Learning by Heart – oct. 7, 2011

 

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

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Scribble Art!  It is chock full of great art projects for little people.  I’d say it’s perfect for toddler to 6th grade age.  You can read my three-part series in which MaryAnn discusses the importance of art in early childhood; the giveaway is at the end of the third post! 

     M, showing me “tricks” on his bike. :)

No school for us this week – our neighbors had a baby (yay for babies!) and we were busy cooking dinners and baking treats to take them when they came home. :) 

We also worked on all those apples!  We dehydrated two large batches; they make such a good, healthy snack over the winter!  M has an apple peeler-corer-slicer (you know, the kind you clamp to a table and turn the crank?), which he absolutely can not get enough of. :)

  Look at that concentration! :)

We also managed to get in a little bike-riding practice (he just recently began riding without his training wheels):

And a little nature/playground time too: What a monkey!

More daredevil tricks. :)

This is the very best kind of learning – spending time together and talking about anything and everything a five year old boy thinks about.  I love how a little time spent working or playing together makes his little heart open up to me.  One of my greatest hopes is that he will always be able to talk to me about anything.  Trust is such a fragile thing, isn’t it?

Anyway, as you know, I adore autumn… I’ve been feeling very inspired in this brisker weather… it’s perfect for cozying up to the table and creating something beautiful!  I’ll be sharing our newest creations with you over the next few weeks, but for now I thought you might enjoy a glance at some of the autumn-themed art M has done in the past.  Some of these were such favorites, we do them more than once, but of course I only bother blogging about them once. :)  (I’m sure it’s like that for a lot of you other mama-bloggers too.)

I am always on the lookout for inspiring art ideas, so if you have any autumn-themed art going on in your house, and you’ve blogged about it, leave me a comment with the link; I would love to come take a  look!

Favorite Autumn-themed Art and Craft Projects:

Top row:  Leaf Guys, Autumn Sparkle Tree, Hand and Armprint Autumn Tree
Bottom row:  Nature Collage, 3-d nature art

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

MaryAnn Kohl: The Importance of Art in Early Childhood, Part 3

~Part One is here~   ~Part Two is here~

***Enter to win a copy of MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Scribble Art!
Rules for entering are at the end of this post.***

Here is a little collage I put together of just a few of the projects we’ve done that were taken from Scribble Art:

1. Salty Watercolors (like magic!)

2. Painting with a variety of things, mixing colors, gluing things on (so much fun!)

3. Dipping colored chalk in white paint and drawing on black paper

4. Drawing with our homemade “scribble cookies” (shaped like Christmas trees)

5. Painting with melted crayons (one of our favorites!)

Whoever wins this book is in for such a treat!! :)

 

Art versus Crafts

Here is the third and final question I asked of MaryAnn:

3. Is it truly important to do "art", where a child simply enjoys the process, with no expectations placed on what the finished product will look like; instead of  making "crafts" where a finished product is the goal?  Don't crafts help develop a child's creative side and give them a final product that they can be proud of?

MARYANN:  I love art and I love crafts too, but they are very different. It is art where a child learns to trust his own thinking and finds out how art materials behave and learns to control them, all within his own power. It is art that holds the unknown and the excitement of discovery and exploration. Crafts are fun and teach skills like following directions and give a child an activity that has a product that may work around a theme like Fall Leaves or Dinosaurs, and all of that is good. Children are often proud of crafts they have created, though sometimes their final products fall short of the sample they were shown and they can feel disappointed too. With art, they are the only judge of a final product, but truly, it is the learning and the exploring that has the most value, that is, the process of experiencing art. The final product is like a road map of what occurred, not the reason for the exploration. So yes, do a craft, and yes, do art!  

MaryAnn wrote the following to me at the conclusion of our interview, and I think this may just be the most important message of all:

MARYANN: I'd like to explore what makes art special a little further: Children express themselves through art on a fundamental level. Sometimes their artwork is the manifestation of that expression, but more often, the physical process of creating is the expression. Picture the toddler who has a new baby sister busily pummeling his fists into Play-Doh; a six-year-old joyfully painting flowers with huge arm movements blending, reds and yellows; a ten year-old drawing a portrait of her grandmother who recently passed away. Creating art allows children to work through feelings and emotions, and referring to a finished piece of artwork helps a child talk about feelings in a new and meaningful way. Art also develops a child's creativity. Rather than being told what to do, answers and directions come from the child. Art is an experience that requires freethinking, experimentation, and analysis -- all part of creativity. And it is the creative person who develops his thinking process so that he can become an adult who can think, who is not afraid to try new things and new ways of solving problems and making the world a better place.

