Sunflowers and other poems: pre school creativity

Sadly not everything is dated but the bottom three are age four, I think the first one is a little younger.

Beth says the image is of food, she vaguely remembers that which I think is pretty cool at 14.

Four years and two months here.

Satuday Art

We had fun with pencils.

by the mad professor

by cognitive dissonance

by the obscure philosopher



by cheese with a monkey on top

Very different studies of this photo taken by CWMT with the digital microscope.



And a play with acrylics.

Well that stopped us in our tracks!

Our busy week ended when Beth banged her head on the kitchen surface by standing up into the overhang of the breakfast bar, ouch!!!  Composite stone looks great but doesn't feel to good on impact!

So sadly our HE trip to Wicksteed was off, and we had a quiet few days while her head recovered, allowing the scratches and bruises gained playing in the trees at Mora to heal as well.

Since then I have been trying to sort out all the washing, find last years list and generally prepare for Hesfes so that the packing is not the usual torture.  Beth has had a sleepover and friends to play so it has not been too boring for her.  She has been downloading drawing programs on to her ipad and rapidly producing some lovely artwork.

Ice skating tonight, Harry Potter tomorrow and The Sound of Music on Saturday, followed by more preparation for going away.  Must decide whether we are taking two cars, one being the Bambi or putting up with the usual stress and panic of all we want to take nearly not fitting in the car.

Ds1 went off to Scotland to get the keys to his flat for next semester so cooking became a bit simpler and baked potatoes could go on the menu with no guilt.  Not that I am eating much carb at the moment, fighting the fatigue caused by my thyroid issues has lead to a mainly organic diet with much more protein, second mortgage time soon!

Ds2 has finally finished school so no more school kids here, hurray!  Seriously his school had gone from a non uniform school with an emphasis on pastoral care to a fenced gated prison with a uniform that reminds me of Playboy when I see the girls!  Trying not to read too much into that.

His BTEC A level equivalent media film was entered into a local competition where it won best soundtrack and was shown at the leavers event and enough other events to make him totally bored of it and his Mum very proud.  I am impatiently awaiting the youtube upload so I can link it here.  It took the mickey out of the school in a way that delighted the pupils and many of the staff who may well not be enthusiastically behind the recent changes.

His GCSE equivalent film won the school showcase a couple of years ago.



Now he just has to sort out what he is doing next, but he is tidying his room as a female friend wants to come round to play computer games.  I have wished for this for a long time (the room tidying that is) but genuinely was giving up hope.  So maybe more miracles will happen : )

A little bit of creativity

Pottery again today, it is my weekly therapy and we both love it.

We are beginning to decorate our creations, this week with coloured slip which will be glazed with a transparent glaze.  No one knows how the colours turn out as they have not used them before so I have taken a couple of before pics to remember the differences.

And Beth's apple is coming on well and attracting a lot of admiration.

We are holding our breath that everything survives the kiln.

Clay Modelling

There has been some fun being had here lately with some excellent air hardening clay obtained for a bargain price at the request of DS1 at the beginning of the summer.

All this creativity doesn’t do much for the state of the kitchen table though!

Passing the time

with some displacement activity, one very overexcited and impatient girl.

A card to oneself, why not?

Some painting with tea, morphing into potion making.

And a bit more excitement when we realise it is that time of year again!

Art All Day

One of the things I love about autonomous education is how you can just go with the flow.  We started the morning looking at Hannah's blog, and deciding to take part in the March Home Baked Challenge.  This led us to look at some other posts which led us on a blog cum Flickr walk to the Sketch Tuesday project.  We had a look at the results of last weeks challenge and loved this one, but for next Tuesday the topic was spring flowers and we decided to have a go, not necessarily take part but just give it a try.

Here are our attempts.

Of course we both liked the other's best and I told Beth how much I would love just to be freer and not always have to go for precise portrayal of the subject.  She decided we would draw something else and to give me a chance to be more carefree chose a very silly photo of a giraffe for us to draw.

This was fun and freeing

but Beth decided hers looked more like a fish and went off on a tangent, proving that however hard you try you can't beat a child for creativity.

We then decided to have a rest and revert to our artistic comfort zone which for Beth is trees,

and for me is horses, oh those misspent hours at the back of the geography class!

Beth requested the horn and the wings, why not!

Then Beth got bored of comfort and took on the greenhouse.

We also had extra fun by rediscovering the water colour pencils.

All in all a very productive day and now she is off with Dad for pizza and an ice hockey match with his co workers and I have the house all to myself!