Art Match-Up Game!

Quick and easy; that's how we like to do things now. However, since we do live in the real world, not many things fall into that 'quick and easy' category. This Art Match-Up Game, however, fits the qualifications quite nicely, in my opinion.

Using the Art Cards

Have you tried the Art History Cards yet? If not, click here to learn more. If you do have the cards, thank you for supporting the Chapman family with your purchase! Now, what in the world are you doing with them?! Ha!  Actually, there are many ways to use these cards, and I'd like to share with you what we do at home:

Art Movements Song with Hand Motions

Here is the Art Movements Song with hand motions!

Art Movements Song!

Art History is fun,

Come on, sing it with me,

Come on, everyone!

Art History Card Game

Meet the Chapmans, a family that has captured my heart. Amanda and I met in a homeschool preschool group a few years ago; she was the first person to tell me about Classical Conversations! We have grown very close this past year, and I am honored to have her in my life. 

Like every family, the Chapmans have had struggles, and I'll let Amanda share more on that in a minute. But despite all of the medical problems in their precious family (her son was just declared legally blind in one eye, and her sweet daughter has had numerous eye surgeries herself), the Light of God has been shining brightly through their lives. If I could pick one word to describe Amanda and Brett, it would be

brave.

Art Movement Scramble Game and Update

I had a little light bulb pop on in my head early this morning (like 2 a.m. early - uuuugh!). And this is the result:

Art History Game Sample

I've got a sample ready of the art history cards, and I'd love your feedback!

Art Lesson, Heart Lesson

Also called, 'I pray that I didn't scar my child for life!'

So, I saw this great idea for an art project somewhere online. Saturday, the hubs took Mary out on a Daddy Date, and I decided to give this idea a go with Anna.

I put painter's tape on a canvas, let Anna pick out her paint color, and then let her loose! 

Everything started out well. I thought she'd really go for this project since she's been enjoying getting her hands messy lately. Who wouldn't love finger-painting, right?!

Surprisingly, she wanted to use a brush instead. Okay, no biggie...

We're having fun, life is great, and then boom - she's done. She's DONE?! But the picture isn't 'finished!' She hasn't put paint over all the letters yet, and it's only been like three minutes! She can't possibly be DONE...

But, she is (and, yawn, she's a little bored, really). And finished or not, I totally should have taken the brush, said, "Good job, Sweetie!" and let that be that. Or better yet, I should have picked up a brush and said lovingly, "Let's finish this together!" However...

I didn't. Isn't this above picture so terrible?! Oh, my heart aches that I made her finish. :( She so didn't want to, but I thought, hey, I put all the work into getting this thing ready, you're almost done, if we stop now you won't even see all the letters. Ugh... So, after some whining (no real tears or breakdown, though. Please don't think I got out the wire hangers or anything!) and bribing (Wanna watch Nemo? Put some paint over this E!) she finished. (Are you shaking your head in frustration at me? Me, too. I really am embarrassed by this, but if I just write posts of everything being hunky-dory all the time, that would be a lie. So, here is the icky-messy truth...)

Looking back, the struggle was SO not worth it, and I really am praying that she's not totally turned off to painting after this. I am the worst mom ever! Who forces their kid to finish an art project?! An ART PROJECT for 'FUN!' Sheesh... Well, this was definitely a humbling learning experience for me.

But, she's only two; she probably won't remember this. And, as you can see, here she is the next day, all happy and smiles with her completed project. I was just so happy that she didn't run into corner and cry when she saw it! I think she'll be okay. :)

So, while the finished project is cute, it's also bittersweet. I will keep it and hang it up, though, as a reminder of this torture experience, in hopes that it never happens again. Bummer, huh? But, I did learn a wonderful mommy heart-lesson, and Anna doesn't seem too broken up about it anymore (thank you, Lord!). Also, to keep things in perspective, in the big scheme of things, if this is the worst part of my week, then things are good. :) (by the way, my husband just said I sound like Doogie Howser writing on his computer - ha! I'd much rather be compared to Blossom, though. ;)  )

Art - Leaf Prints & No-Mess Finger Painting!

