Iris' Wacom Tablet

Iris uses her tablet to create Manga.

Iris is loving her tablet.  She now has the Manga Studio software to accompany the tablet.  She has already been working on some of her pictures.  This tablet came with a pen to draw.  It can replace the mouse.

Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

Here is a picture of the box that the tablet came inside.  It shows that the thinness of the tablet.  There is one downfall.  My daughter says the pen's point might wear out.  Other than that, she has been enjoying her tablet.  The pen, which is used on the tablet, allows her to either draw and/or paint her pictures.

This is the back of the box for the tablet.

The tablet allows for manipulation of images.

The personal touch allows the user to personalize documents.  The empowerment touch allows the user to draw quick sketches when necessary.  The enhancements allow a user to create invitations and scrapbooks.  It is flexible with different operating systems.  Finally, even the fingers can be used to manipulate pictures.

Iris drew this picture by hand.

Iris draws a picture like the one above.  She can draw it by hand.  She can draw it with the tablet.  In this case she can scan the hand drawn picture into the computer.  Then, she can save the picture into a USB drive stick.

One of Iris' pictures is finished.

From the USB drive, she usually downloads the plain picture onto her Netbook.  Iris painted the above picture using the tablet and the Manga software.  The picture began as a black and white image.  She posted it in her Netbook onto a paint application (which acts as the easel) as a GIMP image.  With the pen, she added the colors (much more quickly and with more precision) as she desired.

Iris drew this picture in 2008.

Iris has come a long way since 2008.  

About three years ago, I asked her to draw this picture for a unit study ( I created) on how to spend money wisely.  Her pictures back then were simplistic.  This picture shows that she had a flair for showing emotion in her characters.  I think she has improved oodles and can't wait to see what is up ahead in her artistic career.  I'm so happy we have supplied her with the tools she wanted.

How about you, my readers?  Would you supply your little artist with material goods necessary for his/her possible future career?  Would you supply him/her the verbal praise needed to boost the self-esteem?  I hope you will consider providing all that you can to foster the possibilities in your child's life.

This has been an entry for Technology Tuesdays series.  I hope you have enjoyed it.

For some background, you can look at this past entry: Homeschooling Using a Netbook to Write 

Homeschool Reading Using Manga

My homeschooled daughter loves to read Manga.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go." - Dr. Seuss

One of the most important skills for a child to learn is reading. Reading requires the ability to look at words and make sense of them. Reading is necessary to learning new things in life. Reading is empowering. Reading can indeed take you to new places.

That is why I encourage reading of any kind, provided that it is age-appropriate. Take, for example, the Naruto series that my daughter is reading. The book above shows a Manga (comic) book. My daughter recently acquired a few more of these books to add to her library. I'm not a fan of that genre of reading, but my daughter has embraced it.

I'm just glad she is reading!

For one, it does have reading material and not just pictures. Second, it has vivid pictures. Third, it has complex story lines. Fourth, my daughter has created fan-fiction as a result of exposure to it. Finally, she has also been led to create her own pictures.

The more she has read, the more she now knows. The more that she has learned, the more places, in the creative spectrum she has gone. Not just that, reading lends itself to escapism. That is when you read about different places, customs, and peoples, and you are transported out of your own world and into another one. It is lovely that reading can cause you to visit elsewhere, even though you are sitting in your own bedroom.

To sum up, reading leads you to new worlds you never knew. You visit the new, unfamiliar. Who knows what it can lead to? A wonderful, daring career full of possibilities? How about a means to support yourself financially, while loving your job?

What about you, my readers? Do you love to read? Where does it take you? What about the children in your life? Do they love to read? If you and/or your children don't enjoy reading, I would suggest picking up some Manga. It can be very entertaining for all ages.

My beloveds, may God bless you all with His peace.

This entry has been part of Thorough Thursdays. I hope you enjoyed it.

Homeschooling Using a Netbook to Write

Daughter uses netbook to write for homeschooling.

Writing is an essential skill that must be taught to all children.  Homeschooled children are no exception.  It is challenging to find a way to motivate children to want to write.  Enter a rewards system!  When you present a technological toy in the mix, you can get wonderful results.

Take my daughter, Iris, for example.  She and her siblings saw the Astroboy movie that came out in 2009.    This caused my oldest son, Gabriel, to research in Wikipedia about Astroboy.  (You can see how the interest was born.)  This, in turn, led to him finding out that there was a whole cartoon series based on the Astroboy character.

My son found the cartoon episodes and pretty soon all four kids were seeing the episodes at all times of the day and night.  They have even found other comics from the creator of Astroboy.

This is all to say that my daughter, shown in the picture, has immersed herself in all things Manga and Anime.

Just to clarify things: Anime is the animation of the cartoon images; Manga is the still creations or artwork.  I know; the terms were confusing to me, too.  I had to look it up just now.  You see, Osamu Tezuka, a Japanese artist, created some comics (stills) or Manga, which eventually became Anime (the animated series).  I hope that clears it all up.

Anyway, so here is a snippet of one story that Iris created (and yes, I am sharing with her permission):

 I run across the soft field of grass, the morning dew tickling my bare feet.  The rising sun casts a warm, yellow glow across the green grass.  I look over my shoulder to see if my tormentor is still onto me.

I am surprised to see that no one is behind me.  I slow to a trot, my eyes darting from left to right...

I don't even think I could write that well.  

Iris is super at writing.  I've told her that, too.  She's a doubter, just like me.  I'm proud, though, of all the strides she's taken to become such a good writer.  Just think--this was the child who was afraid to write her name for fear that it wouldn't turn out perfectly.

That's why she got the Netbook she wanted.  I wanted for her to have a means to quickly put down her ideas.  I knew she had it in her to create brilliant stuff on paper.  Having the Netbook where she can create and store her story ideas is ideal for her.

Buying the Netbook has paid off.  Ever since we got it for her two years ago, Iris has been on it nonstop, visiting forums, watching more Anime, and writing bits of her stories.  She still has many ideas for stories just waiting to be said, in her own voice.

How about you, my readers?  Do you have a budding writer in your life?  Or are they interested in another type of art?  Whatever the craft is, please encourage them.  Provide them the tools they need to do their craft.  You never know if they might become famous and make lots of money (for you).

God bless you all with His peace.

This has been an entry for Technology Tuesdays.  I hope you liked it.