Picture Study...The Charlotte Mason Way

This was a very helpful post on how to do picture study (or artist study).  Simple and non-stressful.  Just the way I like it.  Charlotte Mason recommends one day a week to spend 15 minutes on a picture study.

-Julie

Boston Tea Party Art Project

Here's an art project about the Boston Tea Party for the whole family.  From youngest to oldest, all should enjoy.

Thanks Holly Bertram for passing along the link.

Easy craft for this week: Jar O'Lanterns

My five-year-old had a lot of fun with this easy craft from Disney's Family Fun magazine, using orange tempera paint, masking tape, and a glass jar to make a jack-o-lantern candle holder.

Fun with Bleach

My neighbor asked me to take pictures of the process, so I decided to turn it into a tutorial.  For a birthday present, we bleached a t-shirt.  On purpose.  (How many have I ruined on accident with bleach?)

First, start with freezer paper.  It has plastic on one side, paper on the other.  We used the number 7 as our stencil, but you could use anything!

 Cut out a piece of freezer paper the size of your stencil.  Put them both on a lighted table.  What?  No lighted artist's table?  Me either.  I just held them up to a window to trace.

Cut out your stencil then iron it onto your fabric.  Dry heat for about 20 seconds, until the plastic is fused to the fabric.

Because the shirt was ringed, and I wanted the color to stay true around the neck and sleeves, I covered the rings with tape.  Then give a spray bottle of full-strength bleach to your child and let them squirt away.

Once the shirt is drenched with bleach, pull off the freezer paper.  Toss the shirt in the washer.

Last year for John Isaac's 6th birthday we made a bleached shirt.  A few years ago, I used freezer paper to make some art for John Isaac's room.  It's a fun, cheap way to decorate - or make a shirt.

-Julie

Book recommendation: art

In the midst of my scavenging for great texts for next year, I came upon Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters. Categorized by experience level, art technique, planning and preparation, and artist style, this book has 110 unique art activities for kids aged 4-12 based on great masters from the Renaissance to the present. Studying Van Gogh, for example, kids can try his impasto technique, or make a "starry night" using concentric dotted circles as he did. (We did a little of this last year when we made a fresco for Michelangelo or painted lying on our backs.) Should have some great ideas for this year!

Art project: Eric Carle-style art

I've always been fascinated by Eric Carle's techniques in books like The Hungry Caterpillar and Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? So we tried a version of this technique last week. My kids are still a little young for their art to look as cool as these student examples, but it was fun to try. I also tried making pictures, as he did, by cutting shapes out of photos in magazines. Maybe I'll have the kids try that this week.

Spring Trees

Spring is my favorite time of the year.

If you're looking for a fun and easy art project, check out this one. Blowing paint with straws for realistic results.

Sistine Chapel panorama

Another great link from Anne Coletti:



This is a visit to the Sistine Chapel. Give it time to load, then you can use your mouse to look around. Have your sound turned on.



Thanks, Anne!

Michelangelo

Here are a few Michelangelo videos for our artist this week:

Discovery Channel: the David's face vs. Michelangelo's face (reminder about most of these: David is naked)

A short, entertaining animated video for kids

A brief travel video surveying his art, with a little history

A short, adult-oriented documentary from the BBC (note: One woman mentions his drawings looking "sexy")

And for fun, some cool art projects to learn about him.

Renaissance for kids

No need to recreate the wheel; here's A-Z Home's Cool Homeschooling page on the Renaissance for Kids, a linked page from Social Studies for kids, Yahooligans' cool links including an animated trip through the Renaissance, and a good written (but not too detailed) general overview from KidsPast.



As for activities, check out this truly extensive page from ProTeacher, more cool ideas from eHow (like making your own candles), a looong page on links to the Middle Ages in general, another thoroughly reviewed and choosy set of links from Surfnetkids.com, and a fun (washable) stained-glass activity that pre-K and up will love, I think.

Not really related to the Renaissance but a cool video just the same: How to Draw from Mission: Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci for kids

There are lots of great resources for us on our current artist, and I want to be sure and highlight such a notable man in history for my kids. Here's a six-page pdf with links and activity ideas; a link on painting birds as he did; a History channel video on The Last Supper; an online portrait-maker in the vein of da Vinci's portraiture; a great collection for teachers and students of the best sites on da Vinci; a Mona Lisa art activity; the BBC's Leonardo page; the first of 18 BBC videos on the man (no, I have not watched them).

Fall Themed Arts and Crafts

How to draw a maple leaf
Not so scary scarecrow watercolor and collage
13 Recycled Halloween Crafts
Coffee Filter Leaves

HT: Shannon

Pointillism

The Artful Parent gave me the idea.


He started with two colors, then asked for green.  The second picture he wanted to use the q-tips as a paint brush - which was fine with me.  I asked that he finish the first picture with dots.


The third picture he asked for white paint and colored construction paper (and I was thrilled he used pointillism on his own!)

Draw. Write. Now.

Veteran homeschooling mom, Lori Davidson, tipped me to this resource.

Draw. Write. Now.

I. Love. It.

In conjunction with the Draw and Write Notebook from Handwriting Without Tears, 

he did this: