Our Week: Art Adventures

Last week, we spent a fair bit of time building and dabbling in art. This week, we continued with our explorations in art, with the younger two messing about with do-a-dot markers (these are so brilliant for toddlers!), and Lil J doing some watercolor paintings.

We also continued playing with shapes to form pictures, inspired by the book "Wednesday":

Round stickers from Daiso. These are so great for craft!
The kids used them as sprinkles for their ice-creams. :)

Lil J's ice cream. The box with dividers was another find from Daiso,
it came in handy for sorting out all the cut out shapes.

Junior J also worked more with acrylic paints. After asking around last week, we were given some helpful advice and resources to check out, and I'm in the process of sorting through everything to see if I can come up with a systematic way of exploring art techniques with Junior J (Hopefully I'll get to share more soon!).

We've been painting on canvases (which we buy from Daiso) using acrylic paints from Art Friend. Junior J is still working on a series of paintings of dinosaurs, and this was his second original painting (you can see his first painting here):

I just discussed with him what he wanted to paint, and he decided on the colors and what went where. This round, we explored creating texture with the paint: he layered the grass and dabbed the paint on the canvas to get "bumpy" clouds, and we used the end of the paintbrush to scrape lines on the tree trunk. He loves adding little details, so he painted in flowers, as well as a little hat for his Stegosaurus. 

It's been quite fun exploring art with the kids, and I too am learning as we go along. I guess that's the lovely thing about homeschooling: you have the time and space to explore areas of interest!

Our Week: Building and exploring art

These days, I'm still trying to find that spark in my kids. Lil J is really interested in numbers, so we've started Math U See with him. He's still helping out with the cooking in the kitchen. And he's started building more complicated structures these days.

A house, by Juni

Both boys have been spending a fair bit of their free time building. I recently took out their Lego (I previously kept it because they were strewing the pieces everywhere instead of building with them, and it drove me crazy!), and they've been busy building all sorts of things with it.

They've also been busy with crystal climbers, as well as architectural blocks.

And they also get busy creating and building during playdates. (This was taken by Junior J. They were preparing a picnic!)

Building stuff aside, we've been trying to create more, since that gives both boys the opportunity to experiment with tools and materials (something that Lil J really likes). These days we're doing more book-related crafts, like the beetles we recently shared about on the blog. 

Creating after reading the book "Wednesday". 

I had a chat with Junior J about what he would like to explore further, and he was not sure. After some discussion, we decided that he would try his hand at painting dinosaurs: 

This boy is the artist in our family. He doodles all the time, and is always asking for paper to scribble on. Paper runs out so fast in our home, that I've resorted to giving him all my old university notes that were printed on one side and bound together, so that he can draw on the blank sides. He draws mainly dinosaurs, and food, but also likes making lists. He does lists of books, of dinosaurs, and recently he has been making lists of the stuff each member of the family eats! He also likes making "colouring books" for his younger siblings, where he draws things that they like onto pieces of paper, then sticks them together with washi tape to form books.

He mainly works with pencil and paper, but enjoys the occasional session with poster paints or watercolours. I did think of sending him for art classes to equip him with various techniques that could help him to express himself, but the boy has been adamant that he does not want any classes at all. That aside, I think it would be hard to find an art class that teaches technique without restricting the subject matter. 

So for the past week, we set aside time to paint, using canvases from Daiso (I think these are still the cheapest around!) and acrylic paints. It's been alot of experimentation, of mixing colours, of figuring out how to minimize the mess (trays keep the paints off the table, and acrylic paints must be cleaned off immediately!). 

This was his first painting, which he's named "The Sea of Liopleurodons". He wanted the water to be a single, solid colour (as he said the sea appears a uniform colour in the documentaries he watches), but also added ripples using oil pastels to show that the water moves and swirls around the sea reptiles, which are chasing plesiosauruses (you can see their fleeing tails on the bottom left). The two are surrounded by squid and fish (added as an afterthought using oil pastels), and everyone is wearing a scarf! This little detail of making his animals wear clothing seems to be his own trademark. Recently he drew me a picture of some dinosaurs, and everyone of them was on a bicycle or unicycle and all of them were carrying little backpacks!

We've started on his second painting, and have been discussing and looking at other paintings: he's learnt how paint can be scraped thickly across a canvas in a certain direction to show movement and texture, and that we can layer various shades of the same colour to show depth. Meanwhile, I've been desperately searching for tips on how to guide him in his painting journey (I found this list of actvities, this guide to acrylic painting and this list of tools useful), so if you have any links or resources to share, I would really love to hear from you!

Our Week: Finding that spark

Painting beetles while referring to "The Beetle Book" by Steve Jenkins. 

Some time ago, I shared this interview on our FB Page in which a mum shared about raising innovative children: 

"It really drives me crazy when parents say, “I just want them to be happy.” I want more than that. Sometimes being happy can be just laying around, but real happiness comes from fulfilling what you were meant to do. Struggling and succeeding. That’s a much cooler idea. 