Thank you so much, MaryAnn, for taking the time to share your thoughts and knowledge with us.  I hope my readers have enjoyed this; I’m very grateful for the awareness you work so hard to bring to educators and parents regarding why art is so important.  Children seem to intuitively know this already, and now I can better understand why they love art so much!

 

Giveaway Rules

MaryAnn’s wonderful website is Bright Ring.  Please visit it and follow the link to her Free Art Activities (the link is located on her left sidebar).  To enter this giveaway, come back here and leave a comment letting me know which art project you think would appeal most to the children in your life. :)  While on her website, you can also join her mailing list and check out her blog!

This giveaway will run through Friday, October 14th.  I will pick a winner via random.org and post the winner on Saturday the 15th.  Be sure to check back!  More good news – if you just can’t wait to get one of MaryAnn’s books, she has many of them available as e-books!

For more great information about MaryAnn, her work, and her thoughts about children and art, you might be interested in reading the excellent interviews she did with Jean over at The Artful Parent (here, here, and here).

Good luck with the giveaway everyone, and have a beautiful day! :)

Maryann kohl: the importance of art in early childhood, part two

How Art Affects Development

~Part one is here.~

 

***Remember!  There is a giveaway of MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Scribble Art at the end of this series!  Any comments left on this post or the first post will earn you an extra entry in the giveaway.  Comments on part one and part two will be closed when the final post is published.***

 

The second question I asked of MaryAnn Kohl is below, and her answer is packed full of information that I think will be of interest to many of you (it sure was to me!).  Being a good parent and/or teacher means, in part, helping our children develop skills that will serve them well their whole lives long.  In early childhood, art is an easy and fun way to accomplish some of these goals.  I’m so excited to be able to share this!  

2. Is a child's development affected by allowing them to experience art and explore art materials at an early age? 

MARYANN:  Art may seem like fun and games -- and it is! -- but you may not realize that your child is actually learning a lot through art activities. Your children will gain useful life skills through art, so encourage them to get creative, and you will quickly see that your children are picking up these skills:

Communication Skills:

When a child draws a picture, paints a portrait, or hangs buttons from a wobbly mobile, that child is beginning to communicate visually. A child may draw to document an actual experience like playing in the park, release feelings of joy by painting swirling colors, or share an emotionally charged experience like the passing of a loved one through art. Art goes beyond verbal language to communicate feelings that might not otherwise be expressed.

Problem-Solving Skills:

When children explore art ideas, they are testing possibilities and working through challenges, much like a scientist who experiments and finds solutions. Should I use a shorter piece of yarn to balance my mobile? This tape isn't holding -- what should I try instead? How did I make brown -- I thought I made orange? Art allows children to make their own assessments, while also teaching them that a problem may have more than one answer. Instead of following specific rules or directions, the child's brain becomes engaged in the discovery of "how" and "why."  Even when experimenting or learning how to handle art materials effectively, children are solving challenges and coming up with new ways to handle unexpected outcomes.

Social & Emotional Skills:

Art helps children come to terms with themselves and the control they have over their efforts. Through art, they also practice sharing and taking turns, as well as appreciating one another's efforts. Art fosters positive mental health by allowing a child to show individual uniqueness as well as success and accomplishment, all part of a positive self-concept.


Fine Motor Skills:

Fine motor skills enable a child do things like delicately turn the page of a book or fill in a sheet of paper with written words. Holding a paintbrush so that it will make the desired marks, snipping paper with scissors into definite shapes, drawing with a crayon, or squeezing glue from a bottle in a controlled manner all help develop a child's fine motor skills and control of materials.

Isn’t it amazing how much goodness art can add to our lives?  I value “art time” in our home because of the joy that creating and experimenting give to M (and honestly, to me too, when I sit and do art with him); but I find that I value it even more and am purposeful in making it part of our day when I remember how beneficial art is to his overall development.  Thank you, MaryAnn! :)

Post three will focus on “Art” versus “Crafts”, and I’ll talk a bit more about Scribble Art, hopefully posting some photos of the actual projects we’ve done that were found in this treasure of a book. (I think this was the first book of MaryAnn’s that we bought, and it is most likely the one we’ve gone to most often in the past few years.  I’m very excited that one of my readers will win it!)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Maryann kohl discusses the importance of art in early childhood – part one

***There is a giveaway at the end of this series; don’t miss it!***

 

Art, when you think about it, is an amazing thing.  The possibilities contained within a new box of crayons, a set of paints, a little glue, some scissors, construction paper, and so on, are astounding.  To be able to take a few items and create something that never was before, something unique and totally your own… well, who wouldn’t jump at the chance?  And if you are a toddler or a preschooler (or even an older child!), you might actually do a little jumping as you set to work. ;)  Excitement just pours out of their little bodies, doesn’t it?  It can’t be contained!  We mamas know a little about this too – our bodies were pretty involved in the sweetest creations of all, weren’t they?
 

