Back again

I've decided to move this blog back to blogger after successfully moving my sewing blog here.

Will do some "proper" posts soon ;-)

Winter Art

Well, I've had a break from posting on this blog...but it hasn't really changed what we do, so thought I would share a few of the boys' latest beauties with you all :-)

Here are some tea light lanterns they decorated yesterday. I can't find link to tutorial but basically you mod-podge the jars, add strips of tissue paper and torn sheet music (this is "Winter Wonderland") plus bits of glitter in our case :-) They look beautiful with the little candles in:



The boys have also made some lovely paintings of winter trees:



(and yes, that is some more glitter!)

We have continued with the Sketch Tuesday and are all seeing real improvements in our sketching abilities. The boys have picked their favourites from recent assignments:

Gman likes his "something to cure a cold" sketch:



And Waif was especially proud of his "something you find in a toolbox":



Oh, and we've been doing more Van Gogh inspired art. Van Gogh is both boys' favourite artist at the moment.

Here's Gman's vase of flowers:



And Waif's:



This will probably be the last post of 2010...see you in 2011. Let's hope it's a good one!

Taking a Blog Break

I am taking a break from this blog cos I have been wondering to myself whether I am doing stuff with the boys because I think they will enjoy/learn from it or because it will make great pics for this blog :-s

Wonder if other home ed bloggers agonise over this, or is it just my overactive guilt complex?

Matisse Week

This last week, the boys have been learning about the artist Henri Matisse. We started by reading "Drawing with Scissors" and also watched an excellent BBC documentary "Modern Masters Matisse". And of course, we got stuck in by doing our own art in the style of Matisse.

The boys made Matisse inspired collages:




(although Gman had trouble grasping the big, bold shapes concept at first!!)

made collaged name panels (an idea from Deep Space Sparkle)




had a go at printing shapes over a collaged background (this idea from the "What's the Big Idea?" book mentioned in this post.




And favourite of all, this wonderful Matisse-inspired dancer collage, another project idea from the excellent Deep Space Sparkle site:

Sketch Tuesday

Having agreed with the boys' request to do some art every day, I was very excited to find out about "Sketch Tuesday". I originally found out about this from this post on Nadene's excellent homeschool blog, Practical Pages, and thought it sounded just the job. Our first assignment was to sketch "something with whiskers". Gman chose to draw a tiger, and Waif quickly followed suit. Here they are at work on their pics:




And here are their completed drawings:




I even had a go and drew this slightly odd looking rabbit:



If you hop (teehee) on over to Harmony Mom's post here you can see the album of people's sketches on this theme. The front cover is Gman's tiger and very proud he is too :-)

This week's assignment is "something that floats". Watch this space!

Favourite Art Books

In the Snooze Academy, art always wins the homeschool day! The boys find it relaxing and rewarding and we all learn a lot along the journey. We get a lot of ideas for art projects from websites and blogs (and always link to these when we do) but also use books and these are a few of our current favourites:



Discovering Great Artists

This is an excellent book for finding out all about some of the greatest masters in the art world with one or two projects for each artist. They are graded by ability, by time taken and use a variety of techniques and materials, so great for ideas for using all the different art materials we seem to be constantly accumulating! It is a little short on illustrations of what the "finished product" might look like, but in some ways that is a good thing.

What's the Big Idea?  Activities and Adventures in Abstract Art (Art Explorers series)

We used the Impressionist version of this book extensively when Gman was doing his impressionist lapbook earlier in the year. We also have editions on Expressionist Art, Pop Art and Surrealism. They are all fabulous, fabulous books! Each artist is introduced by a section showing a piece of their work followed by questions about the piece which really get the children properly looking at and thinking about the picture. Then there are a couple of different projects for each artist with very clear instructions and pictures of the completed work by children of various ages. We recently did some "Picasso faces" using this book as a springboard:



I cannot recommend this series of books highly enough. They really are excellent.

Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists

Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists is our new favourite art inspiration book. This book isn't aimed at children but there are a lot of ideas in it that could be used by kids.  There are 52 different "labs", each giving a starting point for drawing.  They are light hearted, fun and whimsical, just what we like :-).  To get an idea of the sort of thing included in the book, check out the author's blog, especially the assignments and tutorials down the left hand side.

The Lighting of a Fire or Two

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. - William Butler Yeats

Well, forest school is drawing to a close.   Tomorrow is the final session.  It's been a great experience for the boys who have learned how to use various tools (secateurs, loppers, bow saw); collected firewood; whittled sticks to make marshmallow skewers; fashioned cups from apples and oranges; built dens; created nature pictures using blackberries and raspberries as 'paint" and of course, learned how to light a fire and keep it burning!   The experience has hopefully been a fire lighting one in the sense that Yeats refers to above :-)

Continuing with a woody theme, we attended the Party in the Woods at Reffley Woods last weekend. Gman was particularly taken with a drumming workshop held in small clearing in the woods. He banged the drums while Waif shook his thang:




I'm not sure how we have missed visiting these woods before, given their proximity to home, but we will definitely be returning not least because we spotted a bumper crop of not-quite-ripe blackberries which we will be returning to harvest this week (if others don't beat us to it!)

This week has hopefully seen the sparking of a love of sewing in Waif. He patiently sat and sewed a little drawstring bag for his Granny, and was very proud of the result: