Art Tuesday: Clothespin Dolls

 This project wasn't with our usual Art Tuesday friends, but I'm categorizing it under that anyway, because it was ADORABLE.  We got invited to a Friday afternoon tea party, and as if that wasn't cute enough, they had this craft for us to do after! 

If you genuinely want to do this, I will direct you to this tutorial on GoingSewCrazy.  And instead of repeating exactly what she says, I will just show you my pictures. 

You can get everything you need at a craft store like Michael's.  And note: there is absolutely NO SEWING involved.  For the dress you just cut a circle out of fabric, cut head and arm holes, and tie it around the middle with ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

My girls played with them the rest of the afternoon and all weekend.  Nothing like making your own doll.

Art Tuesday: Monochromatic Collages

 I had this cool idea to have the kids cut monochromatic pictures out of magazines (all the same color), and have them glue them make a graded collage, ordering the pictures from lightest to darkest.  Turned out that concept was a bit advanced, but the cutting and gluing was totally popular.  And some of the kids have favorite colors so they stuck with them.

Black & White

Red (Ginger's)

Brown (mine) - I just went through my new King Arthur Flour catalog and cut out all shades of yummy.  I tried to grade mine - do you like it?

Monochromatic Collages

What you need:

Kid scissors
Glue or glue stick
Magazines
Posterboard, cardstock, or something sturdy for the background; we used scrapbook paper

What to do:

Have the kids choose one or two favorite colors and find pictures of that color in the magazines.  Cut them out.  Glue them to the background paper.  Optional: Put them in order from light to dark, or big to small.

Variations:

Collages are extremely versatile projects.  My girls love making collages of food pictures (since we have a lot of food mags at our house.)  If you have the pictures, you can do any theme or color.  Older kids love to cut out letters from their name and make their name lots of ways.  Or choose a letter or sound and find pictures that start with that letter.  Lots of fun to be had when making collages!

Breakfast, Lunch and Other Stuff

 I can't find the email now, but someone asked me to do a post about school lunches, so this is really a year-later follow-up to this post. 

Breakfast - The old chart lost its charm toward the spring, and we winged it (wung it?) through the summer.  But with fall returned the need to be efficient and predictable in the mornings, so here's our new breakfast chart, taped to the inside of the cupboard.  "Mom's Choice" is a nice new addition, so we can have cereal or whatever is kind of left over from the week, no complaining (in my dreamworld.) 

 

Lunch -Towards the end of last year we got Hazel making her own lunch.  She and I made this matrix as a guide and put it on the fridge - she packs one item from each category.  Sometimes we have other things she can take but this is a pretty good representation of stuff we usually have.  This year we went back to the matrix and it works well, but I found she was bringing home one, two, sometimes three items in her lunch uneaten.  She said they make the kids hurry so there isn't enough time to eat it all.  I suspect it's a combination of timing and chatting, knowing Hazel.  So we pared it down to three items - a protein, a veggie, a fruit, and only occasionally something sweet or snacky.  Ginger also takes lunch to preschool this year, two days a week, so she is learning to make her lunch as well.  By next year she'll be a trained expert.

 

Morning Routine - Hazel is a monumental dinker-around.  Space cadet, la-la land, whatever you call it, that's her.  This year we've added showering in the morning a few times a week to her routine, and we found that she takes so long to shower (play) and get dressed (play) that she is frantically rushed once she comes downstairs.  I take it back - Ed and I are frantically rushed yelling at her and riding her case to get ready on time.  She's too busy playing to feel frantic.  "D.Y.J." - Do Your Job - is heard many times each morning at our house.   So I finally made her a schedule, which she illustrated, and now instead of bombarding her with directives, "Hazel!  Have you brushed your teeth?  Where are your shoes?  Is your lunch in your backpack?"  We just redirect to the checklist and she is moving closer to morning independence.  And as with lunches, Ginger is getting trained at the same time. 

 

I like the idea of clean refrigerator facade.  But between the lunch matrix, morning checklist, and Wii charts, it is admittedly cluttered.  So what's one more item?  This is a card Hazel made for me on a...difficult day.  It melts my heart and, depending on the day, brings tears to my eyes, whenever I look at it. 

 And not to leave out Poppy, here is her favorite eating position.  The highchair strap isn't that good so sometimes I don't bother.  And this is what I get.  So I'm getting more diligent at buckling and tightening.

 

And hey, while I'm posting other pictures, here are the girls playing a game Saturday morning on the very computer I'm typing on right now.  I generally hog it, so getting a game is a special treat.  As you can see from the zombie expressions.

 

 

 

Art Tuesday: Messy Media

 Well for this Art Tuesday we definitely wore our old clothes, because it was messy, messy, but messy is so fun!  First we talked about "doodling", that it is drawing without a plan, just letting your hands and mind go.  We used gorgeous (but messy!) charcoal for this - dust was flying, but so was creativity!

 Next up was painting pots.  We got out acrylic paints and terra cotta pots and painted them with natural sponges.

 We came home with our creations, then after lunch Ginger and Poppy climbed into a big empty box with a case of crayons and happily colored for at least a half hour.  I know I've said it before, but Art Tuesdays truly are the BEST.

Cox Farm

 Last month the Younces moved back to Virginia after three years in England.  That's my brother Dave, his wife Michelle, and their three (and a half) wonderful kids.  This week is Dave's birthday, so we all spent Saturday together at the Cox Farms Fall Festival, then had dinner and a party at their house.  Brothers, sisters-in-law and especially cousins are the BEST!

