Mixing Work and Fun

* A variation of this article was first published on our homeschool website: flipflopmommy.com

I ordered this awesome book, Farm Anatomy from Barnes and Noble. I also snagged a copy of its sister book Nature Anatomy. A few other homeschooling moms (that I follow obsessively for ideas on Instagram) use the nature one all the time. I'm glad I grabbed the Farm one too though... it has some excellent information about plants in it. 

And that brings me to the point of this post.

Yesterday, we were chatting about our plants. And I thought it'd be great to combine a lesson on tomatoes with art. 

We had a great time. I'm super impressed with their paintings. We learned a bit about tomato plant parts and a little about working with watercolor paints. 

My Mom-Hack for an activity like this is to use a plastic table cloth. I've kept this green one around for a while now. I lay it out wherever the kids are going to work on something with markers or paint. They can mess it up. When their activity is complete, I simply pick it up, fold it and put it back on the shelf with all the other art supplies. 

These links might be useful...

Yes, I bought mine from B&N, but only because I had a gift card to use. 

This book is awesome too. And we will probably be ordering Food Anatomy shortly. 

Seriously, a 4-pack of these for $7! You'll get so much mileage from them. Use them over and over. 

Happy crafting!