As I've begun my self education on classical education, I've grown a fresh vision and passion toward the pursuit of wisdom, virtue, and beauty that our educational endeavors may touch not only the mind but stir the affections of the heart and soul. It's stirring my soul, and I do believe what delights the heart of a parent is unavoidably contagious to a child. I have always considered art a fun elective; I was content to accept I'm not an artist. However, my understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of beauty expressed through artistic creativity has deepened as my vision of education has grown.
I marvel at the creativity of my kids. I'm feeling less intimidated to nurture whatever God given creativity is in my children and develop their eye for recognizing and appreciating beauty in the world. I'm hoping to continually expose them to great works of art and keep tools readily accessible, within our home and other venues, for their little hands to pursue and express their own God given creativity.
Getting Practical
I recently reorganized our art supplies to make them more accessible. I found a wood crate and fit small brown buckets from Michael's inside. We enjoy its portability around the house.
Art Supply Tips
(This is basic art 101 but was very helpful for an amateur like me when I started investing in art supplies for my kids.)
Markers: Mr. Sketch Scented Markers' broad tips are easy for my preschooler and of course everyone loves to smell yummy flavors while they're coloring! We also have a bucket of smaller tip Crayola Super Tips with Silly Scent Markers.
Adhesives: We like using Elmer's Extreme glue stick for large projects, and Elmer's Precision Tips are awesome for smaller areas. Glue sticks are easy to handle, but the adhesive tends to not be as strong as a liquid glue. Elmer's Glue All is a traditional favorite but sometimes a bit runny, so we keep Q-tips handy. My five year old doesn't have much patience on waiting for glue to dry and doesn't like it in general. So interestingly, his adhesive of choice is tape, Scotch or Masking. I buy him his own rolls at The Dollar Store.
Brushes: Most brushes that come in watercolor sets are made from camel hair or natural hair which is fine for very small children. (See the yellow and red brushes in the photo.) My older boys use Synthetic brushes (the two brushes on the bottom) which are a better option for them because they have stiffer bristles, maintain their shape, and are more easily maneuverable allowing for more detailed art work. I've found synthetic brushes affordably priced at local craft stores.
Paint: I really like Prang watercolor paints; Crayola is another good option. The cheaper brands really lack color pigment and produce a disappointing finish. The Prang watercolor set is in the middle, and I think you can tell the pigment intensity difference even in the photo.
Art Inspiration
This year we've gotten to know our first two great artist and their masterpieces, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet through The World's Greatest Artist Series.
This book offers three to five year olds 26 art appreciation lessons that begin with exposing them to a great work of art and follows with an art project using various mediums. Many of the art tips I shared above were gleaned from this book. It tremendously broadened my understanding of a child's artistic development. Here are a few examples from the book and the boys' art. My goal is to take them through a couple of lessons a month.
My five and seven year old each have their own drawing notebook that they are filling with farm pictures from the Draw, Write, Now step by step book that they share. This book allows for independent drawing time.
Hodgepodge.me offers free chalk art tutorials. They recently watched a video demonstration of How To Draw A Bird's Nest using chalk pastels.
No comments:
Post a Comment