Art 101, Lesson 1 with Gabrielle

 I have mentioned probably a hundred times on this blog before - Gabrielle LOVES art! I tried to find an art class for her to take this summer but unfortunately all of the classes offered within close proximity required that she currently be in kindergarten or completed kindergarten. I decided we would do "homeschool summer art classes" instead.

After researching various homeschool blogs I found a couple of different books to check out. But before I had the chance to find the books Ed brought home from work a video that is just perfect. For those of you readers who may not know, Ed and I both work for an art supply company, Jerry's Artarama .Yes, very convenient. (That is actually how we met.) The company sells tons of various art videos including a series for students of each grade level. We are obviously starting with the kindergarten one. Gabrielle and I watched a few of the lessons and she was immediately excited about the projects.

You can find more information about this series at www.officialhomeartstudio.com . It is an awesome program I would highly recommend to homeschoolers and public school families as well!

Today Samantha is at PMO. I thought the Thursday mornings she is there would be a good time for Gabrielle and I to do some of the lessons. There will probably be some lessons that Samantha can do as well, with a little more help from me. I also wanted some one on one fun, special time with Gabrielle though before she starts kindergarten in the fall.

Lesson 1, Color Mixing Handprints, Gabrielle learned about primary and secondary colors. After tracing her own hands, she filled them in with primary colors. For the background she chose two primary colors to mix together - yellow + blue = green.

The finished product...

She is eager to start lesson two!

An Artful Afternoon With Gabrielle

The girls woke up around 4:30 this morning so as I expected, Samantha fell asleep in the car on the way home from picking up Gabrielle. While this little one was sleeping,

Gabrielle wanted to do some painting and drawing and for the first time in a really long time I decided to sit down and do some artwork of my own.

Some of our work...

Gabrielle wanted to try her hand at portraits. The picture below is me wearing a crown.

I had hoped to find an art class for Gabrielle to take this summer but unless I want to drive into Raleigh every week for class, I'll have to wait until next year after she has been in kindergarten. I guess I can understand these places having their policies but it kind of irks me that although Gabrielle is 5 years old and only missed going to kindergarten this year by not even a full month, she can't take a lot of these summer camp classes. 

Anyway, once I realized no one was going to bend their rules, I decided to do some searching online for other resources and found a great book that a few homeschooling bloggers use with their kids. With the aid of that book, Gabrielle and I will be doing our own classes. The book discusses several great artists and their painting/drawing styles, followed up by step-by-step instructions of producing your own work in that style. I thought this would be good time for a field trip to the NC Museum of Art as well.

This plan probably works out better. With Gabrielle going to kindergarten next year and being in school all day, every day, this will give us some good quality time together.

More Art by Gabrielle

When Gabrielle was just shy of turning one I bought her her first coloring book and box of crayons. We sat down at the table and colored a picture together and I swear the child has not stopped drawing, coloring and creating since!

Here are some of her most recent creations...

She started by tracing a Crayola circle stencil that was mine when I was a little girl (how in the world I managed to hang onto that of all things is beyond me). Then she added her own details to turn it into an alien.

Here are the girls laying beside a paper picnic Gabrielle came up with entirely on her own.

She later added on some food, realizing she had left off all vegetables. But my favorite part of the picnic are these...

She drew, cut and pasted together coconut milk in coconut cups with red straws. 

I love that she is so creative and while at times, like when I'm really busy working or cleaning, I get aggravated by her asking for craft supplies and projects to do, I would not want her to be any other way. She literally spends hours coloring, drawing and crafting and I love that about her. I'm already looking into some art classes she can take over the summer. I just know she would have an absolute blast!

Just a little more bragging to do (after all, we parents LOVE to brag on our kids whenever we get the chance, right?), when I picked her up from school yesterday her teacher commented on Gabrielle drawing "a beautiful picture" for her place mat. Gabrielle told me it was a fairytale scene with a fairy, a mermaid and little red riding hood. I can't wait until she is able to bring it home.

And one other note on my big girl, she is now officially registered for kindergarten. I seriously don't know how or when she grew up but it happened and I am having a very difficult time wrapping my head around the idea!

Valentine Crafts with Gabrielle

Last week Samantha and I worked on Valentines for her PMO class. This week was Gabrielle's turn. The weekend ended up being very busy and packed full of other activities so we were a bit last minute getting started on her class Valentines. Fortunately the ones we chose to do were fairly simple.

Gabrielle did not want to do butterflies just like Samantha's but wanted hearts instead. She said the Tootsie Roll pops looked like arrows in the hearts. 

The next ones were a little more time consuming but a good activity for teaching Gabrielle how to braid. We made friendship bracelets for all her school friends. I ended up making all of the bracelets for the Valentines myself but while I was braiding the bracelets, Gabrielle was practicing her braiding technique. She has the steps down but just needs more practice with keeping all three pieces taut.

Both Samantha and Gabrielle also worked on their Valentines they had picked out for Ed.

Can  you tell which bear belongs to which daughter? I was impressed with how well Samantha actually did for her age and considering her less than detailed approach to crafts.