Kids and Art

We have been working on the children's creativity these past few days. It is half term here in Tyne & Wear so we have another boy who normally goes to school staying with us again as we have him every holiday. This means that with the unborn baby there are seven brains to contend with at the moment two of which have come down with some sort of stuffy nose virus today so are a little bit bunged up.

The oldest two Joseph and Lionel have been exploring more fully their manga drawing techniques this week. They have been following a course that I purchased online over a year ago. Only another few weeks to go until Easter time then after that they will submit work for a course completion certificate and award. I am really pleased that they have stuck with it for well over a year and feel quite proud of them. I remember in the early stages when the simplest technique would stump them but now they are drawing all kinds of action figures and scenes. Lionel has made up his own Anime which is rather good. When he lets me take some photographs I will post it on the web. Unfortunately he is very shy about showing off his work but may get a bit more confidence when he gets his certificate and award.

We have been doing a Paint What You See exercise with the others. It is working out well. Using different types of paint the children have already chosen their favourites to explore more fully. Angelica has taken to watercolours done in acrylics. Imogen and Ivan seem to like mixing powder forms of paint and exploring different thickness' to achieve different results.

All in all it has been exciting watching them explore and discover the various types of mediums for themselves. I hope that they do stick with nurturing their creative sides as that is very important I believe.

Also this week, yesterday we went to a Chinese New Year craft and celebration with our home education group. It was fun but we had to leave early. The kids never made anything which was a tad disappointing but they enjoyed looking at all the interesting objects and catching up with their friends.

Angelica has been working on her writing skills as well branching out into calligraphy styles. She is keen to master this art form of writing and is working hard at it. Lionel has been writing in Chinese for the New Year celebrations and Imogen and Ivan have been adding to the stories they had already started last week drawing pictures to go with them.

We hope to go rock pool exploring again this week possibly Thursday. The weather has been really bad though so we are playing that one by ear I think. Will post some pictures when I take them off the camera.