Lyric sizes up the field.
Tried something new for Pokemon Adventure this morning where I hid Pokemon around the room and had the kids try and throw pokeballs at them, hitting as many as they could in a minute. The challenge of filming it from a first-person video game perspective and fetching the thrown balls (and setting the time) proved to be too much for me. Needs work, but the kids had fun. Will improve next month.
I was hoping to make a fifth film today, but Mumsie (my mother-in-law) is staying over and that complicated matters. She'd need makeup, the house was too disorderly to be filmed, the kids were already having fun with her, etc. I gave myself a mulligan.
Today's film was a monster movie chosen by Zephyr. We used some Brutalist blocks by Areaware for the cityscape and my beloved Tendrill figure for the monster. I'm pretty pleased with the television newsbreak in the middle, and I think the black and white effect really lets the B-Movie feeling come out...
But without further ado, here it is: the Mutant Slime Monster attacks Citytropolis!
Zephyr came up with the name "Who is who" for today's movie, and he had a big complicated plot that involved going to space at one point to film it. I told him we only had about 10 minutes to shoot it (as we had spent a good chunk of the morning playing the incredibly fun card game Sushi Go Party) and we had to simplify. What's more, Lyric was being a grumpus and didn't want to be in the film. So we came up with a doppelgänger plot and quickly filmed it. I think it worked well! Lyric even snapped out of his grumpiness and worked his way in at the end.
So without further ado: the world premiere of "Who is Who?"
For today's filmmaking, Zephyr suggested we do a One Minute movie around the title "Who Knew?" I decided to use it as a formal exercise, trying to make a skit only using syllables that rhyme with "oo".
in another learning curve for using Instagram Video, I found out too late that in trying to fully inhabit the role of a wise Guru, Zephyr totally mumbled his lines to the point that they were entirely inaudible. I asked the kids if they wanted to redo the entire thing, but it was too close to school time. This "not being able to review what you have" thing is rough! But we'll get it.
Anyway, so you know what's going on, here's the script for "Who Knew?"
SCENE: Himalayan Mountaintop.
A weary SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE approaches a mystical GURU sitting cross legged and meditating.
SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE: Who you?
GURU: Guru.
SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE: You new?
GURU: True.
SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE: Do you do voodoo? Do you stew? Do you brew clues?
GURU: (making goofy cow horns) Mooo.
SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE: (shrugs) Who knew?
End.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the world premiere of "Who Knew?":
This month for filmmaking, I want to try an experiment and use Instagram Video's one minute limit to its fullest for some ONE MINUTE MOVIES. There's a few things I really miss about Vine - the ability to add music easily, the ability to go back over shots - but that's the kind of stuff I have to learn to adapt to, I guess.
For today's movie, I went off something Zephyr and Lyric were doing were they were trying to put little post-it notes that said "Kick Me" on one another. This is a very old trope, but serious question: how did they stick signs on unwitting victims before the (relatively recent) invention of post-it notes? Masking tape? Definitely not safety pins, right? That seems out of the question.
Anyway, here's our first ONE MINUTE MOVIE. Enjoy!
Today for Pokémon drawing studio, Zephyr suggested we play a game where we each draw a Pokémon from memory (rather than from a reference, like we normally do). I loved the idea, and wanted to see how different they turned out. Also, I wanted to see if being able to impose a time limit on the drawings could make things run quicker. The results:
Mine on top, Lyric in the middle, Zephyr on the bottom.
Pretty impressive! It was fascinating watching their minds work a little differently. I'm something of a devotee of Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and I know that she says drawing from memory and drawing from imagination are two skills connected to drawing, but distinct and separate. I'm not sure if it utilized the left side of their brains more, but I think it was a fun new muscle for them to flex. Zephyr worked kind of small, so here's a detail of his work:
Pretty sweet Snorlax and Rowlet! I especially dig the gesture Rowlet is giving, a nice howdy.
Lyric, meanwhile, was more into color. That kid really loves to draw. He just goes at it with a real purpose.
Today we had our Perseus treasure hunt on Facebook Live!
Things we learned:
But the kids had a great time and hopefully learned a little something.
Here's the full text of all the clues, in case you're curious:
Yesterday's blizzard threw off the schedule a bit... we were scheduled to do Treasure Hunt today, but house rules prohibits doing a treasure hunt before having the Mystery Elves clean the house, so today I forced the kids to clean.
Before.
Their room wasn't in terrible shape, so I put Lyric on stuffed animal duty and Zephyr on Pokémon card duty.
During.
Working together (with some prodding from me), we were able to get the room clean in no time at all, once they stopped goofing around. Truly it is the goofing around that derails our cleaning efforts usually. Cleanliness may be next to godliness but it is a ways away from goofiness.
After!
And that left the room nice and tidy! With the boys off at school, I prepped the treasure hunt for tomorrow, which is all about the myth of Perseus! Tune in on my Facebook Live tomorrow morning at 7:30a EST if you want to check it out, but here's some prep photos I took:
Props for the Perseus treasure hunt: Hades' helmet, Hermes' winged sandals/sneakers, Athena's shield, and Haephestus' curved blades...
The rules for the hunt...
What the clues look like
Snow day today! Morning activities cancelled as the kids watched TV and I slept in. Staying warm!
For chess puzzles today, Zephyr and Lyric said they wanted to play each other, which I thought sounded like a capital idea. I'd coach them and help them along as they played.
Zephyr happened to be wearing white pajamas and Lyric was wearing black pajamas, so picking sides was easy.
I wasn't playing favorites with my coaching - essentially I was showing Lyric how the knight moved and telling Zephyr when he was going to get into a bad exchange of pieces. Eventually we got to a point where I saw a checkmate was possible and helped Lyric find it.
With the black queen cutting off the king's flight squares and the knight (who couldn't be interposed or captured) delivering check... checkmate! Lyric wins!
All in all a very successful morning activity... Lyric got to taste his first victory in chess, Zephyr got some valuable experience, and I got the satisfaction of ending a game with a nice checkmate.
I kind of blew this one... I was supposed to play action figures with the kids, but they ended up playing action figures together on their own. I didn't want to intrude, but I dumbly didn't get any of it on Instagram or anything. That would've been an easy way to make some content. My bad.
Today's planned piano lesson didn't happen for a host of reasons, but we managed to do a Feats of Speed before school! There was a point where I could beat Zephyr in a race running backwards while he ran forwards, but those days appear to be over. Especially when I'm holding a camera, apparently.
I got seriously winded at the end there, I was giving it my all. But look at Zephyr's face! That's pride!
