art

DIY Puffy Paint

July 19, 2014 by Amy Leave a Comment

My kids love to paint with puffy paint. It adds dimension to their work and makes painting even more fun. The best part: you can make it easily with ingredients you already have home!

To make your own puffy paint, simply mix one part of paint to one part of shaving cream. Stir together gently and then brush onto paper. If you spread the paint out super thin, the paint will flatten close to the paper; if, however, you brush the paint on thickly and allow it lie in small mounds on the paper, it will dry exactly as you paint it, texture and all.

Allow the paint to dry and display as usual.

What will you paint with your puffy paint?

DIY Egyptian Cookie Map

July 19, 2014 by Amy

Whenever we kick off a new unit of a place, we start out by watching a few YouTube travel videos and studying maps. The kids love maps. They love trying to determine what the weather might be based on the location’s proximity to the equator, what sort of animals might live there, and even to speculate about what daily life might be like.

We began to study Egypt about two weeks ago, and we decided to kick our map study up a notch: Instead of reading other people’s maps, we made our own out of cookie bars.

This might sound complicated, and it did take longer than I expected, but the kids loved it.

The kids began by mixing up a double batch of our favorite cookie bar batter. The kids are good bakers and were able to do this entirely on their own. (This also required my Big Helper to practice adding mixed numbers as I didn’t double the recipe for her.)

Then they each retrieved the paper maps we’ve looked at and studied the basic shape of the country. I gave each kid a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and half of the batter. They used a spatula to spread the batter out into the general shape of Egypt. My Little Man wanted to create the topography of Egypt with hills and valleys but then sadly decided that the desert was probably pretty flat. My Big Helper actually used her spatula to carve the Nile River and its delta with tributaries into her batter.

After baking, we mixed up a batch of simple cookie glaze. We colored some blue, some green, and left the rest white. The kids used our cookie paintbrushes to paint the Nile blue and the fertile land near it green. Then they crushed graham crackers and sprinkled them over the white icing to represent the desert sand.

Next they moved on to labeling. They made small flags out of toothpicks and scrapbook paper to represent major cities and monuments. The kids shared a small package of M&Ms to designate these places on their cookie and then stuck a flag in next to each one. My Big Helper color-coded her candies to signify the capital city, monuments, and other places of interest, and then made a map key so share that information.

Their personalities shine through on each one. My Little Man wanted to have lots of glaze on his map and as much of the color orange as possible.

My Big Helper wanted everything to be neat and orderly and as close to a printed map as possible. She was exact and precise as she worked and really enjoyed making her Egypt, as she calls it. She’s already planning how to make the map for the next country we study!

Now, after supper each night, the kids eagerly ask for “a piece of their Egypt.” Who knew that Egypt was such a yummy country?

What’s your favorite way to kick off a new study?

Chinese New Year Party with Winter Promise

July 19, 2014 by Amy

I received a free copy of Winter Promise’s Children Around the World curriculum in exchange for a series of posts about how we are using it. This is one such post. For my complete review and disclosure policy, click on the ‘Full Disclosure’ tab above.

We recently spent several weeks studying China for our homeschool Geography Fair (more about that to come). The kids were super excited when we read in our Winter Promise materials that extended family is typically invited to a Chinese New Year dinner, and so our simple homemade dinner morphed into a full-fledged dinner party.

Fortunately for me, Winter Promise made this easy. With menu ideas, customs, and much more all included, this was an easy way to add an element of fun to our study.

My Big Helper created a beautiful invitation on red paper, written with a golden-inked pen.

My Little Man made these beautiful lanterns for on our chandelier. He decorated them with that same golden pen, and the effect was quite stunning.

After quite a bit of research, we planned a menu that we felt incorporated many of the traditional Chinese elements we were reading about. We made sure to include as many of symbolic foods as we could, and there were lots. For example, we served long noodles, which is symbolic of the hope for along life, and seafood, which is symbolic for the hope for wealth. This made our table look somewhat like a buffet, but it gave us a good opportunity to try new things.

