Art Time – Salt Sprinkled Watercolors

I’ve been wanting to try out this watercolor technique for a long time, and finally got the chance when I had my crafty 6 year old niece over for a couple of days.  This girl is up for anything artsy or craftsy, any time of the day! :)  It must run in their genes.  These two could paint all day.

To do this, use real watercolor paper if possible. 

You will also need paintbrushes, liquid watercolors (mix a little water into tempera), and salt in a shaker.

Paint as you normally would onto the paper.  If you want, you can brush the paper with clean water before painting.  This makes the colors blend and look softer.

Once you are happy with your painting, sprinkle a generous amount of salt over the top of it and set it aside to dry.  When it is dry you can shake off the excess.

The salt creates interesting patterns on the watercolors.  It absorbs some water, leaving tiny dots of lighter color behind.  In some areas it feathers the color out in a pretty design.  And some of it sticks to the paper, making it sparkle in the light. 

I brought out the oil pastels to add another dimension to the art and showed the kids how to draw “magic” pictures with the white pastel.  See how the tiny dots left behind by the salt gave this painting another layer of texture?      

   Working hard on their artwork!

Lots of beautiful things were made!  

 

      

Make sure you have your broom nearby after this project!  The salt does seem to go everywhere.  Better yet, have a child-size broom nearby and let the kids clean up!  :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

P.S. A portion of this art project was taken from Preschool Art: It's the Process, Not the Product by MaryAnn Kohl.  This is a wonderful book (as I’ve mentioned many times before)!

Book Review – Little Star, by Anthony DeStefano

Recently, author Anthony DeStefano sent me a copy of his newest book, Little Star. 

When I first received it and flipped through the pages I enjoyed the story, but wasn’t sure how M would react to it.  Little Star is ignored by the other, bigger stars, and he is sad.  My tender-hearted boy is normally made very sad by things like this.  And Little Star burns so brightly on Christmas Eve night as baby Jesus is born, that he finally gets the attention of the other stars, but it’s only because they are concerned that he will burn himself out (another thing I thought M might find sad or scary).

On Christmas morning Little Star is indeed gray and almost all burned out. 

As many of you know we have had several losses this year – the death of a dog (not ours, but one M was firmly attached to and loved), the death of a great-grandma, an uncle, and a family friend – and too often this past year, death has been the topic of conversation in our home and on the mind of our sweet little boy.  I had hoped to spare him the experience of losing someone he loves for a few years, but the lesson came in a flood of losses and has been a bit more than any of us can handle well.

So, I was worried about what kind of effect this story would have on M in light of this past year, and what, at times, has been his obsession with sadness and death. 

He was very sad for Little Star when he was ignored by the other stars, and his eyes got a little teary when Little Star burned himself out.  BUT.  But, the ending of the book was beautiful and somehow it was exactly what M needed to hear, and obviously met some need for understanding within him. 

Little Star does burn out, but he is not gone.  He had such an important job to do and he did it so well, keeping baby Jesus warm with his light all night, that he will always be remembered as the most important star ever.  Giving one’s life, and light, for God and something important is never sad or meaningless, but is a wonderful thing to do, and something that is greatly rewarded.

I’m not sure exactly how M internalized this message, but it obviously struck a chord with him.  He wanted to read it “again” and “again”, something he hasn’t asked for much since he was a toddler.  Since he has been able to talk, he’s told everyone that his favorite book ever is Corduroy, by Don Freeman.  Now he says he has a new favorite – Little Star!  Coming from M, that is high praise, and definitely a recommendation of this sweet book. :)

I received a free copy of this book in return for writing a review about it.  This did not influence my opinion, and I was not obligated to write a positive review.  We honestly love this book! :)

We also loved his book, This Little Prayer of Mine:

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Learning by Heart – weeks 8 and 9

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

Fancy shot of our first Advent candle :)

My camera broke halfway through week 8, and since I was behind in my posts anyway, I decided to combine the past two weeks into one post.  Believe me, it didn’t take long for me to go buy another camera (I HAVE to have a camera!), but anything we did that wasn’t captured in a photo has completely escaped my memory.  I KNOW we did things on those days without a camera, but I have no idea what they are!  Besides, it’s not much fun to post about an activity without a picture to accompany it, right?

{ M is 4 years old }

SHELF ACTIVITIES:

For December I’m sticking with easy and fun activities.  Some of them are just plain fun with not much learning involved.  We’ll get hardcore preschool again after the holidays are over. ;)  (That is totally a joke, btw.)

I set out an Advent wreath craft for M, with glitter foam pieces, glitter snowflake stickers, green cardstock, and sequins.  No shot of the activity beforehand, but here it is finished: He really enjoyed making it!

Counting – I set out our number cards and a gumball machine (Dollar Tree!) full of wooden beads.  M loves this little gumball machine and I knew it would help grab his attention.  It’s the first thing he went for the morning it was out.  He set out the number cards in order, then worked the gumball machine to get beads out and counted them onto the cards:

A new puzzle:

Sewing with yarn on a piece of cotton fabric -  I have to smile to myself when I put things like this out for him.  He LOVES doing this kind of thing, but I don’t kid myself that his interest will last.  Someday he will get the idea that this isn’t a very manly sort of activity. :)  But it is great fine motor skill work and really, it’s important for boys to know how to use a needle and thread too!

This was sort of a review and catch up week, so M did a cut and paste sheet for the soft /g/ sound to put in his ABC book.  Somehow G escaped us as we were going through the first few letters of the alphabet.  

Play dough cooties -  I’ve been seeing a lot of people use Mr. Potato Head objects with play dough.  It is such a great idea!  Unfortunately the only Mr. Potato Head we have is in our camper, about an hour away.  So I grabbed the pieces from our Cooties game, and M made a lot of fun little sillies:

Play dough number mats 11 – 20 – with some leftover fall-colored play dough (gotta get that Christmas play dough made!):

Pipeline Game pieces – for fine motor work:

Extra Activities:

A lot of shoveling has been going on…

And a lot of snowman-making…See the tiny snowman beside M?  He made this one all by himself, and used MY GLOVES for hands, hee hee. :)  It’s a very sweet little snowman.

And one day M made a pulley system with the fridge door handle.  He didn’t know it was a pulley, but it was!  After I told him that it was a pulley and that in real life they use them to lift heavy objects, he was awfully proud of himself for inventing it. :)  And we did some on-the-spot learning about pulleys!

Hey!  You are looking at the pulley,
not the ugly kitchen flooring, right?!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner, Friday Wrap-up, and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Christmas shop online at CSN Stores

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from stylish briefcases to furniture to toys, toys, toys, which is exactly what is on a lot of mama-minds this time of year, right?  I love CSN (I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating)… really, if you are doing some online shopping, check them out – their prices are great and most items come with free shipping.  They will match the price of competitors too, so you really can’t go wrong.  They also have a great variety to choose from (well, with over 200 stores you can imagine the variety!), and their customer service is excellent.  I’ll be reviewing… something exciting… from them soon, so stay tuned!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Advent in our Home

 

I want to remember our family time this Advent, so this post is really just for me (but you are still welcome to read it. :) ).

First of all, a shot of our “Thankfulness Tree” before I took it down to put up the Jesse Tree:

Putting the first ornament on the Jesse Tree:

Daddy reading the first Jesse Tree story (the creation of the world):

Our Advent wreath (which obviously is going to need new candles if we don’t want to send the whole wreath up in flames with candle #2 next week):

Our little winter carousel – M had a great time helping to put this together, and carefully set all the little people in their spots.  He spends a lot of time in the dark with this, watching the lights and mirrors as the carousel goes around:

Our Advent calendar – this is our first year with this; it was given to us by a cousin who didn’t want it for her family any longer.  Hm.  I’m not sure about the whole Noah’s Ark thing for Advent.  Noah’s Ark is one of the Jesse Tree stories, but still… the flood, the animals, the ark, the rainbow… I like them all, but I think I’d prefer a manger scene or something a bit more Christmassy.  This may not make it into next year’s Advent.

