“Man” (with hat) by Joel, age 4I just have to comment here that I’m very impressed with Joel so far this year in ‘preschool’ (at home). Up until September 1 he was not interested in drawing or coloring at all and just scribbled violently. He’s a boy, so fine-motor skills are not naturally easy at this age, and he’s on the kinesthetic side and drawing just means sitting or standing in one place for him. But after we did the ‘mat man’ unit in Handwriting Without Tears (HWT), which involves building the shapes with wooden pieces and singing a song (musical boy loves that!), he got very interested in drawing people. We haven’t moved on too much and are focusing on writing numbers for a while.
“The City” by James, age 5 1/2James painted this city including lights that are on and off in the big office buildings like he’s seen so often in downtown Seattle.
Our walls were pretty empty in this rental, so I had the kids paint their own. Can you guess who painted which one?
We did’t have warm blankets for the winter because we’ve always rented furnished places or lived in warm climates, so when we settled in here I was buying tons of stuff at estate sales and second hand stores. I picked up two of these crocheted blankets for $4! I don’t know if the lady who made them was using up the ends of lots of her yarn, or intended them to have every color imaginable, but it works for a kids room. And everyone stays warm! It is these small ways that I see God providing for us even for temporary needs. He is so good to us.
Art by Kimberly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
5 Comments
The Six of Us · November 10, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I love it! Scrolling through those last two pictures looks like a very fashionable home! The art picts looks like a gallery! Jake was the same way about coloring. Isn’t it wonderful to see them come alive? (although his inspiration was volcanoes.)
Job 77 · November 11, 2008 at 7:27 am
Great artwork! My favorite is “The City.” I have heard good things about the Handwriting without Tears curriculum from the occupational therapists that I’ve worked with.
Janine the Bean · November 13, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I need to do this with some of our upcoming art projects. They love to have them displayed. Dominic was so upset when I took his masterpiece down.
kimom · November 13, 2008 at 9:49 pm
For today and tomorrow, oprah.com is giving away a free snapfish photo book to do just that – compile all those precious paintings and drawings into one compact colorful book. It’s a 20-photo 8.5×11 book. Sorry to sound like an advertisement! =)
Michelle · November 18, 2008 at 1:12 am
Yeah for art fun! That’s so cool that you’re using Handwriting Without Tears. One of my friends who’s a teacher recently started using it with her class and LOVES it! She said it was designed by an Occupational Therapist… Maybe someday I’ll come up with something cool like that as an OT! 🙂 Looking forward to seeing you!