Art Fun With Blotting

I Love to Paint by Jennifer Lipsey

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my daughter using art to release some stress in Getting My Daughter Ready for NaNoWriMo.  In it, I explained how she used art to deal with her mother being sick.  We used that as an opportunity to create a story out of some of her pictures.  That inspired me to teach them about ink blots.  Using the above book, I asked them to throw down some dots on a page that was folded in half.

Ink blotting inspiration

I found the page (shown above) from the book; it shows easy directions and examples of blots.  I showed the pictures to the kids.  We only had a few colors of paint to work with as you will see below.  Of course, we've since bought more paint.  I did want to show what we came up with based on the limited paint we had.

Gabriel's snowman

Once there were dots of paint on one side of the page, Gabriel folded the page.  Then, he scrutinized the picture.  He decided that there was a snowman.  I think he's right.  What do you see, my friends?

Kaelyn's butterfly

Kaelyn's picture shows some definite parts to a butterfly.  I was still feeling sick when my kids did these blots so I didn't ask them to complete their pictures.  Ideally, the teacher would ask the child to outline the butterfly's wings and to add antennae.  I still think you can see the butterfly, though.  What do you think, my friends?

Iris' sheep

Iris' sheep was quite visible.  She added more dots to this picture, but you can still see the sheep in the middle.  

Her other creations were interesting.  Okay, well, maybe macabre would be a better description.  The other pictures were turning out to be bleeding hearts and rib cages.  I think it's her reading too many of those Japanese comics influencing her.  I wish I could show you the pictures, but she won't let me.

Two Hearts That Beat As One

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture from Rafael.  He's always asleep when I want to ask him for one of his pictures.  I do have one of mine.  The picture directly above I named Two Hearts That Beat As One.  I think I was influenced by my sister-in-law getting married.

Well, thanks for reading this entry about our art fun with blotting.
I hope to share some more lessons in the future.  Stay tuned!

If you enjoyed this entry, please share it with others.
I would appreciate that very much.

How about it, my readers?  Do you teach your children art?  If so, what do you use for inspiration and/or lessons?  I Love to Paint by Jennifer Lipsey is useful for teaching easy art lessons.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace.

This entry is part of the Family Fun Fridays series.

Connect 4 Game

We enjoyed playing Connect 4 game.

I love playing Connect 4.  I love playing with my kids.  My kids are nice when they play and even when they win.  I still get excited when I win.  They get excited, too.

I love spending time with my kids.  Many parents say that time goes fast.  It sure does.  I already have a 15 year-old son.  That's why I took some time this week to play with my two babies, Kaelyn and Rafael.

We took turns playing Connect 4--which is a strategy game.  If I won while playing with one child, I then played with the other one.  It was the same with the children; if they won, they'd play with the other person.  That way, it was fair.  I had fun.

I did not let my kids win!  I don't believe in letting them win.  I didn't even let Kaelyn, the six year-old, win against me.  She won on her own.  I think victory is much more sweeter that way.

Here's how well Rafael did, while playing against me:

Rafael used the reds. I used blacks.

What choice did I have?

Rafael was guaranteed to win.

Here's how our last game played out:

We played almost all of the chips.

Rafael beat me again!

In this final game, we played almost all of the chips.  (I suspect that there were some red chips missing.)  I had no choice in this game play.  I had to put a black chip in the sixth vertical line.  That allowed Rafael to place his final red chip above my black chip.  That meant he created a red diagonal line of four chips.  

Rafael beat me...but he did not brag about it.  He was a pleasant winner.

I love all my babies, and they know it.  I've said it before: I don't have favorites.  Today, I wanted to show how simple it is to spend some time with your kids, away from the teaching.  As homeschooling parents, we can get caught up in teaching, teaching, teaching.  Let's spend some time with our kids in having fun.

Thanks for reading this entry and viewing the pictures.  I hope you enjoyed it.

How about you, my readers?  Do you play games with your kids?  Do you take time to just play with your kids?  Let me know what you do.  I encourage you to play the UNO game with your whole family.  You can discern how well and fair your kids can play with each other.

 

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace.

This entry has been part of the Family Fun Fridays series. 

I Was Bored--It Must Be Spring Fever

Yesterday, I was feeling so utterly bored!  Yes, I had many things still on my plate--many writing projects still to do.  I still had chores to do, but I was bored...so I decided to fill my salt shakers.  I got my supplies together--shakers, salt packets from restaurants, and tray.  I started to tear the little suckers, and it felt great.

Being able to tear something, again and again, felt exhilarating.  It's like I did some damage and something constructive at the same time.  I did some mundane chore, without having to do any deep thinking.  In the midst of that, I still had the pile of clothes to put away.  I still had to make my bed, too.

Did I mention that it was already two o'clock in the afternoon?  Did I say that I was still in my pajamas?  Oh, yes, many of us have had those days.  It doesn't matter if you are a stay-at-home mother or a work-out-of-home mother, we all have had a day like this.  I think it might be an indication that we need to spice up our days a bit.

Perhaps it is the spring bug biting me.  You know, it's like when you are aching to go outside and enjoy a wonderful spring day, frolicking in the green, green grass.  Oh, yes, I can see us all wearing white--sundresses, white pant, and white t-shirts, and running in the sand in the beach on a bright, sunny day.  Recharging our batteries is sometimes necessary.  We need to rest our bodies, minds, and souls; then we can conquer the world when we land back into reality again.

What's to stop us from enjoying the warmer weather out there? Time?  Money?  Do we really need those things?  No.  How much does it cost to drive out to our local park, if the weather is right?

Whatcha gonna do, my readers?  Are you gonna take me up on my challenge?  Go out there and have some fun!  I know what I'm gonna do--I'm gonna plant me some tomato and cucumber seeds for my garden this weekend. 

Have yourselves some pre-spring fun for me.  I already started by grabbing my mp3 player, cranking it up whilst I made my bed and put away my pile of clothes, all the while dancing like a crazy buffoon.  Hehe!

God bless you all with peace, my beloveds.