons per week. It’s usually their teacher or other classroom teacher from their school who organizes art lessons. Art lessons are based on our nationwide curriculum but it only gives teachers guidelines what to do, not readily planned lessons. For example if it says in curriculum that second graders need to learn primary colors, teachers have to plan lessons and art work for students around that topic. To me it was always one of the interesting and most fun subjects to plan and teach.

Our children’s school here in California is involved in a program called Art in Action. Basically what it means is that the school has bought rights and materials to organize art lessons that are well planned and ready to use. This program even offers live tutoring how to organize these lessons in the best possible way. One thing that I hardly see happening in Finland is that parents actually organize these lessons. Last year I was helping the Art in Action docent in our daughter’s class but this year I decided to take one step forward. Now I’m actually teaching these art lessons and it’s most fun in a long time!

Before my first art lesson I drove to Menlo Park to have my tutoring session. There were about 20 fellow parents who were learning about those art lessons we will organize during this school year. We got some useful advice and the teacher actually guided us through all the 12 lessons available. In reality I only have time to organize nine out of them but it’s ok because it gives me a little freedom to pick those nine lessons that I’m most into. I have to say that these lessons are very high quality and thoroughly planned. They include information about different artists, art trends, materials and art concepts. It’s perfect package to teach and for students to learn varied techniques, trends and artist information. 

The most difficult part for me when getting ready for my lessons to come is the huge amount of specific concepts that I don’t use in my everyday language. I really have to work hard but I guess it’s good to activate your brains like this every now and then.

On the left you can see some of the projects we'll be making this school year. 

We made quick samples of all the projects we'll be teaching this school year. 

So how did the first lessons go?

My daughter says that I did well. I would say that I did ok for the first lesson. I’m learning from my mistakes and I think that the next lesson will be better. One good thing about kids who live in our neighborhood is that they are used to hear different kind of accents so they don’t pay so much attention if the pronouncing is not totally correct. It’s all natural for them that people speak in different ways. Because students only have one art lesson in a month they are usually very excited to have their art docent teaching them and especially being able to do different kinds of art projects.     

This was the "inspiration piece" Nellie Mae Rowe's "Stormey night".

Kids wrote their names and decorated their art work with animals, flowers, geometrical shapes etc. 

For me, being able to do this is a huge thing. I’m so ready for my upcoming art lessons in the future and for now on my students are guaranteed to have fun and high quality art lessons wherever I’ll be teaching!

      

Crazy busy fun weekend

Our weekend was full of fun activities. We actually were rushing from one place to another but it was ok because all the activities were lots of fun to do. 

Saturday started with skating and popcorn selling. After skating I had pretty nice lunch date with two adorable girls Ms. M and Ms. K. After lunch we rushed to a birthday party and once in my life we were early because party started 2.30 and we were there 2pm (me and my bad memory;)).

At the party kids got a chance to make mosaic art. They used little pieces of glass to decorate wooden frames. 

We had to leave this party little early because dude's best friend's sleep over party started 4pm and me and my husband were invited to a 40th birthday party in San Francisco. 

So we took dude to his friend's house, our daughter to her friend's house and drove to SF pier 40. The 40th birthday party was happening on a boat which was sailing by the bay in front of San Francisco. The little cruise was fun and scenes were awesome. We actually got a chance to cruise under the Golden Gate!

I wish I had been properly dressed. I was freezing in my jeans jacket. 

Alcatraz prison island 

We got strict orders from our captain "don't go and play Titanic on the front deck". What did he do in the next minute "Honey take a Titanic style picture of me!"

Under the Golden Gate

Next morning it was time to pick up dude from his sleepover party in which he'd had so much fun. They had been playing and barbecuing the whole evening. They even got open fire in the backyard in which they grilled marshmallows. He actually managed to stay the whole night in the tent and he was full of excitement when he got back home. I'm happy that he has made such great friends here. 

Happy camper 

At home he had about 10 minutes to have a quick bite before it was time to hit to the baseball field. They had a game 11am.

After game we had planned to do a Sunday hike in Coyote Hills Regional Park.

The views were gorgeous and even steep up hills didn't slow us down. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once again.

Dinner in our favorite hummus place in Palo Alto was a perfect ending for our crazy busy fun weekend. 