Despite our research, our food was not exactly authentic. I don’t have the right sort of pans or kitchen set-up to cook many dishes at once, so we planned semi-correct things – dishes that would give us the right flavors but prepared a different way. The kids prepped the main dishes, Mongolian Beef and Sesame Chicken, and while My Little Man had a blast doing it, My Big Helper decided that raw meat is ‘yucky.’

Despite our lack of woks, everything came out well. Most of the Mongolian Beef was devoured.

There were even fewer appetizers left – apparently dumplings, egg rolls, and rangoons are a bit hit with this family.

We had a great time at our Chinese New Year feast and discovered several new talents. My Little Man is an expert chopstick user. Egg rolls are easier to make than I thought.

The best part, though, was talking afterwards. We talked about how the Chinese culture was lots of fun to study, but about how happy we are to know that our futures are not dependent upon serving the proper foods or appeasing the right gods. We can’t change our future by eating long noodles or short ones, but we do know the One who holds our futures, and there’s freedom in knowing that He’s planning a good one for us.

Although, as good as those long noodles were, we’ll probably eat them again, anyway – just for fun.

Thanks, Winter Promise!

Chalk Paint

July 19, 2014 by Amy

At the beginning of the summer I made a list of fun and creative things for us to do over the warm months. Chalk paint was on the list, and a few weeks ago we finally tried it out. I wish we had done it sooner!

This is definitely a fun art project, and it’s one that we’ll do again and again. It’s easy to make, couldn’t be simpler to clean up, and you can use it on lots of mediums.

To make your own street paint, you’ll only need a few things: water, cornstarch, and food coloring.

Mix equal amounts of water and cornstarch, and then dye to your favorite colors with food coloring. It can’t get much simpler than that!

As the paint dries, it whitens and lightens in color a bit until it resembles chalk. Once dry, you can almost brush it away, and a good rain wish wash it all off. If you paint with this outside, you have absolutely no cleanup to do, and spills won’t matter!

We painted my parents’ driveway when visiting a few weeks ago.

We also used this paint to create large cardboard masterpieces on our recent Art Day. We painted the cardboard black in advance to help the paint show up.

Who’s up for some outside art?

I think we’ll go paint the neighbor’s driveway this morning. Fun times. 🙂

World Tour – Origami

July 18, 2014 by Amy

While shopping a few weeks ago, I stumbled across an animal Origami kit for only $0.50. Who could beat that? I decided that we should definitely add Oriental paper-folding to our Japanese unit.

Our kit had pictorial directions and contained 8 sheets of paper to make 4 different animals. I ‘practiced’ on a ladybug and didn’t think it seemed too difficult.

Then my Little Man decided to make a hornet. It was more challenging, but doable.

Then the Big Helper decided to make a butterfly. Wow. It was really, really hard. After folding and refolding over and over again, we finally decided that this project called for Daddy’s special math skills – or, at least, something that I don’t have. We pulled the sample out of the box – it, too, was a butterfly – and she played with that.

Ultimately, we decided that there’s a reason that the Japanese spend so much time perfecting this art. It’s hard! We have a new respect for their talents – but we’ll probably stick with scissors and glue from now on.

Now, on to a brief stop in America before heading to China!

World Tour – Michaelangelo & The Kitchen Ceiling

July 18, 2014 by Amy

Italy is well known for its art, and so we had to study Michelangelo. We started by reading Michelangelo by Mike Venezia. The book was wonderful – it was basically a child-friendly biography of the artist that included many photographs of his most famous works. Being fascinated with the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, we looked at more photographs online for more information. We then decided to put our newfound knowledge to use.

We got out a small folding table that had a flat underside. I measured a large piece of easel paper so that it would cover the entire bottom of the paper and used masking tape to fasten it to the table.

Each child chose a few colors of paint, and after giving them large brushes, they set to work on their masterpiece.

My Big Helper painted Jesus’ face (the pink and purple spotch) and a church (seen as the triangular outline with the pink cross on top). My Little Man painted a fire, of course.

When it had dried, we removed the paper and taped it to the ceiling in the kitchen. Seeing those bright colors upon entering the room definitely added color to our otherwise rather plain room!

The kids were proud of their work and decided by the end that Michelangelo must have had very strong arms because it was hard work to paint over one’s head!

