Protracted

Who knew you could make such beautiful art using a protractor of all things?

Inspired by this post on the fabulous Art Projects for Kids website, the boys and I had a go at making these geometric pictures in the style of artist Frank Stella. They turned out fantastically well and were fun, and even meditative to do. As you can see, even though we all three followed the same restrictions (six traces round the protractor - three vertical, three horizontal and limited ourselves to six colours each) the three pieces are very different:

Here's Waif working on his:



And Gman steps back to contemplate his work in progress:



And here's the three finished pictures:

Catch Up

Is it really that long since I posted?  Yikes.  Time flies when you're having fun.

So what have boys been up to?

We've visited several local art exhibitions, including my favourite, a textile art exhibition at Blickling Hall.  No photos of the exhibition but here's the boys enjoying the grounds:






We've done some more expressionist style paintings. These are expressing an "angry" feeling using unusual colour combos:





We've been on a visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. The boys are lucky enough to have a grandfather who worked as an aircraft engineer at Duxford in the early sixties, so he was able to give them lots of insider knowledge on the planes.







Another highlight of the last few weeks has been the first session of Forest School (there are five more 2-hour sessions to go). Here the boys will be learning about such exciting things as using tools, making a campfire, identifying plants in the wood etc. The first session was promising, hopefully I will be able to post some pics in an ensuing entry.

Art, Rust and Picture Perfect Boyhoods

It's been a while since I've posted on here, but not because we haven't been busy...

We've done some more abstract art, using watercolours and marker pens:



This was with the help of the great book "Painting Abstracts:  Ideas, Projects and Techniques".  It's not a children's book by any means but a lot of the projects are accessible or adaptable for kids and the great thing is they aren't too prescriptive so allow the kids to go off at their own tangent.

We've done some more experiments relating to Gman's rock project.  The most recent of these goes against all my instincts and turns something that is perfectly edible (grapefruit) into something most inedible (a fake geode)!!  This project was taken from a fab little book we have out of the library and involves layering Plaster of Paris mix into the emptied grapefruit shell, then sprinkling in alum crystals and topping up each day with some alum mixture.  We put a little red and blue food colouring in the mix to make it purple and sparkly!  And yes, it is a messy process :-)



Waif particularly enjoyed doing some rust dyeing this week.  Again we took this project from a book aimed at adults: Fabric Art Workshop but which has a few projects that would be good to do with kids, as long as you take care and use rubber gloves etc.  To make this fabric, first of all we laid our unbleached cotton in a metal tray, then dampened it with a mixture of vinegar and water.  Next we ferreted around in the shed for some metal artefacts, some already rusty, some not eg washers, steel wool, weights, nails etc and arranged these on top of the fabric before spraying again with the vinegar and water mixture.  We placed the tray inside a black bin bag, tied it closed, weighed it down and left for 24+ hours.

This is what it looked like when we took it out of the bag:



Waif donned some rubber gloves and carefully removed the rusty things (we put them aside in an old ice cream tub for "next time") then we soaked the cloth in a mixture of salt and hot water to set the dye.  The cloth is beautiful, partly because you can see in it what you like eg a treasure map, a wolf, the moon, monsters, an explosion in space...what can you see?



As well as the art and rocks, we have also been enjoying some old fashioned stories together.  Following a recommendation on Julie's Homeschooling-ideas blog, we got hold of the book "A Picture Perfect Childhood".  I found this a really inspiring book, convincing me that reading picture books to the boys (including 10 year old Gman) would be beneficial for all of us.  We've been slotting in a story after lunch each day, starting with the beautiful picture book, "The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales" and both the boys and myself have been really enjoying it.  It's a lovely, quiet, cuddly time together and the stories themselves are raising plenty of issues to talk about.  Hopefully it will help balance out some of the over-boisterous boyish behavior that has been landing them in trouble this week, and help them get in touch with a gentler side...

Edible Science Experiments are the Best

Gman has started on his latest project - Rocks and Minerals.  This has given us a great opportunity to make some toffee and honeycomb...oops, I mean igneous rocks :-).  Here's how to do it:



First, put a greased baking tray in the freezer for an hour or two.

Place about 500g sugar and a few splashes of water into a saucepan.  Heat until melted and golden brown.  You need to stir fairly constantly to make sure it doesn't burn and stick to the bottom of the pan.

Use oven gloves to take the baking tray out of the freezer.

To make a glass like substance, simply tip the mixture straight onto your baking tray.  It will set almost instantly, but certainly be ready to hack away and eat (er, study) after 10 minutes.

If you want to make a pumice like rock, then add a teaspoon or so of bicarbonate of soda to your mixture before you pour it onto the tray.

The honeycomb (oops, I mean pumice) is particularly good with ice cream ;-P.



As well as the rocks project, the boys have also been enjoying recreating more artistic masterpieces, including this Pollack-inspired masterpiece:





Waif got up one morning deciding that today he would "do" Van Gogh, and produced several small pictures, carefully copied from a little book of Van Gogh pictures that we picked up at the Fitzwilliam Museum.  We put them all together and made a display poster:



Aren't they fab?

Those that saw this earlier post will know that we like to home educate as thriftily as possible, so we were quite excited to find that a local primary school which was closing and moving premises was holding a book sale.  For £2 we got a stack of educational books, including a massive poetry book just in time for next week's poetry themed home ed group.  Yay!

Ancient Mexico Lapbook

I promised pics of Gman's Ancient Mexico lapbook and here they are:



Gman particularly loved learning about the Aztecs - possibly something to do with the human sacrifices and general goriness, but that's ok!!

Presenting...Gman's Completed Lapbook on Mexico!

Gman has finished his Mexico lapbook.  Little did we realise that he had done so much work on so many mini-books that he would need two oversized lapbooks :-) ; one for Modern Mexico and one for Ancient Mexico.  Here's some pics of the modern Mexico lapbook:









Gman has really enjoyed this project, particularly customising his own minibooks rather than using templates.

I will post pics of his Ancient Mexico lapbook in another post...

Gluten Free Cornmeal Hush Puppies

I think I have been neglecting the edible side of this blog for a while, so thought I would share this recipe with you.  These are pretty yummy!



Gluten and Dairy Free Cornmeal Hush Puppies

1 onion, very finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

1 cup unsweetened soya milk

1 cup coarse cornmeal

1 cup gluten free flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

good grind of pepper

pinch of chilli powder

Simply mix everything together until you have a fairly smooth batter.  You may need to add a little extra soya milk.

Heat some oil in a frying pan or skillet and drop ladlefuls of the mixture into the pan.  Cook for a few of minutes on each side until they are nice and golden and puffy.  Keep warm while you fry the rest.

Makes about 8, depending on size.

Serve with something nice and spicy :-)