Back to School Time!

Summer vacation came to an end this week and my back to reality we all went.  Back to waking up to an alarm, packing lunches, homework, and attempting to get these two off to school on time.  As much as I was not quite ready for heading back into a routine (I like staying up late and sleeping in), I am pretty sure that Ethan was ready, he has been all sorts of antsy ever since we came home from vacation.  Weston is a completely different story, he is always sad to leave the quiet of the house. . . unless we are going on a vacation.  He is loving school, though! 

In honor of the first week, I thought I would share some tips that we have learned over the past few years that have really helped keep our year organized and sane.  These are things that we have used every year just because they work for our family.  Your family may have different dynamics or things that work better.  I'm just sharing ours. 

1.  Stay organized.  I am not always great at this, but when I do things go so much smoother than I ever dream.  We have a family command center that has a computer (we've replaced that old clunky one with a little laptop), the kids each have their own bench and drawer, a place to hang their backpacks.  They know where their stuff goes, so it usually goes back into the spots.  If things are too heavy, they just get put into the crate under neath them.  The library books also go in there, so they have a home so we don't loose them.    On the bulletin board, we keep a monthly calendar, weekly calendar, and the menu plan.  By planning meals, we save money and time by not daily trying to figure out what we are going to eat.  Since, I know I know our schedule for the week when I am meal planning, I can plan for specific meals on nights where there are meetings or sports practices.  You can see the original command center post here.

2.  Create a routine that works with your family.  The teacher in my loves routine.  I have always found that kids thrive in an environment that they know what to expect.  This is the first year, we aren't using our mourning routine cards because they have this down (You can read about them here though).  I did make one for our oldest that stays in the bathroom and reminds him about deodoarant and washing his face, because he's a boy who would rather be doing other things and we need to make it a habit.  We also have daily chore cards that have helped so much because if it's in writing, there is nothing to argue about.  These chore cards tell them which days they set the table or clear off the table, empty the dishwasher, fold clothes, etc.  They know what's expected of them and have learned that the sooner they get their stuff done the sooner they can veg out our play video games. We try to keep bedtimes at the same time, that includes showers, reading time, and lights out.  We are crazy and our kids are in bed by 8:30 at the latest because they need their sleep.

3.  Get as much done the night before.  I am not a morning person and there never seems to be enough time to get all the things done in the morning.  I have learned that doing things like packing lunches and setting out clothes the night before is a huge help the following morning.  If you need some lunch inspiration, I've got some here and here. 

4.  Take advantage of sales and learn to wait for the school supply clearance.  When school time rolls around, I know that my kids need certain items for school and certain items in our own stash to keep stocked away for homework and projects.  I also know that this stuff adds up, even when you are buying them on "sale."  I stock up on crayola markers, crayons, and colored pencils when they are a dollar and 50 cents.  Don't be cheap and by the store brands. . . they just don't work as much.  Also, stock up when Ticonderoga pencils go on sale.  Grab a few packs of paper and a couple notebooks and then wait.  Wait so patiently for all that stuff to be marked down and then go buy your notebooks and paper for almost nothing.  And then see what else is there.  You will thank me, I promise.  (also, I shop at Target. . . I don't know how that works for Walmart).

5. Choose to love on your child's teacher.  I say this every year, but it something that is so important.  Teachers work so incredibly hard for very little acknowledgement. They don't do it to receive those words of praise, they do it because they love kids and want to see them thrive.  They spend money out of their own pockets and put in more hours then the normal school day to make your child's learning experience one for the books!  So, pick up an extra wish list item or grab them their favorite chocolate bar on a rough week.  Don't wait for teacher appreciation week to spoil them.  And really, get to know the person who is spending all day with your child.  Volunteer in their room or see if there is anything they can help you with.  Periodically check in on your child.  This really helps build a great child-parent-teacher relationship that I kind of took for granted until my child got into a fight and ended up suspended last year.  Trust me, not the phone call you want to get.  But, knowing that my child had an incredibly loving teacher and an equally loving administrative staff, I knew that my child was going to be okay and the suspension was not going to change the way that he was loved on by the staff. 

I am sure you have a lot of things you do and I would love to hear them!  I am always looking for ideas to make our transition into school mode a smooth one!  Feel free to leave a comment and feel free to even share.  It totally makes my day when someone reads my blog and leaves a comment!  

I hope you have a fantastic first week of school! 

Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 6

 Summer vacation has officially ended at our house and while we have returned to routine and bedtimes, we do have one more art project to share with you.  This is a great chance to fit in one more art project before you start school or pin it for an activity on a day where your kids are at home, whether for snow (we don't have those), or a holiday.  I know I am already looking at other artists to do during Christmas Vacation.  We have just had so much fun learning about artists and their art this summer. 

As a kid, I remember my mom liking Georgia O'keefe.  I remember her doing a bulletin board in her classroom and talking about her being one of her favorites.  I could be mistaken, but it's a vague memory I have from childhood.  O'Keefe is definitely different from the other artists we talked about this summer (Picasso, Kandinsky, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Matisse), but she has a beautiful story and some of the most gorgeous paintings of flowers.  She grew up loving nature and seeing things that most people miss as the hurry through life. She hoped to urge people to slow down and look around, so she painted pictures of nature, large and colorful.  We did a lot of talking about why it's good to take time and look around and admire the beauty of God's creation.  You can definitely see it when you look at O'Keefe's work. 

For this art project, there were a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but we went with just drawing large flowers on our 8x11 painting paper (just a book from Target. . . pretty sure it's that Up&Up brand that's cheap and perfect for keeping around for your kids to do all sorts of art projects).  We used tempera paints. . . I am partial to Crayola.  Their tempera paints are nice, thick, with rich colors.

 We talked about O'keefe's flower paintings being only 1 flower, BIG, and barely any negative space with the petals often hanging off the edge of the canvas.  The kids got to draw their own flowers and then choose their colors.  We talked about white and black paint and what happens when we combine one of them with another color and how you can make shades and tints (a lesson we did together awhile back).  I kind of just let the kids paint in peace and watched to see how their creative juices get inspired by other artists.  We aren't setting out to simply copy another artists work, but to be inspired to try new things and take risks when armed with paper and and a paint brush. 

 I cannot begin to express how much I love their paintings.  Weston did the yellow and brown flower, and decided to not paint the negative space because he had an idea in his head for another art project that he wanted to start ASAP.  So, while he told me at the beginning that he did NOT want to do art the day we did this, he had fun and then I couldn't get him to stop painting.  The wheels in his head were spinning! 

 Let's also not talk about how my almost 11 year old is looking more like he's a teenager every day.  Oiy Vey.  Send help.  Just kidding!  I love the things that they have created.  I had fun, joining in and getting to paint, too! 

We read these three books before starting our paintings and they really helped us understand Georgia O'Keefe's life and the way she painted.  I am pretty sure that her story inspired us!  While both Through Georgia's eyes and My Name is Georgia were very similar, they both gave some different perspectives on her life and art.  And once again, we found the O'Keefe version of my favorite art books, which was so much fun! 


 Here are some more facts on our art project:

O'keefe books:
Through Georgia's Eyes
My Name is Georgia
O'keefe (My favorite)
Georgia O'Keefe 

Catch the rest of the Summer Kids Art Challenge here:
Week 1: Kandinsky
Week 2: Seurat
Week 3: Picasso
Week 4: Matisse
Week 5: Van Gogh 

 Art Supplies:
Tempera Paint in assorted colors (we used Crayola)
pencil
drawing paper
paint brushes (our favorite's are these from Ikea)

Don't forget to post a picture and use the hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge 

Happy Creating! 

Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 5

I can't believe this is our 5th week of doing art together here on the blog.  We have one more week after this, so don't worry.  I might even sneak some art projects in throughout the year, because there's some really good artists out there that I think my kids need to know more about.  Plus, I just love the conversations that come from doing art together and watching them make connections when we go visit art galleries. 

This week, we are learning all about Vincent Van Gogh and he's so much fun to study.  He is a man who loved to paint.  He tried so many jobs before settling down as a poor painter.  He loved painting so much that he often spent all his money on paint rather than buying food.  When he painted he liked to use thick brush strokes and often didn't take the time to mix the paints to create colors, he just went with them fresh out of the tube.  A lot of people thought his paintings were weird, and like most other artists, he was not famous until after he died.  He got sad a lot and one day decided to cut off part of his ear. He has a really neat, but very sad story.

We got to see this one on our vacation this summer and the one below it 2 years ago, when we were in Chicago.  As we read, Camille and the Sunflowers, Ethan and Weston were both remembering the pieces we have seen. 

