Doodle Valentines (& a great activity book)

There are so many great Valentine's ideas out there, I had a hard time deciding on what to do for each of the girls' classes. But when I ran across this doodle valentine from Inchmark, I knew I'd found the perfect one for E.

Classy Crayons & (Giles Andreae Review)

I recently spoke with the gifted teacher at E's school. Our city's gifted program doesn't begin until second grade, but I was curious if there were anything I could be doing with E now. To my great surprise, she recommended exposing her to a variety of art media.

So I dutifully headed to the art supplies store and decided to start simple: oil pastels. Oil pastels are at their most basic, classy crayons. They blend better - and stain clothes and fingers better - than regular crayons, and are also softer and thus more vibrant.

I am in the middle of packing up my entire house for our impending move across town, so I threw a couple sheets of packing paper on the floor and set the girls to color while I got back to work. To give them a bit more inspiration, I propped up two Giles Andreae books.

Rumble in the Jungle

and

Commotion in the Ocean 

Both of these books are collections of short poems, each based on a different animal. Matched with the poems are the riotous illustrations of David Wojtowycz. Alive with color, his drawings match the playful tone set by the poems and engage the eye of even the squirmiest little listener. His characters are happy, vibrant, and full of personality - the perfect pairing for a book of silly poems

To give E a little added incentive, I told her to draw a picture of an animal - just like in the book - and I would write a poem to go along with it. So, ahem, without further ado.... The Jelly Fish.

A jellyfish, happy and fat,

floated by this and by that,

with a terrified look

she spotted a hook

but smiled as it caught an old hat.

Disclaimer: Rumble in the Jungle and Commotion in the Ocean was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tails Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review.

Playing with Paint... without the mess

We're learning about fine art this week. Our local museum recently waived its entrance fees, so I dragged the family out on Saturday to "look at all the pretty paintings." It's actually not a shabby collection. We have a Renoir, a Cezanne, and my favorite... a Mary Cassatt.

I showed E. the dots in pointillism and the big brush strokes in impressionism, but mostly we just gazed and admired. (BTW - If you take a preschooler to a fine art museum, be prepared to explain a lot of tragic Greek myths. The painting of a man being tortured by the Furies for stabbing his mother in the heart was particularly fascinating to my four year old.)

I had planned on letting E. experiment with watercolors after spending so much time in the Impressionists gallery. Unfortunately, I've finally succumbed to A.'s killer cold and didn't have the energy to get out - and clean up - all those paints. Instead, I set her up on the computer....

ArtRage 2.0 Starter Edition is a free program that is so much fun. You can choose your color and then "paint" with a paintbrush on the screen. The colors interact with each other much like real paint. There is also an option for drawing with crayons, pencil, fountain pen, and eraser. You can upload a picture to draw on or to trace. As the daughter of computer dorks, E. might be advanced with using the mouse, but I think most 4 and 5 year olds would be able to use the tools with a little prompting. Here's E's masterpiece:

For something a little simpler, you can go to this site to turn a photo into an impressionist painting. They have about 20 pictures to choose from. Your child simply "draws" over the photo with the mouse to make it look like a Monet.

The Book - Impressionists for Kids (Great Art for Kids) by Margaret Hyde

I've reviewed another in this series, Cassatt for Kids, and really like both of these. They are simple board books, with full-color prints of famous paintings on each page. There is very little text, mostly just the name of the painting and the artist, but I like how this allows us to talk about the pictures. I go through this book with both A. and E., and both girls like looking through the pictures on their own.