Day Three: Opening the Toybox

Day Three of the challenge sees me doing some drawing with the boys. It’s been a while since we took part in Sketch Tuesday, but we were all quite keen to tackle this week’s assignment, which was to draw something you find in a toybox.

Gman (12) went with some Lego minifigures:

Waif (7) pulled out some cuddly toys:

And I drew part of a toy castle:

I made use of the Inktense pencils plus water again, and I love the effect. Inktense pencils are the new love of my life

Fishy Fun

It’s been a while since me and the boys did a painted project together. But we all love fishies, so when I saw Harmony Art Mom’s post on Paul Klee-inspired fish art, I roped the boys in to join me in having a go at it.

First of all, we wrote some fishy words with wax crayons. Gman went for an excerpt from an Edward Lear verse:

Waif went for some bedtime fishy phrases. These are a bit of a tradition in our house. I have no idea why! We say “Night night. Cod bless. Sweet breams. Haddock good night’s sleep. See you in the prawning”. Just like all normal families . Suggestions for fishy related night time puns are always welcome btw.

My choice was a tribute to my wonderful and much loved late granddad, who used to sing to us kids. “You shall have a fishy on a little dishy” was a perennial favourite.

For the benefit of those of you who may not have had a singing Geordie grandfather, here’s the song. Take careful note of the proper pronunciation of boat

After writing our words, we added a watercolour wash in dark colours. While that was drying, we got out the Sharpies to create some fishies:

And finally, we stuck the fishies in plaice (boom boom)

Altogether now: you shall have a fishy on a little dishy, you shall have a fishy when the boat comes in.

An Evil World, Rocks & Clouds of Tobacco Smoke

Yep, it’s time for a couple more weird and wonderful words!

First up, n for nepheligenous – producing clouds of tobacco smoke. I was imagining a forest made of cigarettes when I sat down to sketch, but not sure it came out ever so well. Never mind!!

Do you think the world is evil? If so, you could have a case of malism - the belief that the world is evil.

I just love Gman’s interpretation of an evil world!

And, we got well ahead of the game with Sketch Tuesday this week. The assignment, due Monday 6th August, is to “Sketch a rock or a pile of rocks or something you do with rocks.”

Here’s Gman’s collection of sparkly crystals and rocks:

And Waif’s “colourful and shiny rocks”:

And I chose a holey rock to sketch:

For all you home educators, I do recommend taking part in Sketch Tuesday. It’s a bit of non-competitive fun; all are welcome to join; and I can recommend sketching as a lovely, relaxing way to spend half an hour or so together. It works for us anyway – meditation in action

Herbalists in Training

I wrote in this post “One of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can make sure your kids get an education in the things that really matter.” In that instance, I was talking food. This time, I am talking health. I think it’s important for the boys to learn ways of safeguarding their health, and the ability to treat minor ailments themselves without needing pharmaceuticals as a first line of treatment. To that end, we have been working through Lesley Tierra’s book “Kids Herb Book: For Children of All Ages”. The boys have enjoyed making various herbal teas and potions (lemon balm tea was the favourite). They also had a go at some “natural root beer”:

Unfortunately the verdict was a unanimous “yuck!!”

The “real marshmallows” were more of a success – edible, if a little weird

To consolidate their learning, both Gman and Waif have created lapbooks detailing the different herbs. They sat outside in the sunshine this week assembling their books. Here’s Gman working on his:

And Waif:

And the obligatory “pose with your latest lapbooks” photo :

I think they did a great job, and hopefully they will refer to what they have learnt in years to come too!

Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe

Yesterday, we did some art inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe‘s flower paintings. Instructions came from the rather fabulous book Adventures and Activities in Abstract Art (as an aside – I thoroughly recommend this series of books for anyone interested in art with kids). The idea was to draw a rather abstracted close up of a flower, using the whole page, and then paint with watercolours. Here is Gman’s:

And Waif’s rose:

And yes, I did join in, though mine looks more like an alien than a flower

How have you celebrated flowers today?

On Mina, Boys, Education & Poetry

I think we all felt somewhat sad this week to have finished reading the really rather delightful My Name is Mina. This book, more than any other, seems to have sparked a creativity in the boys, most especially in Waif. Although he has been a fluent reader for some time, he has never really been interested in writing. However, with this book, that has changed and he has been writing stories and poems like they’re going out of fashion! Whereas Gman did go to school until the age of 8, Waif has never been to school and I think that, as a result, his style of learning is a lot more fluid and organic, and he seems less worried about “shoulds” and conventions. In addition, he has been exposed to “real” books and poetry (in the last month for example, we have read poetry by Lewis Carroll, Mary Oliver, Basho, Ryokan, William Blake – possibly not what 7 year olds at school are reading!) rather than textbooks and books written with particular curriculum-focused goals in mind (lol – I originally typed that as gaols – possibly rather fitting?!)

Anyway, here are a few poems he has written:

“Peace is”:

(my favourite line – “peace hasn’t got any shouting”)

“Spring”:

“Sandy Land Poem”:

And two odes to Corny (Gman’s pet corn snake):

I do wonder if a seven year old boy in a school setting would have the same freedom to write? If he would be teased by his peers for his love of flowers? If his poetry would be corrected so that it followed more “shoulds” and conventions? I don’t know, but I do know I am enjoying this new development

Mad for Mondrian

After a few hectic and unsettling weeks, this week I decided to do some artist study with the boys. We selected Mondrian, and the boys have created two masterpieces each in his style.

First, using black electrical tape and coloured paper:

Then following instructions from “That Little Art Teacher” to create these Mondrian style animals.

Waif went for a fish:

And Gman for a turtle:

Aren’t they super? We actually took the paints and things outside and sat in the garden doing these (hooray for the flexibility of home education!), and because I can never resist joining in, I even made an animal of my own:

Sketch Tuesday

Do you all know about Sketch Tuesday? Barb at Harmony Art Mom sets a sketch assignment each week which you can participate in, then the following week there is a slideshow of all the sketches. It’s free, non-competitive, you don’t have to sign up for anything, and parents are welcome to join in as well as kids. Read all about it at Harmony Art Mom: http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/p/what-is-sketch-tuesday.html.

This week’s assignment was to sketch something beginning with “S”. These open ended assignments are the ones we love the best.

Gman sketched his sunglasses:

Waif went for a selection of sauces:

And because I like to join in too, I sketched scissors:

Before starting home educating, I hadn’t sketched anything since the age of about 14. One of the best things about home educating is the chance to try new things and learn alongside your children (Harmony Art Mom has a great post that touches on this here). I’m certainly no artist, but I do enjoy sketching alongside the kids and find it quite soothing and meditative. I also think it’s important for the kids to see that learning is a lifelong process and that Mum is willing to have a go at learning new things.

Back to the sketching – Waif so enjoyed sketching the sauce bottles that he decided to invent his own range of sauces, using some made-up vegetables of his own “raters” and “turynas”: