Homeschooling: Art Lessons

I've been using Mona Brooks' Drawing with Children to teach art to the kids. First we covered various exercises in using the elements of shape and analyzing and drawing designs.

One of Josiah's transitional worksheets--moving from just design/elements of shape 

to recognizable objects

In the last couple months I've moved onto some of her suggested projects: drawing a stylized lion and then a more realistic bird. She gives some good step-by-step instructions for talking kids through drawing the simplified animal shape, and then I've given them freedom to choose their colors to complete it.

My art students

Josiah has really taken off with his drawing in the last several months. He loves drawing war scenes on his own, usually involving characters modeled after whatever book we're currently reading (Narnia, The Green Ember, Robin Hood, etc.) But he seems to have an eye for detail and has latched onto these drawing lessons. He applies the analysis of elements of shape to his independent drawing, and it's fun to see him figure out how to draw a new animal, weapon, or whatever. Often he says, "Mom! I know how to draw rabbits [or bears, ducks, turtles, whatever]! Look, I do a circle here, little lines for whiskers, curved lines up for the ears, eyes go here . . ." etc. He even started drawing foreshortened circles for moats around castles--without any instruction or suggestion.

While he's an eager learner, he likes to jump ahead of our lesson steps when we're doing our "formal" art lesson time. He doesn't like to wait around for his sisters. Sometimes he also gets a little sloppy or inserts extra items that don't really fit the scene.

Josiah and Lydia

Lydia loves to do the drawing lessons, too, and has surprised me with her aptitude and good work. She is sometimes careless in handling her markers, though, and makes accidental swipes on her paper that cause much consternation. I've shown her how we can remedy mistakes like that by adding landscape details--tree branches, flowers, and such--or coloring over a small error. She gets a little too ambitious with her "fixing" sometimes, though, and ends up with a plethora of twigs all over the paper!

Lydia's drawing moods

While Lydia gets frustrated with her perceived inability at times--or with mistakes--she generally plugs away at following directions and has produced some nice drawings because of her perseverance. She also likes drawing independently (what Mona Brooks calls "symbolic drawings"--stick figures, mostly, that narrate a story), but is not as avid a drawer as Josiah.

Lydia's first completed drawing project: Leo the Lion

Josiah made multiple lion drawings after our initial lesson on Leo and ended up with a good one of a lion in a tree. He then wanted one on the ground, too--and he wanted it to look more realistic. So I looked up a picture of a lion online and stepped them through a shorter lesson to draw that. Lydia joined in as well, but Abby had given up in despair at a couple attempts at the original lion's eyes.

Abby has been my most challenging art student. She's perfectionistic but not as coordinated as the other two. (Where they naturally hold their pencil/marker properly, she still consistently grips it as a shovel.) She often falls apart when the lines she makes on paper don't match up with what she envisions. It's been a challenge to get her to even try--to attempt to follow directions without giving up on the second or third step. We've had lots of drama and tragedy: tears, drool, frustrated scribbling--the works. I've had to excuse her from the drawing lesson to look at books or play by herself a few times, because each step reignited the meltdown.

Abby

Lydia's second lion drawing

Our second project was birds. I love how all three kids' drawings turned out! Abby struggled and had to spend some time away from the drawing table, but she did finish a bird drawing and was mostly happy with it. I think she did a great job.

Lydia's parrot

 Abby did two birds!

We branched out from the book's scripted lessons and chose a monkey as our most recent drawing, with mixed results. I still followed Brooks' basic steps (starting with the eyes, moving out and paying attention to elements of shape, giving step-by-step instructions verbally) as I outlined the monkey on the whiteboard and the kids followed along. I should have chosen a better monkey model, and my demonstration on the whiteboard didn't exactly look good.

This was the first full lesson Abby completed without a meltdown; thus it was a real success in that sense! She and I discussed the lesson and the temptations that would beset her during it. We talked about saying "no" to tantrums and meltdowns, persevering even when she didn't like the look of a dot or line she made, etc. I stressed that she didn't have to like everything she drew, that we can often remedy mistakes, and that she'll only get better with practice. Anyway, she worked hard at self-control and was very pleased with her finished product (even though her monkey is perhaps a bit more porcine than primate).

Proud Abby

Lydia with her monkey holding a banana

Josiah trying to look like his monkey

Josiah's monkey (he's holding a banana with his dangling foot)

Abby's partially colored creature (it ended up being almost entirely pink)

I plan to continue using Drawing with Children to guide my art instruction this year and next. I really appreciate Brooks' method of training one's eye to see any subject in terms of the elements of shape. This approach has helped my kids gain confidence that they can draw just about any subject, and it has helped hone their observation and drawing skills. I also think the practice sheets (and ideas for producing your own) are worthwhile. Brooks' simplified line drawings of birds and other suggested projects helped me in demonstrating and teaching, and she outlines a good script for step-by-step instruction. Her inclusion of sample student drawings is helpful, but she includes an awful lot of them. She's also a bit wordy, spends a lot of time discussing her theory of teaching art, and doesn't organize the actual lesson parts in an easy-to-use manner. I wish she had more practice worksheets and step-by-step project drawings, as well as more (and more orderly) instruction on techniques.

I think I'll be supplementing this drawing book with others. I hope to purchase Drawing Textbook and may look into others. Eventually I'd like to branch out beyond drawing to painting and other mediums with the kids--we'll see when I work up the courage to do so! Meanwhile, at least we've made some headway with art.

Lydia the Tenderhearted

Lydia is perhaps the most passionate of our children (which is saying a lot--all of them seem to have pretty strong emotions!). She has a tender place in her heart for most of God's creatures and dearly loves to make friends of animals large and small.

One day last summer she came in from playing outside with a dead roly-poly in her hand and a saga of woe. She told me, "I thought he was a bad roly-poly, so I killed him. So he was dead. But he wasn't a bad roly-poly. I thought he was, but he wasn't. He was my friend. I killed my friend. Now I will never see him again . . ." And she burst into tears.

Just the other day she was on a story-telling kick. I managed to get one on video:

(Oh, and she recently had an episode with pinworms that involved several nights of torment and weeping--thus the distinction between "good" and "bad" worms.)

Trick or Treat

In an effort spearheaded by Josiah, the kids had been planning their Halloween costumes for several months . . . possibly even since last year! They waffled a little once in a while, but for the most part, they staunchly stuck with their plan to be Robin Hood, Little John, and Maid Marion. 

When our church announced we wouldn't do our usual neighborhood Halloween night trunk-or-treat/outreach, we looked up some local churches that did something similar, not sure if our neighborhood would work well for trick-or-treating. 

Robin Hood

 

We ended up taking the kids to a church trunk-or-treat on the Friday before Halloween, but then last-minute decided to join some neighbor friends for a brief stint of trick-or-treating on Halloween before it got dark. The latter surprised me by being quite fun!

Maid Marion, Little John, and unidentified sidekick

This was my first experience with trick-or-treating, since my family didn't do Halloween when I was growing up. I was leery of taking our kids around the neighborhood because of the few houses with scary decorations, and I wondered if the un-decorated houses would just not answer to trick-or-treaters.

The merry gang

Well, it turns out most people happily pass out candy to cute kids on Halloween, at least around here! Lydia corrected everyone most seriously when they asked her if she was Robin Hood: "No. I'm Little John. 'Siah is Robin Hood." (She pronounces "John" with a French "j"--softened.)

Clara in some sort of little outfit I threw together so she wouldn't look entirely out of place

The kids were giddy with the excitement of running up to doors and getting candy, candy, and more candy. They had lots of fun with their friends Leo and Massi (neighborhood kids) as we slowly went about a block and a half before heading home. It's amazing how much candy they accumulated in just that distance . . . enough to last a looong time if Mama and Daddy didn't dispose of some of it.

When we got home, they had just about as much fun passing out candy to the kids who rang our doorbell. They'd race over, carefully pick out three pieces each, and importantly drop the candy into the kids' buckets. "My turn! MY TURN!" they'd yell whenever we heard the doorbell . . .

Last year I failed in the costume department (Clara was born the day before Halloween). This year I started earlier and came up with pretty easy but decent-looking Robin Hood and Little John outfits. I found a tutorial for the hats online, and I let Josiah and Lydia pick out a fake feather to glue in. I cut their short cape-things out of the same green felt as the hats and then criss-crossed a brown felt strip through holes in the front to look like lacing. They wore long-sleeved tee-shirts underneath the quickly fashioned tunics (Lydia's I cut and sewed up from an old tee-shirt of Jer's; Josiah's was a too-big sweatshirt). In the full-length picture of Josiah at the beginning, you can see his spats. I made those out of felt, and then we held them on with leather thongs and twine. Jeremy made the bows out of PVC pipe and string. All in all, I think those costumes turned out pretty well!

Abby's was more haphazard. I found the skirt at Goodwill, paired it with a white tee-shirt, and wrapped and tucked some stretchy white material over that. I used the same material to fashion a sort of headcover for her. Because she was with her siblings, most people figured out what her costume was pretty easily.

So Halloween was a success: the children had lots of fun, we didn't run into any traumatizing/frightening decorations or characters, and they're already planning their costumes for next year . . .

September Recap

September has come and gone, and I still have more to say about it. So here's a bits-and-pieces recap . . .

My 10-month-old baby is no more. How short a month is, and how much she changes and grows.

I've been meaning to do an update on Clara for several months now. I think I have at least three or four to catch up on! Hopefully before she turns one I'll manage to write about her doings and sayings (yes, meaningful sounds/words now!). She is so cute and such fun, as you can see from the photo above.

Over Labor Day weekend we braved the traffic (and were stuck in it, both up the mountain and down) to go to Flagstaff. Everyone enjoyed seeing the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! We celebrated Emily's birthday and scouted out Seven West, the area Jeremy is assigned for elk hunting (on the border between the Coconino and Kaibab forests).

Grandma and the girls exploring

The view

Hiking with Grandma

Look! A fun ditch!

 

Scott taking aim

Lauren the sharpshooter

Dortha surprised herself by enjoying it!

Back at home, the kids have become obsessed with drawing. I don't object! (The only downside is the piles of treasured masterpieces that no one wants thrown away. I have to do the dirty duty at night after bedtime . . . and Lydia is still mourning and looking for her "picnic" that she drew on a piece of blue construction paper about six weeks ago.)

Abby drew mountains and then realized horizontal lines made them into A's!

Josiah especially has honed his skills in the last couple months. He loves drawing battle scenes, of course. As you can see from the pictures below, in early September his people were heads with arms and legs protruding. Since then he has progressed to more realistic-looking stick people, often accessorized with backpacks, hats, swords, bows, etc.

The extra protrusions from the arms are weapons--swords, mostly; 

one guy here is in jail (see the bars?)

Here you see some landscape elements: mountains with snow, sun, little hovel/house

I believe that's a bridge spanning the mountaintops. The guy below is in jail.

Some guys here have axes, not just stick-swords . . . (I drew the knight)

 

The girls like to attempt to copy Josiah, but they haven't his battle-focused imagination, skill, or patience yet. They often draw meandering shapes and lines and then add faces: "Look, Mama! I made a Llama!" Abby told me after adding eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth to a shape (not pictured, sorry).

Some people floating around . . .

 

When they do take the time to make a character, some turn out pretty well, as you can see from Lydia's drawings below:

"Pa in Flagstaff" by Lydia (later she added a mustache)

"Grandma in Flagstaff" by Lydia

The artist herself with her portrait of Pa

My mom came for a short visit before she flew back to Dubai. She helped me get organized enough to start school with the kids after she left, for which I'm very thankful! Of course, she obliged the kids with lots of games--the "little lamb game" and the rabbit game (accompanied by the "In a cabin in the woods" song) were popular. She snuggled with the kids early in the morning, did laundry, babysat so I could run errands, let Jer and me go on a date . . . lots of good grandma stuff. :)

 

Outtake photo . . . Clara was done!

September here is usually quite hot still--thus all the indoor activity (drawing)--although we had a somewhat milder September this year, I think. The mosquitoes have been so bad in the back yard that outside play time was often abbreviated. But irrigation is irresistible! Josiah, Lydia, and Abby love playing in the water and in the aftermath of mud.

Lydia on the left, Abby on the right

Abby

Lydia

Josiah hosing down

Clara longs to be a big kid and join in their games. Every time they run out back and leave the door ajar, she tries to escape. She doesn't like crawling on the grass much (she does a funny crab crawl on hands and feet--keeping her knees off it), she does love to be pushed around in the coupe car! Josiah, Lydia, and Abby vie for turns pushing her . . . but they're speed-demons!

What would a month be around here without some sort of injury? Abby fell when balanced precariously to pick flowers. She smashed her face into a table. Thankfully the wound was below her eye! The bruising spread to her eye, though, and looked pretty bad for about a week.

Josiah always wants to play war games with PVC pipes outside

The girls long ago mastered the balance bikes Grandma and Pa gave them for the second birthday. They whiz around on those little bikes with superb balance and steering. Lydia developed an interest in Josiah's old blue bike, and she practiced pedaling around the yard. Abby tried it out, too.

One evening at the park, Jer decided on a whim to remove the training wheels and see if the girls could combine their balance skills with their newfound pedaling ability. Sure enough, they could! Lydia was initially more confident than Abby . . .

Lydia

Abby tries Josiah's bigger bike

After that initial foray into riding a two-wheeler, we found two more "bigger" bikes at Goodwill and on craigslist. So Josiah has a "new" green bike, and the girls use his old red one and the "new" pink one Jer found. They're doing so well riding--they've taken some falls, but nothing too terrible, and they're quite confident now. They have yet to learn to start by themselves, though, so the process is still dad-intensive.

Clara loved the swings at the park!

Bathtime got crazier in September when we added Clara into the mix! She loves being part of the crew in the tub . . .

Grandma and Kezzie came down for a few hours one Monday in September! Anna had a meeting here in Phoenix, so Dortha drove with her and did her conference calls from our house. The kids were thrilled to have Kezzie here! And Grandma got to spend some time with them when she finished her work. Here she has them enraptured with a book!

Can there be too many pictures of Clara? I think not. She took her first steps in September. She loves to cruise along the furniture and walls and is tentatively stepping from one object to another, though she can't take more than two or three steps before falling. She loves to be with me in the kitchen when I'm cooking. She pulls out the mixing bowls and metal lids to make lots of noise, and she pulls all the kitchen towels off the oven handle. We love this happy sweetie!

So--there's a little hop through some of our September!