... Kids don’t [really] know what they like, and so that’s your job [as a parent], to expose them to as much as you can. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can take them to the library and see what books they pull out. See what kind of skills they have. Your job as a parent is not to say, “Tell me what you want to be when you grow up.” Instead, if you just try everything and are super attentive — not in a helicopter-y, my-child’s-a special-snowflake way — you can be aware of what they gravitate to, and encourage them to do more of it. See if that light still shines in their eyes. Pay attention to what sparks them."

- Jane Andraka, On raising kids who are more than "hoop jumpers"

It made me think extra hard about the way we were homeschooling our boys. We always think of homeschooling as a wonderful way to encourage creativity and innovation, since we have autonomy over our child's learning. But in reality, we've sunk ourselves into set routines and practices that might even hinder such pursuits. These days, I find myself rushing my kids out to co-ops, and then rushing back for the baby's nap. I admit I've been finding "school time" a little stifling, since we rush through our books while baby naps. Following set curricula was something that I defaulted to, simply because I hardly had time to prep interesting activities (which the kids might end up not wanting to do), and I found I needed structure and guidance to teach them for some areas that I was not too equipped in, like Phonics, Math and Chinese. Our days felt full, but I felt like our homeschool was looking more like regular school than anything else. 

One thing I still appreciate though, is the time the kids are able to spend together playing, both at home and outdoors. The older two are now inseparable. While they fight half the time, you can tell that they miss each other's company when they are apart. I love eavesdropping on them playing: they hold parties for their animals, they build traps (unfortunately these are usually for their little brother), they sail pirate ships. 

But all that extra playtime aside, I've been trying to tweak our approach to learning and our schedule to allow for us to find "what sparks them". Junior J is a prolific doodler, so we've been trying to incorporate a lot more art and craft into our learning. Lil J isn't so ready for lots of drawing and colouring, but is fascinated with the physical aspects of craft: squeezing glue and smearing it, running his hand through buttons, poking holes. So we try to do both, and the crafty side of me has been enjoying those creative sessions too (for more updates on these, please check our Instagram account). Meanwhile, baby J also wants to join in the sessions, so he gets various art materials to work with: do-a-dot markers, Tadoodles, and washable markers. 

I've wanted to teach the kids how to cook, but Junior J hasn't been too keen these days. Lil J, though, is very interested, and has been asking to help out in the kitchen, except that I used to chase him out most days since I was always rushing dinner prep. It was always in the back of my head to use one of those cooking lessons for kids, but I found it hard to incorporate those into the mad mealtime rush. So in the end, I decided that I would just plan my meals as per normal, and cook as per normal, except that I would start cooking earlier and let Lil J help in every step of the way. I figured he'd learn all the skills along the way, even though they weren't taught in a systematic fashion. After all, that's how apprentices learn, right? 

Chopping capsicum. He's using a Curious Chef knife,
which are great since the blade chops through veggies but do not slice skin.
Perfect since he still likes to wave the knife around!

Thus far, he's learnt to wash the rice, chop veggies and open cans. He knows that meat changes colour when cooked, and that he needs to wash his hands after handing raw meat. Each cooking session is a lesson in patience for me, as this boy insists on tasting everything and has to be stopped from licking the raw meat and eating copious amounts of salt... but I must say I do enjoy this one-on-one time with him! 

I guess this whole homeschool routine thing will take time, but I guess the beauty of it all is that homeschool does give us a little more time to figure it out. Hopefully we'll be able to light some sparks along the way!

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Our Week: Wonderfully full

It has been such a full week! Lil J is down with acute bronchitis, the baby is also starting to fall sick, and we are rushing to finish our prep for the craft fair. But before the kids fell ill, we had a lovely week:

:: We got to check out Old School Delights, and the kids had fun playing with all the various old school things there. Such a lovely place! (The laksa is pretty decent. The kids loved the chicken wings. And I really loved all the old school stuff they had displayed!)

:: They got to play at two playgrounds new to them, in Toa Payoh. And we found a yummy ramen place nearby. 

:: The hubs was off on Monday, so we also headed to the zoo. Baby J spent the whole trip trying to toddle everywhere. Lil J absolutely loved feeding the goats. Seeing this feisty boy being so gentle with the littlest goats was such a heartwarming thing.  

:: We went for our usual co-ops. They did paper cuttings inspired by the works by Matisse. Our Chinese co-op sessions have resumed (hooray!), so our weekly schedule is now fuller.

:: We got rained out for swim class, so everyone headed to the library instead. I realize going to the library makes me happy. Perhaps its being able to browse amongst shelves and shelves of kid lit. Or the thrill of finding a good read that is new to us. I think we need to put library visits into our weekly schedule, even though bringing all three of them there together is sometimes quite the challenge.