Giveaway

As you may know, we are big fans of MaryAnn Kohl around here.  In the past I’ve said that we are her biggest fans, but as that seemed to surprise some of you that consider yourselves to be her biggest fans, I’ll just leave it at “big fans”. ;)  I was recently in touch with MaryAnn, who has graciously offered to send one of my readers a copy of Scribble Art:  This is one of our very favorite books of hers, one we go to again and again, knowing we will always find something interesting to do and experience.  MaryAnn has over 20 other books, each one full of art activities – you are sure to find one that is just right for your family!

(The giveaway will be at the end of this 3-part series, but comments on these first two posts will earn you extra entries!)
 

Interview

MaryAnn, even more graciously, offered to answer a few questions for us.  I had three that came to mind, from conversations I’ve had with other moms, either online or in real life.  We often refer to our home as the “art gallery” – if you’ve seen my kitchen walls and cupboards, you know why. :)  M loves to “do art”, and I do my best to encourage it, but I find it hard to explain just why art is so important to us.  And, I am not immune to “mess stress” either, although I try hard to not let it interfere with M’s creativity.  Sometimes this means closing my eyes and just not looking. ;)

I’m separating the three questions and answers into three posts so we have time to really think about and focus on MaryAnn’s answers.  She has so much wisdom to share. :)

1. Many moms of small children are so busy keeping their homes reasonably clean and tidy (with the care of their families genuinely at heart!) that it's hard to deal with the extra messiness of art projects.  Is it truly important for small children to experience art?  Do you think there are benefits of letting small children "do art" at home versus just waiting until they are in school and letting them get messy there?

MARYANN: Art is one of those activities in a child's life that can be messy, but it doesn't have to be. If messiness is a detriment to providing your child with exploration and discovery through art activities, go easy! Provide blank paper and crayons and feel good about it. Research shows that children who draw frequently without adult interference do better in all other academics. So easy -- and yet so important. A little preparation goes a long way for children doing art at home. Keep a trash receptacle near where the child is working. If possible, provide a small table near a shelf or closet where art materials are stored. Providing materials that are "self-serve" for children can make things easier for parents in the long run. Such materials would be crayons, paper, tape, stapler, scissors, and materials like catalogs or magazines for cutting, ribbons and sewing trim, cotton balls, or other collage materials (depending on suitability for the child's age and ability).  

Yes, it is truly important for children to experience art, and not just copying an adult's idea of how things should be made, but allowing a child to experiment and explore and create with their own ideas using materials on hand. The benefits of having art supplies and an area to work at home are many. One of the most important is that the child has a quiet place to go and unwind after a busy day at childcare or school, where they can freely draw or create at will. Parents benefit because the child is involved while dinner is being made or while folding laundry, etc. Art is one of the only creative activities where a child can rest while being busy. Reading is another. In fact, children who have art in their lives tend to also be good readers!

Isn’t that beautifully said?  And how often do children get to follow their own ideas?  So often, they just have to follow the plans of others!  Art is a great way to respect their  ideas and help develop their independence and self-esteem; as well as validate their ideas and creativity as good and worthwhile. 

Come back tomorrow for question number two, and don’t forget to leave a comment for an extra entry to win Scribble Art!  In the meantime, check out MaryAnn’s website, Bright Ring Publishing – she has free art activities available there, as well as a sweet art gallery to look through, and links to her blog and favorite websites.  
 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Science sunday – oct. 3, 2011

Light and Colors and How Our Eyes See Them

Last winter we made a very cool pinhole camera that helped us understand how light enters our eyes and helps us see.  This week we did some more activities in relation to this idea.  This time we added colors into the mix.

Lesson: Light bounces off of objects and into our eyes, while absorbing some colors and reflecting others.  White light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow, hence we see the colors of light that are reflected from objects, and the other colors of light are absorbed by those objects. 

Got that?

Really this is a pretty complicated concept to grasp (at least for me!), so these activities were mostly just for fun, and to give M’s 5 year old mind something new to grapple with.  {He is a mind-grappling sort of boy, and never happier than when he is trying to understand how something works. ;) }

We began by talking about the cones we have in our eyes.  These are little cone-shaped cells; some of them respond to red light (and tell our brain we see red), some respond to blue light, and some to green light.  M had to get a magnifying glass at this point to see if he could find the cones in my eyes.  He couldn’t and he is feeling a bit skeptical about the whole thing still. ;)

First experiment:

I drew a red circle on a piece of white paper and we stared at it for about a minute, trying hard to focus only on it.  After a while we looked away and stared at just the white paper.  We could see a “spot” on the white paper that looked greenish-blue.  Why does this happen?  Well, the red cones get tired of looking at all that red for so long and  take a break when we look away; the green and blue cones are still working and so instead of seeing white, we see white minus the red, and end up with a greenish-blue spot.  M thought this was a bit like magic. :)  That’s a much easier explanation, isn’t it?

 

Second experiment:

After looking at a blue circle, looking away made us see yellow.  Yellow is what red and green light mixed together make.  M was pretty amazed that they didn’t make brown, because (he knows from experience) that red and green paint would make brown.  We talked about how we would eventually get black if we mixed all the colors of paint together, but if you have all the colors of light (a rainbow) mixed together you would not get black, you would get white.  How could it be pitch black with all that light shining?  Black is the absence of any light. 

We used our color paddles (pictured at the top of this post) and two flashlights.  I think we should have been in a darkened room for this to work correctly… and we will have to do it again some time.  We tried mixing red and green light by holding the red paddle over one flashlight and the green paddle over the other flashlight and then shining them both onto the refrigerator.  We saw this:

Maybe there is a tiny spot of yellow in the middle there?

Then we tried mixing red, green, and blue together (should have given us white) and got this: 

Ah, well.  Interest was waning at this point so we moved on… (really, I think this was supposed to have been done in a dark room; if you try it and it really works, let me know!).

 

Third experiment:

For fun, we decided to color some circles and see how they looked while spinning.  We have a handy-dandy little set of Snap Circuits that includes a motor and a plastic fan.  We simply taped our colored circles onto the fan and flipped the switch to watch them spin.  You can do the same thing by following these directions at kids-science-experiments.com to spin your circles with string.

Here are the designs we went with, and how they looked while spinning…

Red, blue, and yellow:

Red, blue, yellow, purple, green, orange:

Silly pictures:

Actually, the first two did not look quite so “stripey” as they look in these photos.  They were more like the bottom one, but more solid. 

I am linking this up to Science Sunday, check out the other science activities there!

Have a beautiful day! :)

learning by heart – sept. 30, 2011

 

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”

- Henry Ward Beecher

I am still struggling to find a way to fit our lessons into our busy weeks.  I am so thankful for these posts, where I’m able to focus on what we actually did, and see that it was enough, instead of only remembering what we did not get to.  I have heard that homeschooling pre-K and Kindergarten (I feel we have a foot in both of these places) can be done in just one hour per day.  And so 5 hours a week is my goal – you would think it wouldn’t be so hard to manage 5 hours, wouldn’t you?  You homeschooling mothers that do 5 hours every day… you are amazing!!

Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to…

 

LITERACY SKILLS:

M has been writing up a storm.  We were recently given an old school desk that my husband had as a child, and we placed it in our breezeway for M:The top opens and there is storage space inside the desk.  I filled it up with lots of goodies: notebook, dry erase board, markers, pencils, his ABC collage and trace book, game book, etc. 

The first thing he did was grab a pen and his little notebook and set to work writing.  Here is his very first all-on-his-own journal entry:Need a translation?  :)  It says, “Matthew loves Mommy and Daddy  I’m 5 years old!”  Not bad, huh?  Some letters are missing and some things are written right to left instead of the other way around, but it is an awfully sweet first sentence if you ask the Mommy or the Daddy. :)  M did this mostly on his own, only asking me how to spell “years” and “old”.

We do a bit of copy work each week too (or more often, if he asks).  I let him decide what he would like to write, and he dictates it to me while I write it out on his whiteboard.  He then copies it into his little notebook.  Interestingly, this gives me a bit of insight into what 5 year old boys think about:“Car!  Go car!  Go scooter!”  Hee hee. :)   This is similar to what you would find in an early reader, isn’t it?  I find it interesting that he despises early readers and does not want anything to do with them because there is often no “real” story involved.  Yet, he LOVES writing similar things and is so proud of himself when he does. 