We will buy a tree soon (we get a real one), and I just realized I need to get out our nativity set.  Normally we set the tree up a week and a half or so before Christmas, so it’s still in good shape during the 12 days of Christmas, which begin on Christmas day, and end on January 5th.  I so dislike hearing about people celebrating the 12 days of Christmas before Christmas even begins, hee hee.  Ah well, to each his own (honestly it doesn’t bother me that much, but I do wonder why they seem to be in such a hurry to get it over with). 

January 6th, by the way, is the day after the 12th day of Christmas and is Epiphany – when we celebrate the coming of the wise men and their gifts.  It’s fun to play this out with our nativity set, having the wise men move a little closer to the star and the stable each day.  After all the waiting and hoping during Advent, it feels good to celebrate Christmas for a nice, extended period of time.  I’ll save a little gift to give to M on Epiphany, as the wise men finally end their journey and find the stable and the sweet baby.  We may also use the day to offer gifts to some nearby charities (we do this before Christmas also, but it’s nice to have something special and loving to do on Epiphany in honor of the wise men’s gifts to baby Jesus).

On another note, I see I’m going to have to figure out this new camera business.  Apparently I need to change a bunch of settings every time I take a photo.  It is sensitive to the type and level of lighting, and has about a billion settings.  Maybe I’m not cut out for the fancy photography stuff. Hopefully the pictures will improve as I get more used to it!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Art Project and Craft – Coffee Filter Leaf Mobile

 
We love watercolor paints, and once in a while I like to make liquid watercolors with our regular tempera.  Simply thin the paint out with water, or use liquid starch for a shiny finish, until the paint is as watery as you want it.
 I know I’ve said this a million times… my paint palette of choice is still a muffin tin with an applesauce cup in each well!

Coffee filters, paper towels, or even loosely woven fabric (think muslin or any woven cotton) work great with liquid watercolors.  We decided to use coffee filters this time, and instead of using a pipette to drip the paints, or a paintbrush, we folded our filters up and dipped each corner into the paints.  This created a fun tie-dyed effect. 




M and his cousin S had so much fun with this that we ended up with over 30 tie-dyed coffee filters.  
What does one do with 30 tie-dyed coffee filters??
Well, thankfully I was in the middle of reading this post of Jolanthe’s, where she shared her beautiful tissue paper leaf mobile.  I stole her idea and used what we had available – colorful coffee filters. :)

We did not use all 30+ of them, so if there are any more creative ideas for these babies, let me know!

I drew a few leaves on several of the filters and cut them out.
An older child could do the drawing and cutting themselves.  I admit, this turned into a Mostly-Mama Craft, but I enjoyed it and I love the end result.

Punch a hole or use a needle and some string or yarn to thread a length of string through each leaf.  Tie them in varying lengths along a dowel rod.   I have a ton of dowel rods in my craft collection, although I’m not quite sure why.  If you don’t, you could easily use some popsicle sticks glued together or even a pipe cleaner, or get thrifty and decorate a paper towel tube to use (those things are handy to have around, aren’t they?).
 

Tie another length of string to the dowel for hanging and hang it in front of a sunny window. 

   

M loves his new leaf mobile!

Have a beautiful day! :)

More Play Dough Number Mats – 11 to 20 – free printable!

There was such a great response to the autumn-themed play dough mats for numbers 1 to 10, that I decided to make some more. :)  These are for numbers 11 to 20, and have no theme.  I was trying to do this quickly, on little sleep, with a bad case of mommy-brain, so I just used cute clip art that I knew would appeal to M (and hopefully other children!).  We are currently working on numeral recognition of 11 to 20, and counting to 20 correctly; these have been a great help (who doesn’t love play dough?).

Print and laminate the pages, or just pop them into some page protectors like we did.  Then make play dough “snakes” to form the numerals, then play dough balls to place on each circle while counting.

We also used them for colored water dropping:
Play dough mats are good for fine motor skill work, as well as one to one correspondence practice and numeral formation.  You can download them here:Playdough Number Mats 11-20
  I hope you enjoy them!

Have a beautiful day! :)