What do you do when everyone's feeling icky and you don't want to watch  movies anymore? ART! I get Tawnee's email updates from her wonderful blog Adventures In Homeschooling. The other day she shared her Pinterest Find of the Week (thinking about starting something like this, too, because it's such a great idea!) from The Hippie Housewife, and we just had to go for it! It's no-mess finger painting, and it's a LOT of fun! I just put the paint in a gallon freezer bag and taped it down on the table over a white piece of paper. And, y'all, I just realize a BIG boo-boo I made while doing this: I kept telling the girls, "We're going to mix these colors and make green! Let's make some green! Yay!" Um... I JUST NOW realized why we never could make green. Hahaha! Good thing Mary's taking her own Art lessons from a friend. ;)

Mary liked this much more than my little Anna, who kept saying, "Open! Open!" Yikes! And look, she made purple! I don't know what I was thinkin'! 

Then we moved on to some leaf prints, because Fall is almost here! Yipee!

Then the girls just wanted to paint, so I went with the flow.

Anna had such a good time with stamps last week in her Puggles class at church, so I got out our stamp stuff, too. I didn't plan on going all-out with Art yesterday, but it was fun (and after skip counting those 6's over and over, I'm all about some fun! ;)  ).

The completed leaf prints!

Week 2 - Crafts

Earlier in the week, I took a piece of yellow poster board and drew an outline of the Fertile Crescent area. Then, Mary painted in all of the rivers while I painted the seas. The next day when the map was dry, I gave the girls some small Ancient Egypt toys that I'd ordered a while back. (If my girls were older, I would have buried the toys in a spot out in the yard, and we would've pretended to be archaeologists! We're right in the middle of a great little reader about finding King Tut's tomb. Glad we get to do this cycle again in a few years!) We've had fun playing with them and moving them around the map! It's also been a great tool to review our geography memory work!

The CC history sentence this week is Commandments 6-10, so we did a little craft to go along with it. I found the idea here (scroll down after you click), and it was lots of fun! First Mary colored the small commandments, and then she glued them onto her handprints. Ten fingers, ten commandments. Pretty cool!

And just in case you think it's always peaches and cream around here, it's NOT! Ha! Anna's pretty upset because I didn't let her make this craft, too. Well, lesson learned! Next time I'll make sure she gets to do her own little version.

Mary's finished product!

Anna was much happier when Mary let her play with the glue stick on her project. She's becoming such a sweet big sister; it's neat to see how their relationship is growing.

Since the Red Sea is part of our geography memory work this week, we also used our new big map to play the Exodus. Below, Anna is taking her turn crossing the Red Sea.

We used these plague printables from 1+1+1=1 to help us act out the story. Super fun!

I don't have any more big crafts planned for this week, except working on our lapbooks and History Pockets. I'm also absolutely DETERMINED to nail down our schedule tonight after the girls go to bed. I must, I must, I must! Hopefully I can share that with you tomorrow. I'm telling ya, friend, having this blog is such good accountability for me! If I post something, like plans or a schedule, I'm much more likely to stick with it. See you again soon!

Art - How We Do Painting

I have an art degree, and I love art, but I'm ashamed to say that yesterday was the FIRST time I've ever 'done art' with Mary. Terrible, I know. Having our own paints and other supplies now certainly inspired me to let Mary go at it, so that's what she did! She enjoyed mixing the colors and using different brushes and the roller. Even though we've never painted together before, I have attempted to expose the girls to famous paintings and artists in other ways, namely books.

Any of Laurence Anholt's books are wonderful! He has a whole series on famous artists; Degas and da Vinci are our favories!

 

Oh, the 'Katie books!' We LOVE these books by James Mayhew. They introduce so many wonderful paintings in each book, and the story is cute (Katie roams around a museum and steps into the paintings having little adventures). He's also written some great children's books about famous ballets that we enjoy as well.

The cards above are what we use for Calendar Time. They have lots of information about the painting and artist on the back of each card. We love these, too!

Music and dance have also played a big part in our lives, but that's a post for a different night. ;)

I don't want to leave my baby girl out, so here's a cute one of Anna exploring the Princess Toys bin in our school room. And speaking of school room, I got most of the things up on the wall that I had planned. Here's how it looks now:

We are so thankful to God for all of our blessings, and we're all VERY excited about starting CC this Tuesday! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! :)