We had to miss a birthday party, and cancel our upcoming artist co-op session because of the sickies, but I'm hoping everyone will get well by Saturday's craft fair. As our co-op sessions fall into place, and our homeschool rhythms get more regular, I must say that each week looks full, but in a nice sort of way. Now Lil J does a little bit of Mama school when Junior J is done, and he seems quite keen! 

It took quite a while for us to get into this rhythm, but I think finding this right fit when it came to schedules does take time. I'm glad I didn't rush and fill up our schedules to the brim, so we still have breathing room to do what interests us, and I don't feel too much like a headless chicken rushing from one activity to the next. Guess there is no one size fits all when it comes to these things, since some families seem to thrive on a packed schedule, while others prefer to be more spontaneous. If you're still finding what works for your family, take it slow and don't overcommit! Here's to a lovely weekend, and hope to see you at the craft fair tomorrow!

Our Week: Playgrounds and progress

We went hunting for heritage playgrounds the past week, and ended up visiting seven! (I blogged about the Dragon Playground at Ang Mo Kio here). Unfortunately, of the seven we visited, three were unaccessible. The elephant playground is within the grounds of the Home Team Pasir Ris Chalets, which stopped operations at the end of February. The gate to the chalets was locked up, so the boys could only gaze sadly at the playground through the fence. We were just a few days too late!

The watermelon and mangosteen playgrounds in Tampines were both boarded up. It seems that both are undergoing renovations (and not being torn down, phew!), so we are looking forward to visiting them in the future.

Going playground hunting was great, because the boys got to run about more. 

Playgrounds aside, we are making progress with regards to Lil J. He previously couldn't sit still very long, so we didn't really do many structured activities with him, save for him joining us for craft or art sessions. These days, he has been showing an interest in math, so I've been letting him work a little with our Math-U-See blocks (sometimes Junior J tries to help him). 

He's also started working with our Perler beads too.  I am very heartened by his progress, because he really had such a short attention span last time! One thing I've learnt: when it comes to seatwork, and activities that require a longer attention span, starting at an appropriate age is key. The child must be ready, and this readiness varies from child to child. A dis-interested child, or an easily distracted one could be related with their readiness, rather than a problem with their attention span or the interest level of the activity. So if you have a fidgety child, take your time!

Our Week: Penang

We packed our bags after those couple of days of crazy decluttering and headed up for Penang, so this week has been a "school holiday" for the boys. We've not done much, aside from resting at home, and meeting up with the hubby's relatives for Chinese New Year. The boys have experienced fire-crackers, and also witnessed a lion dance. They've eaten bak kwa, stuffed themselves with mandarin oranges, and collected lots of ang pows. Baby J has been fascinated with the dog and keeps yelling "Nicky!" and crawling over to pat him. 

We also managed to sneak in a trip to the Penang Botanic Gardens. It's been really hot these few days, but everyone had a nice time exploring. They peered at snails...

... picked cannonball flowers, and snapped away at what caught their eye (Junior J is quite obsessive about taking photos these days):

The boys had a good time running off all their energy. I've realized that, even with the heat, they do need plenty of time outdoors, otherwise they tend to get restless! Hopefully, we'll be able to get them out and about across the weekend too.  

Anyway, here's wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year... Have a great weekend!

Our Week: Full

It seems like our schedules are rapidly filling up! We just added swim class on top of our two co-ops, so this week felt rather hectic. Swim class went pretty well. We hardly visit the pool since it's quite troublesome to drag the kids out to the public pool. As a result, they are not very confident in the water. The coach is really nice, and spent time playing games with them to get them comfortable. Guess we'll have to head to the pool more often from now onwards!

We've been spending more time outdoors, and these days the boys are at the playground in the mornings and evenings. This week, we had an impromptu playdate at the playground with some homeschooling friends, and the boys all had a good time. 

Running around aside, there was a fair bit of building going on at home. We tried building with crystal climbers this week (these we purchased from Lakeshore Learning during their Christmas sale). I think these would be so good on a light table! 

We had various crafty things going on at home too. Painting and gluing, as well as tag making during our craft coop. 

Lil J is finally starting to show some interest in the alphabet, so he's been playing with foam stickers. He's crazy about numbers and counting, but not so fond of the letters. So these stickers (as well as various songs) are helping him to learn!

The week ahead is going to be a busy one since I'm hoping to do lots of decluttering and spring cleaning. Here's to a blessed weekend!

Our Week: Exploring

The week has gone by in a blur because I've been rather busy preparing for a few sessions of a craft coop. And we've been also trying to declutter lots of things at home. Anyway, the boys have been spending more time outdoors in the evening, since the hubby had a rare few days where he got home before dinner. 

That aside, we've been still experimenting with light. They are still using their torches, and now have some lenses and prisms to play with. 

I'm still experimenting with more messy play for Lil J. We tried messing about with coloured water this week. 

We're also trying out different tools for craft. They got to play with sponges this week, and they're working on a under the sea scene currently. It's really nice seeing all their crafts going up on the walls. Their happy colours cheer me up!

Here's to a blessed weekend!