And, do you think the love of exclamation points is possibly genetic? (!!!)  I like to think we are just very enthusiastic about life around here. ;)  Actually M found out about exclamation points from a bottle of OFF! bug spray.  He recognized the word “off”, and was very excited to learn that an exclamation point gives emphasis to what you are saying, almost like shouting.  Let’s just say he likes to emphasize everything he says. It makes things much more exciting, you know.  :)

 

SCIENCE:

We did some fun science activities and experiments related to light and colors this week.  I’ll be writing about them on Sunday, and linking it up to Ticia’s Science Sunday post, so be sure to check back!

For now, I want to tell you about a great gift M received for his birthday in late August.  Have you heard of Snap Circuits? 

The set consists of metal connectors that snap together (so you don’t have to worry about your child playing with actual wires, although two “jumper cables” are included also), and you can build electrical circuits, using two AA batteries.  You can make the circuits do a variety of things.  There is a motor that makes a plastic fan spin, a music box, other sound boxes, lights, etc.  M has the junior set which came with a book of over 100 electricity-themed projects to do.  There are add-on sets too, which I’m sure he’ll be getting in the future.  He is really into batteries and figuring out how electricity works, so this is perfect for him!  You can learn more at the website I’ve linked to above. Sets of Snap Circuits have won a number of awards, and it is such a great tool for learning.  I’m not receiving anything for writing about this (although I think I may sound like a commercial), I just think it’s an outstanding product and I’m so happy we heard about it.  M works with his set every day, and it’s such a fun and easy way to fit a bit of science and engineering into our days.

 

MATH:

I am finding math work to be the easiest to prepare and actually do these days, but that means some worksheets, and well, you probably know how I feel about worksheets. I am planning on using a lot of the great games found in Peggy Kaye’s book, in future weeks, to supplement: (Thanks for the recommendation, Kim!)

This week however, we did a 1-100 dot-to-dot page, for numeral recognition and practice counting.  M loves dot-to-dots, and he’s working very hard to get to the point where he can work one of these all the way to 100 on his own:

I’ve started posting some blank pattern block puzzles on our fridge for M to work on throughout the week, whenever he wants.  I also place the blocks he’ll need next to it (which means I have to solve the puzzle beforehand, not always an easy thing to do!).  He has done great so far and really enjoys this:

  

We also played “store”, which is great for learning about money and making change, as well as grouping items into categories! Where are my sofa cushions, you ask?  You’ll find out below. ;)

 

CREATIVE PLAY:

M and Daddy had fun this week working on more engineering skills.  They built a huge (HUGE!) airplane out of Tinker Toys:

 

And M spent a little time aboard a ship he made in the living room:   Ah, that’s where those sofa cushions went!  We are currently reading The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting.  There is plenty of ship adventure involved.  Very exciting stuff. :)  I so enjoy seeing him act out books he loves.

 

FIELD TRIP:

We went on a little field trip to a local art center which has gardens and trails on its property.  We’d never been here before and it was a wonderful experience.  We had perfect weather and were surrounded by beauty.  There were trails splitting off in every direction and we wanted to stay and explore them all.  We’ll definitely be going back!

There was a pretty little creek with lots of bridges:

We walked along the creek, through a little tunnel, which was very cool:

And found ourselves here: 

Beautiful.  Perfect for sitting and reflecting:

We talked a bit about how lakes and ponds, and creeks, rivers, and streams are different… water that is always going somewhere vs. water that stays in its home. :)  I wonder which is happier? 

The art center was next, but we were not overly impressed with what it had to offer.  We liked these two pieces best:

A hanging sphere made up of fabric pieces cut to look like clothing…

and this pony, encrusted with beads, buttons, and all kinds of things.

I hope you all had an interesting and sparkly week as well. ;)

Linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

autumn apple pickin’

That’s a sweet apple, and an even sweeter boy!

M, enjoying the fruits of his apple-picking labor.

Fall is upon us here in Minnesota!  I can not believe how quickly summer went this year.  I felt like I was just beginning to get into a good routine and whoops!  It’s over, and a new fall routine needs to be figured out.  {Sigh}

We are fortunate to have our very own little apple orchard at my in-laws’ farm a little north of us:There is nothing better than picking a fresh, crisp, oh-so-sweet, scrumptious apple and eating it outside on a fall day, yes?   The ones pictured above are Sweet Sixteens and oh my goodness, so delicious!!

I think M could have eaten a whole bucket full by himself!  Just sit down on the grass and enjoy it right where you are – it tastes even better that way. :)

I hope you are all having a glorious fall, or a lovely spring if you happen to live on the sunnier side of the world. :) 

Have a beautiful day! :)