Cartwheels! Sid and her friends are learning how to do cartwheels in gymnastics class. A lawn, or occasionally a living room isn't safe from the threat of a 5 year old learning to spin herself upside down! It has even entered into her artwork!
Sid cartwheeling while mom cheers her on. "Mom, I am drawing you in a dress ok?!"
Practice, practice, practice.
Even mom tried a few but that was not captured heheeee.
She drew her picture with pencil and began her masterpiece. We have worked a lot in tempra and oil pastels but this was a first with the watercolours. It was had for her to understand the idea of opaque colours and layering. We looked at a few well known watercolour paintings for some ideas but what was most helpful was to sit down and paint my own picture with her. She was trying to get very solid dark colours and was killing her brushes so this helped her get a better feel for using water. I quickly drew........ guess...... an.... Airedale! And 15 minutes later had her painted. OH BOY did I have fun. I kept thinking about how I would like to finish it and how I would blend.... "Mom, can I have a turn now?". Right, back to the point of the exercise. I took my picture down and Sid spent the next day working on her house, sky, clouds, person and bbq (which included cooking meat and black smoke!). Thank you Grandmama and Grandpa Bill for enhancing our lives and filling us with so much joy.
Had to share my first try at watercolours too. LOVEd it and want to paint some more.
Sid was so enchanted with the hands on learning that she really wanted to read the next chapter about the Egyptians. I told her we needed to wait until our two books arrived from Amazon.ca.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bNtkZje2fNw1qIm5aXFy5j9b6u7r-_ik2d7X4QwXVb5qLUUVBGOZOSqWsvNWSQMzLhklfyj0p1068gF6XoH1AgI6e7mnr1fwfighFCNusUTsUxh24sXRjfen1Cxvznm1cYVatwj1rkE/s1600/completeAF4.jpg
Sid cartwheeling while mom cheers her on. "Mom, I am drawing you in a dress ok?!"
Practice, practice, practice.
And they are even getting into the school work ;)
Even mom tried a few but that was not captured heheeee.
With the change in the seasons we are spending more time outside and daily I am amazed at a new challenge or skill Sid is working on. Thanks to her Grandmama and her Grandpa Bill she has some more new things to learn about! On Sunday Grandpa Bill showed up with a brand new trampoline with enclosure for the yard. Hoooorah! 12 feet of jumping heaven with a safety net to keep mom feeling safe. Sid was beside herself with excitement. She has to wait until Friday for it to be assembled and she is being very patient considering her excitement level. One thing that has helped her bide her time over the last two days has been a wonderful gift from her Grandmama. We were over having dinner and I had just bought Sid a watercolours paint set at Wallacks. We were telling Grandmama about Sid's love for painting, drawing and anything creative when Grandmama whisked Sid away to her studio. I went to see what the girls were up to and discovered Grandmama had Sid set up at her easel and was painting with acrylics on a canvas. Our little one is so at ease with art. It has always been a daily part of her life and she gravitates towards any creative release (when she isn't jumping, twirling and dancing!!!). Grandmama saw the joy in Sid's eyes while painting and packed up her huge painters box with many acrylic paints, brushes, papers, accessories and a beautiful table top easel. She turned to Sid and said "This is for you." On the spot Grandmama turned our Sid into a little artist and Sid was thrilled and so proud.
After ballet we finally arrived home with all the paint supplies and even though it was close to bedtime Sid had to paint.
She drew her picture with pencil and began her masterpiece. We have worked a lot in tempra and oil pastels but this was a first with the watercolours. It was had for her to understand the idea of opaque colours and layering. We looked at a few well known watercolour paintings for some ideas but what was most helpful was to sit down and paint my own picture with her. She was trying to get very solid dark colours and was killing her brushes so this helped her get a better feel for using water. I quickly drew........ guess...... an.... Airedale! And 15 minutes later had her painted. OH BOY did I have fun. I kept thinking about how I would like to finish it and how I would blend.... "Mom, can I have a turn now?". Right, back to the point of the exercise. I took my picture down and Sid spent the next day working on her house, sky, clouds, person and bbq (which included cooking meat and black smoke!). Thank you Grandmama and Grandpa Bill for enhancing our lives and filling us with so much joy.
Had to share my first try at watercolours too. LOVEd it and want to paint some more.
A good homeschooling friend had told us about a great book A Story of The World and had mentioned it came with an activity book. I requested it from the library and was shocked when the day that I went to pick it up, my good friend Magda had ordered the exact same book from the library and had it in CD form. A strange happy coincidence? We LOVE this book. It is written so well for kids Sid's age and it is so engaging. Emma had told me about the activity book and after reading the first chapter to Sid about Nomads we did two of the craft activities. The first was a game bag. Nope not games like snakes and ladders but game like snakes and lizards for soup! The nomad children would scavenge small animals, berries, nuts, eggs and vegetation with their moms. The game bag is what they would put the newts, lizards, snakes etc. in to bring back to mom to make stew. The craft was to make an 18" x 11" game bag in animal print. I had an old batik skirt that did the trick and out came the sewing machine again!
A drawstring bag with handle was created in a very short time. (I LOVE my sewing machine!) and then I hid, snakes, lizards and felted eggs around the house. My little nomad found them and brought them to me to make stew or soup for lunch.
We had delicious chunky lizard soup (veggie soup!) then finished off being Nomads with some cave paintings.
Sid was so enchanted with the hands on learning that she really wanted to read the next chapter about the Egyptians. I told her we needed to wait until our two books arrived from Amazon.ca.
A cute Sid story to end the post. Today Sid said "Mom, can you please felt me a Chickadee like the one you made Francine? But I don't want a pathetic one ok?" I said "Do you mean you don't want a leusistic one?" "Ya, I want a regular one please." So no more felting pathetic chickadee's for me! Oh, and leusistic means the bird carries and albino gene. The leusistic chickadee below only has white specks through her black cap, she is only partially leusistic.
Francine's Leusistic Chickadee:
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