 Because Van Gogh is famous for his deep brush strokes and bright colors, I really wanted to use a medium that would show the kids about lines.  We went with this tutorial using oil pastels.  We haven't used oil pastels this summer, so it was fun to pull them out and put them to use during our summer kids art challenge.

One of his famous paintings are his Sunflowers and since we read the book that talked about that particular painting, we thought it was a good idea to do our own sunflower project.  Here's a picture of one of his sunflower paintings.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love how these came out!  It was such a simple art project, but the way the sunflowers pop on the dark paper, makes oil pastels so much fun!  The kids often asked if we were scribbling, because at times, it really felt like it.  But in truth, sometimes scribbling can bring the best lines!  Weston figured out that he could smear the oil pastels with his fingers, so we let him do another project afterwards and it turned out beautiful!

We read Camille and the Sunflowers, which is a fun story about some of his paintings that Van Gogh painted and then we read the Van Gogh book, because those books are so much fun and they are filled with so many facts!

Here are some more info on our art project:

You can find the directions for this very easy piece here.  

Other books about Van Gogh:
Camille and the Sunflowers
Vincent Can't Sleep
Katie and the Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh (My favorite artist books!)

Catch the rest of the Summer Kids Art Challenge here:
Week 1: Kandinsky
Week 2: Seurat
Week 3: Picasso
Week 4: Matisse

 Art Supplies:
oil pastels - I have a box of the crayola ones I picked up a few years ago someplace. . . they were probably on sale.  Here's a link to some on amazon.  

black construction paper - we used navy blue cardstock, because I had some hanging around.  

Don't forget to post a picture and use the hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge 

Happy Creating! 

Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 4

We have two weeks until school starts and I am not ready.  We are enjoying these nice slow days of summer (it's too hot to step outside!).  The boys are busy playing toys they normally don't have time for and doing these weekly art projects I planned way back when school was in session.  This one took us some time because I was just not in my groove.  Coming back from vacation and stepping back into reality (well, the reality of summer) was hard.  We took it slow and finally just finished it up yesterday.  Some projects are like that.  But the result of this one just makes my heart so happy.  My favorite art projects are usually those that include some paint and a paintbrush (or two), so when I planned these art projects I wanted to make sure we were not only studying artists, their styles, but also different mediums.  Watercolors tend to be my favorite because they are a super easy clean up.  This project used a little bit of watercolor to produce a certain effect, but other than that, it was paper and scissors and a lot of fun! 

This week, we are studying Matisse, who started out painting beautiful paintings that resemble those of Monet, that included landscapes and still lifes.  Later, he began to experiment with brighter, bolder colors.  His lines were sharper, more modern.  As he grew older, he found he couldn't paint anymore, so he started cutting out paper shapes and placing them on paper, using both the negative and positive space from his cut outs, as well as taking advantage of contrasting colors.  Matisse's works are so full of life and color, making him a really fun artist for kids to study! 

 We started out by painting a piece of paper with blue watercolor.  We wanted to give the blue a water-like look, so we layered a sheet of  plastic wrap over the top while it dried. 

  After it dried, we started cutting out shapes out of bright colors for our background and gluing them down on a piece of white card stock paper. 

 Then, using some dark navy blue card stock (we just used what we had in my stash), the kids cut out shapes for a stool.  Then, using the paper they water colored (now dry), they folded it in half and cut out a vase/fish bowl shape.  I won't lie, the urge to cut out snowflakes was strong at this point. . . just ask Weston!  They glued all those on their paper and then cut out some fish to put inside their vase.  After that, we just cut out shapes, using both the negative and positive spaces and filled our paper squares. 

 I really love how they turned out!  With this art project, we read the two books above (I'll link them and others below).  The bottom, Meet Matisse, is incredibly wordy.  So we skimmed through it together, gathering some facts about Matisse and looking at some of his art.  The second book, Matisse's Garden, is a fun book that combines a cute story with beautiful illustrations about Matisse cutting out shapes with prints of his actual art work woven in between. 


 Books about Matisse:
Meet Matisse
Matisse's Garden
Drawing with Scissors
Blue and Other Colors
The Iridescense of Birds

 Henri's Scissors
Matisse: The King of Color
When Pigasso Met Mootisse


 Kids Art Challenge:
Week 1:Kandinsky
Week 2:Seurat
Week 3: Picasso

This post was inspired by this post. 

