Today is an exciting day! Not only is it the
official release date for my book (Woohoo!!) but also 20 Moms, which I’m
honored to be a member of, is hosting our very first blog loop. I am delighted to
have Deborah of Teach Preschool contributing today. You probably know her as the early childhood education expert who shares her ideas so generously with teachers and parents around the world.
While Deborah is
here, I’m over at Anna’s blog, The Imagination Tree, sharing a fun quilt stained glass art activity that we did recently. (While there, see where Anna is
posting today...and keep following the loop until you make it back here!)
Building and Creating with Curves by Deborah J. Stewart of Teach Preschool
It is such a pleasure to join you all here on the Artful Parent and I must also add, it has been quite a challenge to find something even remotely comparable to the beautiful posts Jean shares with you on a regular basis. I wanted to share something that would compliment Jean's approach to early learning and artful experiences and so after much thought, I decided to share our exploration of building and creating with curves...
When I interviewed Maia the other day, she claimed her
straw building set to be one of her favorite Christmas gifts. I thought I'd follow up and share a few of the structures she's built with the straws as well as other things she's done with them.
First, though, here's a picture of the straw builders and connector pieces in their box:
Isn't this ice sculpture lovely and colorful?! I'd like to say it was completely intentional, but it actually came about by accident as I tried to rescue another (failed) activity.
I have a bit of a hang-up about clay. Maybe even a big
one.
It's the
texture. And the mess. Which is kinda crazy when you consider that I have
absolutely no hang up about any other art messes. Paint? Bring it on! Shaving
cream? Let's squirt it all over!
But clay?
Ugh. I don't even want to think about it.
Maia, on
the other hand, LOVES clay. Loves the texture and the mess. So I'm trying hard
to get over my clay thing. Trying to at least make it available more and to not
worry about the mud in my house.
We splurged and bought Daphne a wooden kitchen for her birthday, and she LOVES it. But she and Maia have also been loving all the packaging that came with the kitchen. The large cardboard box now has a door that can open and close and is in regular use as a fort, reading spot, and play space.
The styrofoam packaging from the box? It's being used as well!
We've been experimenting more with plaster leaf casting. It's a project (and finished product) that I love, love, love. I mean, look at that photo! Isn't that leaf just beautiful? You can see the details of all the veins. And I love how the plaster leaves look painted in fall colors. Maia painted this one in red, gold, and yellow
BioColors.
BabbaCo, one of my blog sponsors, sent us a Babba Box to review recently. The box was full of activities to do and make with kids, including these papier mache moon nightlights. We veered from the written instructions a bit (directions are just a suggestion, right?) and the kids had lots of fun making and then admiring their nightlights.
The kids and I did some plaster casting a couple of days ago using playdough for our molds. It was completely a spur of the moment and kind of a way to rescue another plaster of Paris disappointment. I was surprised at how well the playdough worked as a plaster mold. It held minute detail so well! We were all impressed and plan to try it again soon.
I think I'm going to focus my time and attention on updating the directory for now, so blog posts may be sparser over the next week or so. Or they may just be about every new (and oh so exciting) development in the new art directory. Like this one:
I'm actually having a really good time tunneling through the archives and "discovering" posts from the past few years. It's bringing back lots of good memories. And making me want to try some of the projects again.
