Rover The Robot...

Roen has the same teacher Remi did last year, and one of my favorite things about her, are the projects she assigns! Now, Roen is not as much of a hands on learner as Remi, but what kid doesn't like making a big ole crafty mess!

Several weeks ago, Roen got to try his hand at a bit of robot engineering. There were two parts to this assignment and we had several weeks to complete it all. Part 1 was drawing, designing and writing about our robot and the different ways we invented for him to produce energy! Part 2 (which we didn't actually know was coming) was building the robot from recycled and household materials. 

Remi has me save everything from old syrup bottles, to spice jars and plastic lids for his own little projects. So, when things like this are assigned, I typically have a whole slew of items to choose from!

Roen and I really had the best time glueing, cutting, painting and creating- I think we only got into one big blowup. However, in my defense, I am used to having Remi for projects like this and Roen is just a bit too laid back about projects for my liking. In fact, he told me that the teacher gave them permission to do a 2D robot on paper instead of a 3D robot, and Roen seriously thought this would be easier, faster and a great idea! This just would not do for my little art heart and I had to push him a bit to get creative and understand that it would take time to finish his robot. Roen does life in fast forward speed and likes to finish things efficiently and quickly- spending an entire day waiting for paint to dry and crafting, is 100% against his nature!

But we finished, and when we did, well, that boy was cloud 9 proud of his robot!

Meet his colorful robot, Rover...

Little Inventions...

It's no secret that Remi loves building and inventing. His love has slowly trickled over to Roen and he often comes up his own little creations in the mess of Remi's workshop. I love seeing the boy's imagination come out through their hands!

This is Roen's little cross bow he made with some scrap pieces of trim. He still has plans to make an arrow to go with this, but he was pretty proud!



Remi decided he needed a fan for his golf bag and so built this little clip-on fan...





On this day, he was on a mission to create his own burnable fuel. He experiment all afternoon with different techniques of breaking down sugar...







Remi is a problem solver and when there is a problem, he loves to find the solution with engineering up one of his little inventions. Roen tends to build weapons that he can play with- lots of bows, rubber band guns and cross bows! I love how different these two are, yet love to be side by side bouncing ideas off each other, helping each other create their visions!

Kiowa Clay Painting...

A few days ago, the boys took a quick little walk over to the North Beach. They ended up discovering this thick, red, muddy clay and had a blast scooping it up to take home... and rubbing it all over themselves like little Indians.

They each gathered up giant globs about the size of bowling balls to take home. Remi insisted that he could turn this clay into paint and wouldn't be told otherwise. Roen put his on the back of a scooter to get his clay home and Remi made a knapsack out of his swim shirt to carry his, barefoot, all the way home.

Remi even fell asleep that night trying to come up with the best solution to turn his clay into paint.

The next day, we used warm water to get the clay to the painty consistency we wanted. We divided it up into 8 little cups so the boys could each have four colors- they loved adding the food color. Remi used lots of coloring and his colors turned out bight and vivid. Roen did a bit less and his were pretty earth tones! These little paintings were so fun and the boys were so proud!




























Roen's painting


Remi's painting

Sharks In Church...

Most kids have certain things they are fascinated with. For Roen, it is the Ocean and sharks (along with dinosaurs, cars and trains). He loves learning about anything under the sea, especially the really scary, mean creatures! Sunday at church, he drew a whole page of the cutest sharks I ever did see...

Roen Draws...

Ya'll, Roen makes the cutest, sweetest little drawings! I just love seeing what his little imagination is up to!

Lately, he has been drawing these little chickens- I'm sure totally inspired by all the chickens out at Pop's house! At first, I thought they were dinosaurs (Roen loves dinosaurs), but when I found out they were chickens, I loved them even more! Of course, my favorite is the one with polkadots!