From Finland to US again

We had a great summer back in Finland. The weather was really bad (worst in about 30 years) but even that didn’t prevent us from having good time with all our friends and relatives. It felt good but at the same time very wistful to come back here. I know I’ll miss my lovely friends a lot during the upcoming year. I’m glad that there’s Facetime and Skype. It makes it lot easier to keep in touch!

Here are some pictures from our summer vacation and lovely Finland.

Our summer house in Hankasalmi.

Sauna by the lake.

One of their favorite books.

Kids had their own little store by the ferry to the nearby island.

Fish stories 

Dude actually catch this pike by himself when he was fishing with my good friend's spouse. Thank you T for for teaching our Dude some fishing skills.

Picking strawberries...

...and blueberries. 

Picking up potatoes...

...and washing them.

Traditional friends meeting <3

Awesome adventure park in The middle part of the Finland.

Dude entered his first 10km in Keuruu and we ran right by his side. 

The first thing we had to do when we came back home was to move to our new place. When we first moved here two years ago I was actually quite excited about apartment house living. I imagined how easy it would be with the kids and it sort of was. Over time we started missing backyard and some more privacy. Last year was also difficult in that way that the kids needed to share a room. Basically what happened was that our daughter had a room and the dude had a place to sleep. So we started to dream about living in a house again.  We got lucky when we found this sweet little house in a very quiet neighborhood. Now we actually have four bedrooms so we have plenty of room when our friends come to visit us. Especially dude is overwhelmed about this new place. He keeps telling me that this is the best place he has ever lived and how much he loves this house. I have to agree with him.

Our quiet home street 

We love our backyard!

The only downside in this house is that it’s little further away from school than the old place. Actually quite a bit further. It takes us 40 minutes to bike to school so we decided to only do that twice a week. On the other hand the route is much nicer so it’s actually safer to bike to the school from this location.

In the morning...

...after school. Kid's favorite activity is to bike in this nature made bike park. 

A week after our moving day we got to be a part of our friends special day when they said “I do” in this awesome scene. The wedding was like from movies. It was a very elegant but at the same time filled with humor just like the couple itself. Thank you H and J for having us there on your special day and thank you for making it possible for me to find out that my dude has amazing dancing moves. It came as a surprise to me too!

The beautiful bride 

I love the fact that they knew how to write my (last)name. I'm so used to being Rajamaki. ;)

Cool wedding candy.

Dude's amazing dance moves!

The next day after wedding we visited the Monterey Aquarium. It was really awesome place (especially to my hubby and our kids for their diving and snorkeling enthusiasm) but I would recommend it to everyone who likes to see beautiful fish, other sea creatures and life under the surface.   

School year started this Wednesday. Our daughter got dude’s teacher from last year which made me very happy. Dude got himself an “old school” lady whom he likes very much. He even likes the fact that the teacher is going to teach them how to play flute. It was a nightmare in my childhood so good luck with that. I haven’t said anything because I don’t want to drive my prejudices into him but I’m really waiting to see how he feels about this flute thing later on. Dude’s teacher is also into gardening and has her own little garden right front of her class room so I bet that’s something kids will find very interesting too.

In conclusion they are both very happy to go to school again and I guess that’s the most important thing!

Getting ready...

...for the school year. 

I’m also very excited about this upcoming school year. I’m going to be the Art in Action docent this year which means that I get to organize art lessons once a month in our daughter’s class. The lessons are ready planned so I don’t actually have to worry about planning anything but it’s still a big deal for me to be able to do this. I know it’s going to take a lot of time to prepare myself to do this but I’m sure it’s going to be worth it!

I also started sewing this week. I bought a bunch of Marimekko fabric from Finland and I had no idea what to with it. I basically bought it because I like this pattern and colors and because it was on sale. Back home I noticed we could use a curtain in our kitchen. The fabric piece was of a perfect size and in a blink of an eye we had ourselves a new curtain for the kitchen window. Dude wanted to have Star Wars curtains to his room so I visited my favorite local fabric store and found a perfect match for his window. Well, actually he chose this pattern by himself contrary to my suggestions. I wanted the fabric to be a lighter color but he wanted this one so that’s the one it was about to be. He’s happy, I’m happy!  

"May the force be with you during this upcoming school year" ;)