The Art Box MckLinky – Guidelines

Yes, you've already seen this post. :) I'm adding a little bit to it, so I'm re-posting it.

One of our favorite art authors is Mary Ann Kohl. In her book, Scribble Art, she writes the following:

"I like to say, 'Process not Product', which means: the doing, exploring, creating, and attempting of new ideas is more important than the result of your creativity. you may end up with a painting resembling a muddy smear, but if you tried something new, learned something interesting, or discovered how paint acts, then you had a successful art process. The product is not as important.

Think of your art as 'experiments'. Some things will look great and others won't, but what you learn and discover in the process is worth so much more than perfect looking results."

I just want to put out some basic guidelines and I’m open to hearing about anything you think I’m missing.

The MckLinky will be open beginning with the Monday morning post and will close the following Sunday at midnight. I will be posting about what M created the previous week, as this is just easier for me and gives me more time to create a post over the weekend. You may do what works best for you… you can do the same as me, or you can link up your post anytime throughout the week and have it be for what your child made that week, if that is easier for you!

Some basic guidelines for your post:

1. An “art box” is not necessary. If you have a corner that your child uses for art, post about what they made there!

2. Change some of the items you provide for your child on a regular basis, and in your post be sure to list what you gave them! We’ll all get great ideas from each other! I’ll be adding (and subtracting) items on a weekly basis, and I think this will most likely be the best way to keep them interested.

3. Have your art box out all week long, or just one day, or bring it out when your child needs “something to do”… whatever works for you!

4. Let the art be completely child-directed. Let them know that this is for them to do whatever they want to do. I encouraged M to look through his art box and see all the neat things that were in there. Be very positive and encouraging. I also tell M that if there’s anything he needs for a project that he doesn’t see in his box, to ask me and I will supply it for him if we have it.

5. Take pictures and let us ooh and aah over what they’ve done! M loves to see his artwork published on the blog!

6. Please link your post (not your main blog page) to the MckLinky, and link back to this site somewhere in your post. I made a new button and it is below if you would like to include it. :)

7. I'm OK with an occasional craft, if say, you found a cheap one somewhere and it's something your little artist can do independently and would be a nice little surprise in their art box. (And yes, I'm adding this because I did find some things like this that I think will really be fun for M to find once in a while). Let's say no more than one per week. And, again, it should be something they can do by themselves and add their own touch to.

<center><a href="http://tiredneedsleep.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Art%20Box"><img border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-U_B1j1OuRo/SwMNpJrCfvI/AAAAAAAABR8/Zc2bDwlkNzI/paint%20palette.png" /></a></center>

{A tip that has worked for us… praise the finished artwork (within reason). Make a big deal over it and say things like, “you must be so proud of that! It’s so unique!” Hee hee, they love hearing new, big words associated with something they’ve done. This really is encouragement for next time around, for those little ones that need it!}

It’s been suggested that maybe a name other than “The Art Box” could be used in order to highlight the idea that it’s child-directed art. Any suggestions? Honestly, The Art Box is what I hear in my head, simply because that’s what we call it, and I’m having trouble coming up with something else that’s kind of catchy too. So, help me out… let me know if you have any ideas!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School

November 22, 2009

 M is 38 Months old

My camera battery died in the middle of tot school one day so some photos of just the activities were taken later in the week... like 5 minutes before I wrote this post. :)

ABCs and Pre-writing:

M is going through some anti-craft phase right now, and this includes the craft pages for our ABC book.  He loves cutting and pasting for the collage pages though: So, apparently we will now have an ABC collage book.  I’m hoping the craft pages will make an appearance again sometime soon, but I’m leaving this kind of thing totally up to M.  Here are his Ll and Oo pages: (This was when the no-crafts discovery was made.  M cut the letters out, but refused to do the rest, so yours truly did it in a futile attempt to get him interested.)

On a more positive note, he was totally into the tracing pages.  We “read” his book together and then he practiced holding the dry-erase marker correctly and traced the letters:

We also did our cardstock letters and glass pebbles activity (both from Dollar Tree!): He loves this.  It’s simply setting a letter out and then tracing it with the pebbles in the same way you would draw the letter (start at the top, go down, etc.).

For the very first time we had a sand tray to trace letters.  I was hesitant to do this because I thought at some point M would just want to play in the sand, most likely getting his little cars involved.  We had a little talk about how this is only for drawing letters, shapes, or numbers in, and he actually did pretty well.  He did experiment with just doodling in it too, which was fine with me.  We used this with our sand letter cards: He really did a great job.

We also matched up our Mama and Baby letters with these fun cards (Dollar Tree!):

 

He’s been playing quite often with a fishing game I made 2 years ago (he loved it then and still plays with it frequently) : The fish have letters on them and metal grommets for eyes.  The fishing pole has a magnet on the end of the string to catch them.  The chair, in case you were wondering, is M’s “fishing bridge” and the floor there?  “Floaty Pond”.  :)  As opposed to other side of the room, which is “Sinky Pond”.   Yep!

Pre-literacy Skills:

I have a subscription to an email full of free samples from Dover Publications.  The email comes weekly and I always save a ton of things.  One was these Opposites cards: M was very interested in this – of course he knew about opposites, but didn’t know the term for it.  He enjoyed matching these up and I plan to print more for him soon.  He would say “If it isn’t hot” (and grab the hot card), “then it’s cold!” (and match it to the cold one). 

Fine Motor Skills:

He played with another I Spy Sensory Bin – I found some great new things to put in it for him – a little hammer, screwdriver, pliers, and saw – such cute and tiny things!  We also used a variety of other things found around the house.  I didn’t have a theme at all… but he loved it!

And a Curious George puzzle:

 

Large Motor Skills:

After reading about how important a workout of large muscles can be in a boy’s learning, we did our movement cards before a lot of the other work.  M always enjoys this!

Leaping :)…

 

Math Skills:

I thought this would be a super-fun activity – connecting dots to make shapes: M was interested at first, but quickly moved on to something else.  The idea for this was here.

I found some wooden tan grams at Michael’s  ($1.00 – you should go now!)  and printed a couple of puzzles for him:

 

Size sorting with Bob the Builder trucks (loved this activity and the next one, of course):

 

And size sequencing with Scrambler, also from Bob the Builder:

 

History:

We have been reading some great Thanksgiving books and I told him the basics of the first Thanksgiving with this flannelboard set: He listened very well and then told Daddy the story later!

 

Life Skills:

This week we took the drawer locks off of M’s dresser drawers and he was given two new jobs – put his own clothes away after they are folded, and pick out his own clothes to wear each morning.  He is loving this new-found freedom, such a big boy!  And while the clothing choices are not ones I would’ve made, I’m very, very proud of him!  And now I know that the red shirt is way too small and needs to be packed away. :)

Nature and Science:

We also had a class at our local nature center all about apples this week.  M had so much fun taste testing and graphing his favorite apple, cutting an apple to see the star inside, and even squishing an apple to make cider!  The children were all given their own apple seed and we went to a beautiful sunny field where they planted them. So much fun!  I need to start including our nature center experiences in my tot school posts – we always learn so much there!

For more Tot School, go here!

Have a beautiful week! :)