What creative projects have your children done lately??

World Tour – Painting Like Monet

July 18, 2014 by Amy

There are too many wonderful artists from France to pass up, and so this week we chose to study Monet. We read Monet by Mike Venezia to learn about his life and artistic style. We also read a book by the same series called Picasso by Mike Venezia. (Picasso was actually Spanish but lived in France for most of his life, so we included him for this project.)

We began with a blank canvas. Each child chose his/her colors and the colors that s/he wanted to paint with. Each child, when given the choice between Picasso’s contemporary shapes or Monet’s more traditional subjects and style, chose to paint like Monet.

My Big Helper chose to paint a seascape like Monet. She wanted to paint a house along the shore and chose to paint in blues and browns.

My Little Man wanted to paint like Monet, but he is fascinated with fire, tornadoes, and spiders. His artwork always includes at least one of those. This time, fire won out. He described his picture as red fire and blue water. (We put the finished art on a shelf in his room – his color choice was perfect!)

I had hoped to hang My Big Helper’s art in her room, as well, but her colors completely clashed – but they do match our playroom. I hung it there on a nail, and she’s been quite proud to show off how she painted like Monet. 🙂

While we do many art projects in different styles, this was the first time that we studied a specific type of art or a specific artist and learned what made it unique. We’ll definitely be doing more of this. The kids loved it, and they are looking at paintings in a new way now.

How do you ‘do art’ with YOUR kids??

Field Work Friday – Egyptians in the NC Museum of Art

July 18, 2014 by Amy Leave a Comment

This week we traveled to the North Carolina Museum of Art for a tour of the international collections. This worked well for us since we are studying Egypt, and they have a pretty neat Egyptian collection.

Guest posting for me today are My Little Man and My Big Helper to share what they learned on this trip.

This ship from Egypt. This is the ship that would carry the Pharaoh to the Afterlife. The person in front is playing a drum to tell the rowers to work together rowing. The Pharoah is sitting under the shade.

This coffin was made for a queen. There were hieroglyphics and pictures all over.

That is a coffin. A dead person goes inside the coffin. It is called a sarcophagus in Egypt.

These are gold plates. They go on the mummy, plus a death mask.

This door was the door of a tomb. It is made out of stone. The Egyptians believed that the spirits would come out of it.

These are gifts because the Egyptians believed that in the Afterlife they would need their things.

Our tour guide was wonderful about explaining things in terms that everyone could understand. We had a great time on our tour, and seeing real Egyptian artifacts was pretty cool, too!

What interesting things have you found in an art museum?

Field Work Friday – Stained Glass Windows

July 18, 2014 by Amy

We recently had the opportunity to learn about stained glass from a local artist. Always interested in the creation of this art, Dr. Saunders had taken a class years ago and made a workshop for himself. In the years since, he created stained glass windows for a local church and gifts for many. Our children – and their moms! – were excited to learn about this process.

Dr. Saunders showed us how he begins his work with a pattern. After planning the design, he must purchase the materials. At $12 per square foot, that’s not a light task. One must also take into consideration any accidents that may happen as each piece of glass could be a tinted a bit differently and therefore not match, making it important to have enough from the same batch for your current project before beginning.

After drawing a curvy line on a small piece of glass, Dr. Saunders showed us how to use a glass cutter to cut the piece. After tracing it with this tool, he used another tool which carefully separated the two pieces.

The children were curious about how the piece comes together. After explaining the soldering process, Dr. Saunders explained that the stained glass is like us – it isn’t beautiful until God’s light shines through it. To illustrate that idea and to allow them to see how the light affects each color, the group went to the window to check out the light streaming through this lighthouse window.

Afterwards Dr. Saunders let all of us look at some of his tools, and he answered many questions about the creation of stained glass.

My Big Helper was fascinated to learn that a perfect window is never set inside a church, as the only perfect thing there is God. Others were interested in seeing how the shapes could be put together to create pictures. My Little Man liked hearing about how the glass is colored from the addition of chemicals to the molten glass before cooling.

If you ever have the chance to explore this art further, check it out! Stained glass is beautiful. 🙂