 I think Dave probably didn't know I was going to post this picture (below.)  But I think it's great he had the confidence to be the only adult in a line of kids for the rope swing.  There are several pictures of Dave in this post.  He needs to know it's just all part of living close to us.  I also hope to take, and post, pics of him in his kilt when we go to the Renaissance Festival in October. 

 E totally found an injured butterfly at the bottom of the slide and was able to pick it up and hold it for a few seconds before it half-flitted off!

On the hay ride, which Dave's kids loved and my kids were varying degrees of scared.  Kind of sums up the differences there.  But Dave was great and held Ginger on his lap and got her to laugh at the scary stuff. 

 Ginger on one of the many huge slides.  I was so impressed, she went on all the slides like the other big kids, and some of them are massive (the slides, not the kids.)  Last year she was much more timid and afraid, this year she is truly a big kid.  And when I say things like that to her, she puffs up proud and says, "I know.  I'm like a FIVE-year-old!" 

 Speaking of being a big kid, she has finally come around to wearing jeans - she never would before.  But it's great because we had about 6 pairs of jeans in the fall clothes bin in her size, so her shopping is already done.  All day on Saturday I just watched her an marveled at how much she has grown up in the last 6 months. 

First Day of Preschool

OK we are really in full swing around here.  Ginger (finally) started preschool last week - here are her first day pics.  

 

(She is all about that belt - I don't get it, shiny pink buckle with rainbow hearts all around, I mean what is there for a 4-year-old to like?)

 And in case you were wondering, yes that's a pug on Poppy's shirt, with a pearl necklace and bow - thank you Walmart!!!

Speaking of Poppy, I haven't posted pics in awhile.  Here she was on Sunday.  A notably "Kari" outfit so I had to take some photos.  She is 17 months and quite the bug, extremely astute and following everything her sisters do. 

Art Tuesday: Cereal Box Houses

This project was my baby. I loooved thinking it up, putting it together, and I stayed up late a few nights making my model...because I wanted to. Turns out once in awhile gluing is therapeutic.

This is probably the most "crafty" thing we did all summer, and I'm conflicted because I hate the word "craft." Makes me think of all the ugly useless junk my youth leaders used to try to get me to make. However, the point of art with children, and really any art or craft or hobby, is the process. Finished products are nice, but people build models, or scrapbook, or do crosswords, or sew, or bake, or work on cars because they enjoy doing it. Which is why I hated crafts like puffy fabric-covered photo albums as a girl - they weren't my kind of process. Then I started manipulating my clothes - changing buttons, adding trim, fraying, dying, and who can forget the skirt I made out of ties? (Yes, I wore it. Often.) And I found my thing. I found my process.
These days it's baking. And doing arts, and yes, sometimes crafts, with my kids. And finding out what their processes are.

Another reason I loved this project was that I got to clean out all my craft supplies! As you will see near the end of this post, we used lots and lots and lots of stuff! It was tactile. It was 3-D. There was coloring, sticking, gluing, sprinkling, cutting, stringing, twisting. And I won't deny the fact that I took the opportunity to get a few new things, like Crayola's telescoping towers of crayons and markers:
And a paper crimper (with a 50% off coupon at AC Moore) to make "shutters":
Setting up for the project was almost as much fun as doing it!
Everybody's house was completely different (see pics below). That's how it should be. Then just to drive the point home we read "The Big Orange Splot" by Daniel Pinkwater, which I've had for years and used to use in my speech-language practice. It's about Mr. Plumbean who lives on a "neat" (= cookie cutter) street. When a seagull flies over and dumps some orange paint on his roof, he takes the opportunity to decorate his house to fit his dreams, and one by one his neighbors follow suit. A simple story about individuality, tolerance, being true to yourself, and artistic creativity. And, yes, even about the artistic process. Cereal Box Houses
What you need:
(I love this supply list - it's like those new back-to-school Target commercials, have you seen them? My favs are the kindergarten teacher - "so much glitter!" - and the music teacher "denim, denim, more denim...")

an empty cereal box for each child
crayons
markers
tape
glue/glue gun
stapler
colored/patterned duct tape
pipe cleaners
sequins
lightweight beads
buttons
beans/dry pasta
yarn
popsicle sticks
stickers/foam stickers
patterned scrapbook paper/cardstock
paper crimper (optional, to make shutters)
glitter (if you're up for it)

What to Do:

1. Take your cereal boxes and open the two ends. Then cut up one corner to create a totally flat piece of cardboard. You're basically going to be turning them inside out.

2. Lay out all your awesome supplies and have everyone go to town! We also cut some pre-made windows and glued yarn on them for the panes. And crimped some shutters - see above. We also told everyone to draw a door so we could cut it for them - other than that, whatever!!!3. When everything is done but the roof, cut a piece of packing tape the length of the box and use it to secure the cut corner from the inside:

4. Leave the bottom open to help it stand, and to be the "yard." Angle the top pieces to make a roof and secure with with tape on the inside, or we used patterned duct tape on the outside.

Instead of houses, you could also make a whole town or city - post office, church, library, etc. Or use different kinds of boxes for real variety.

Here are some of our finished products:

"Our houses are us and we are them. Our houses are where we want to be and they look like all our dreams." -from The Big Orange Splot