Art Class, Different than One-on-One

 Over this past year I tried to get my homeschool co-op to come out to my place to do a bi-weekly art lesson with the lad and I but...no one came out.  I guess they thought the half-hour drive was too much to bear.   I wanted to do an art class because doing art as a group is much different than doing art one-on-one.

So when it came time to do our spring co-op again I thought, I'm going to do an art class.

We had FUN!   I did a class on Zentangles and I have to admit.. it was BY FAR the easiest class I have ever done for co-op.

Grab the book: Zentangle: The inspiring and mindful drawing workbook with over 70 practice tiles

Grab a bunch of children.
Set them down with some paper and pencils and watch them go.  Seriously.. we had fun.
My job?   Simple.
Give some basic instruction first day... see.. look at these different zentangles.  This one is called ____, that one is called ______.  Practice a few of them.  We practiced on 2 x 2 squares of paper.

My job?  Offer encouragement, show what you can do different... if you space the lines farther apart or turn the tangle upside down.  "AH!!!"   one boy said.. "I can turn it into wheat!" while a girl said "I can make those vines into ropes if I add some twisty lines".

I LOVE THAT STUFF!   Seriously.  I do not consider myself artistic.. I hated school and having to all do the exact same thing when doing art.  HATED IT.   But I do have a knack for taking ideas and presenting them to children and then seeing them literally FLY with it.   I LOVE THAT.

For week two I asked them.. what do you want to do?  Do you want to practice more on the 2 x 2 sheets OR would you like to see what you can do with objects?     Objects it was, so I brought in a variety of half sheet images.  Some pokemon, some birds, some puppies etc.   Things I thought the children might be interested in..and let them go to work.   I just pulled up free colouring pages from on-line, resizing them to fit the page.

This proved to be what the children wanted to do.   Fill in images and make their zentangles, or doodles with a purpose, practical.

I quickly discovered one young lady had an affinity for doing bible verses.  Her mom told me how delighted she was that I allowed her to do what she wanted to do and didn't make her do what the others were.   This picture is partially done.  She did another one that was much bigger and filled with hearts around the John 3:16 verse.  Simple and well done.

Another young lady turned out these amazingly well done drawings.   She hopes to turn them into a book and maybe sell them.   I told her she had the skill to do so.

 Another young lady tried her hand at making her own outline and then filling it in.  Isn't she doing an great job?  I was so proud of her and pleased with her work.

My young fellows weren't really keen on me taking pictures of them working.   In fact one refused, so I went with it.  :)  We did careful behind the scenes pictures.  I'm not supposed to let it be too big, but pleased I was with their work.   For their final project white shirt did a zentangle with french symbols to be filled out, and striped shirt did a series of intricate lines inside a pokemon figure.

This young lady learned to fit the zentangle drawings to the outline she was using.   By the time she had this one finished, it would have been a joy to colour in and see all those sweeping lines.   Not just done in pencil, but in fine tipped marker as well.

The bulk of the class was just me doing around and saying well done, have you thought about using this idea?   Oh.. I like how you added some blockiness to that, or see how the lines sweep here?.. what kind of doodle do you think will fit well there?    Encouragement along with different images to fill.. it was just an easy, laid back class filled with laughter and beauty.  

 Didn't they do an excellent job?  I was so immensely pleased with all of them.  It was amazing to see their different styles?   A couple of the children made "cheat sheets" for themselves, choosing zentangles they particularly liked and putting them on a sheet.

This post is part of the Homeschool Crew Art Round up.  It will probably open up on Friday morning.

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Review: Mission to Pluto

I have to tell you this.. I have not read this book, my lad did. Boy did he ever talk about this first visit an ice dwarf and the kuiper belt, as found in Mary Kay Carson's book "Mission to Pluto". 

AND.. wonders upon wonders.. he actually told me what he thought about it.   So this review is based solely on what he told me about it.

HE LIKED IT!

OH,... he was full of information.  He researched additional ideas on youtube and just filled two weeks with reading and watching.  :)   Here's one video he told me about: 

It's a good thing that you know?

What he liked:
LOTS of pictures.    Not just pictures and colour graphics to fill space, but ones that actually had to do with what he was reading about.

It had interesting cut-outs...you know when they bring up interesting facts not directly related to what they are talking about.  Like when they talked about the girl who named Pluto or when they talked about the colours of the spectrum and what not.   My lad was going on and on about how that led to him learning about Red  S____ .  He's told me and explained it to me but it keeps disappearing into the nether on me!   (how red isn't really red cause it disappears ???)   Anyways, it has him all fascinated and talking.

He loved it when they had all the pictures on the page in one spot OR taking up the entire page.   He didn't have to wonder where he should start reading.

If the picture was at the top of slightly off center he didn't know if he should start reading under the picture or beside the picture, so "tell them mom that if they are writing this for me to read they should put the pictures either at the top or at the bottom so it isn't confusing". 

It has lots of information in it but "I found it really easy to read.  It didn't take me very long".

When I asked if he thought other boys might be interested the answer was "yes".   He admittedly wasn't sure if girls would like it... but honestly.. I think they would if they are into the things of outer space and seeing how a scientist realized a dream.

When my son realized there were several others in the series he wanted me to rush out and get more of them.. so expect a review or two to come along yet from others in the series.  :)

Title: Mission to Pluto
Author: Mary Kay Carson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 80
Age Range:  10-12 years
Series: Scientists in the Field
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books



Book Synopsis:  In July of 2015 a robotic spacecraft reached Pluto after a nine-and-half-year journey. New Horizons is the first spacecraft mission to Pluto and revealed its five moons as never before seen. Images from the mission show a reddish surface covered in ice-water mountains, moving glaciers, and hints of possible ice volcanoes and an underground ocean. Pluto is geologically alive and changing!.......Follow along with the team of scientists as they build New Horizons, fly it across the solar system, and make new discoveries about a world three billion miles away.

Where to find this book: 
 Amazon.ca - Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt

 Amazon.com - Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt (Scientists in the Field Series)

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/