Van Gogh Sunflowers

This term we are studying Van Gogh. Why did we choose him you may ask? Well, last year Walmart had a bunch of prints for $1 each. They are a print about the size of a 5 x 7, but look more like an 8 x 10 with the border, that are on a piece of cardboard. I've left them in their sealed plastic for protection and ease of use. I think I have about 7 different Van Gogh pieces and a few from several other artists. I'll work my way through the artists whose works I have before moving onto others.

Sunflowers is the first print we studied. I had them study it one week by looking at it and telling me what they saw. Colors, what kind of flower, etc. All during that week it was hanging on the front of the fridge. Then the following week, we did our own Sunflowers using watercolor crayons. I really enjoyed the way these turned out. You use the crayons to draw and color first, then take the wet paintbrush and go over it afterward. It wasn't runny but blended nicely. In order from left to right the artist are Pooh, Tigger and MasterpieceMom. I think we did pretty good for a first go around. Pooh very nicely arranged his flowers, Tigger added a dramatic splash of color (very Van Goghy) and Mom did surprisingly well with the flowers on the right side of the pot. (I wasn't happy with the left side. LOL)

Van Gogh painted something like 16 different portraits of sunflowers. I have no idea which one this is.

Since then we've also done chalk pastels of Van Gogh's Roses but I don't know that they'll show up very well as the colors are so light and I've covered them in saran wrap to avoid having chalk dust everywhere. I wasn't so thrilled with that idea. LOL If I manage to get some decent photos, I'll post them separately.

Books and Art--Pooh

Pooh is coming along in his reading. He flies throught the level 3 readers he finds. He likes the ones about whales, sharks and dolphins. (of course! anything to do with the sea remember) He likes to read his favorites over and over again and since he does those on his own, I let him do that.

After last weeks dental appt (which went great, I'll blog it!), we went to Barnes and Noble because he really wanted to get Moby Dick. Well, I just had no idea the size of this book!!! LOL For some reason it's never appealed to me to read it. I think because I've seen parts of movies that just didn't do it for me. Anyway, we found the unabridged book and Pooh flipped through it. He was upset that it didn't have any pictures in it. He got a little ticked off at me about it, so I said we'd just put the book back. "No, I want the book." Ok.

Well, as I'm walking through the store I kept thinking about it and what to do/say to him. I finally decided to just explain to him that I thought this book was too big for him, that it was a book for older kids (it was in the adult section after all). His response, "You're trying to trick me, Mommy." ROFLOL We worked it out. He very calmly accepted that perhaps he wasn't ready for Moby Dick and we ended up with Stuart Little. Whew! Dodged that bullet!!

I wanted to slowly start working him into chapter books, which is why I went looking for Stuart Little. The chapters are short and the reading is on the easier side, but still challenging for Pooh. He's not quite ready to read it all on his own, so our 'scaffolding' is to have him read one chapter each night to Dad. That way he's doing the reading and just getting help on those few words he has trouble with.

Pooh's art is coming along nicely as well. He's been going to an art class about 45 minutes from here. I drive all that way for the teacher. She is great with him. He only is there for an hour each time because the normal 2 hours is just too much for him. Mrs. K has had 2 boys herself and has many students somewhere on the spectrum. She's very flexible. For instance, with Pooh, instead of presenting to him what to do (ie fruit, vases, etc) she lets him look through her art books and choose the picture he wants to do. Each time he goes now, he known what he's working on. I don't think that showing up and being presented with something uninteresting to him would have worked long-term.

He's been working in watercolors lately. The last picture he did was of a ship, a whale and a small rowboat. It was a whaling scene. It was great and I just got it framed. Today he finished a watercolor of a grey wolf howling. Mrs K said she's had adults see it and ask "Who did this?" because it's pretty good. She told me that she hopes I'll frame the wolf too. I'm planning on it. He's got another ship picture on tap for next time. It's a good thing I love the ocean theme too. he he