Don't forget to post a picture and use the hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge 

Happy Creating! 

Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 3

 We took a little break in our Kids Art Challenge to go on an adventure, but we are back, recovered, and ready to rejoin the real life again.  Before we left, we fit in our third art challenge and it was the perfect way to break up our 6 weeks of art projects.  I am so glad that, even though we were busy packing and doing 4th of July stuff, we still fit it in, because it really got my kids excited for the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.

Picasso is a really fun artist to talk about because he had so many styles and periods. Modern Art is really fun to teach kids because its so flexible to what the child sees.  We read the books Picasso and Mootisse and this Picasso book.  (We'll talk about Matisse in week 4).  The first book is just a fictional book based on the friendship of the two artists and the second is a great resource for kids with lots of pictures of Picasso's art.  It talks about his life and the periods of his art in a way that draws the kids in and gets them enjoying art.

After reading about Picasso and studying his art work, Weston was so excited to go search for his work when we visited the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C.  He was able to tell me a specific painting was painted during Picasso's Blue Period and then he was pointing out Cubism left and right.  There was a proud mom moment where I saw him really enjoy art!  I think it's also proof that spending a little bit of time each week studying artists and their art work is so important!

One thing I loved about the book, Pigasso and Mootisse, was that it showed the friendship that developed between both Picasso and Matisse and then walking through the art gallery where that friendship was on display was just epic!  The kids were so excited to see Picasso's work (as well as Kandinksky, Seraut, Monet, and Van Gogh. . . all artists we are going to be covering in this challenge.

But, let's get back to the project of the week.  This week, we are talking about Picasso's style Cubism.  This project was so fun and fairly easy that we really enjoyed relaxing while painting (even though we should have been packing up our stuff!). 

  We started out by drawing a simple picture on top of water color paper.  We just used pencil. 

 Then we drew horizontal and vertical lines across the page.  We used the width of a ruler because it was easier for the kids to keep track of where the next line went.  My goal is to have the boys do their art entirely on their own.  This is their masterpiece. . . not mine (even though I enjoy doing it along side them!). 

 Then we used different colors and drew in our spaces.  The goal was to make them contrast so the actual picture cubes stand out and you can tell what the original picture was.  Ethan realized after the fact that a blue whale was hard to get to stand out using the same colors for the water.  Weston started out great, but after his sabors were done, he was done.  I still am loving the way it came out.  And who, knows, maybe it will get finished by the end of summer?  Maybe that's just me dreaming.  ha ha.  Also, just because someone will probably ask. . . no the artichoke hearts and pineapple were not used in the making of this art project!  ha ha!

 Each week, I am pretty sure I say that it's my favorite project yet, but this one really was!  And then seeing them the following week get excited about art in a museum.  Oh, this mamma heart is so happy! 

 Here are a few other books about Picasso:
Picasso and the Girl with the Pony Tail, by Laurence Anholt
100 Pablo Picassos, by Violet Lemay
Who was Pablo Picasso, by True Kelly
The Three Musicians, by Veronique Massenot

 You can find the rest of the Summer Pinterest Challenge for 2019 at these links:
Week 1: Kandinsky

Week 2: Seurat

If you are joining us, feel free to use the following hashtag:

#ootrbsummerkidsartchallenge

 I hope you are all finding time to get creative this summer in some way or another!  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Pinterest Challenge 2019: Week 2

We are in our 4th week of summer mode and it's wonderful.  I am staying up way too late and sleeping in while my kids fend for themselves and watch some random dude playing video games and that new Pac-Man cartoon on Netflix in between all of the many of soccer games on this season.  We are all living our best lives over here. . . lazy summer vibes are strong!

We are, however, making room for fun things like art, movies, and adventure along with the occasional chore, but that isn't fun.  No one really wants to hear about chores.  You are here because you are looking for something to do with your kids that gets them doing something creative.  So, welcome to Week 2 of our Summer Pinterest Challenge, Kids Art edition.  If you haven't had a chance to read about last week's art project, you can scroll down to the bottom for the link.  It gives an over view of our approach for the this project and why we are combining it with literacy and a little artist study and not just random art projects.  I encourage you to head over to that post to read more and then come back, or just read it afterwards. 

 I remember taking an art history class in college.  It was probably one of my most favorite classes because it taught me so much more than the styles, but the history and life of the painters themselves.  Two years ago, on our summer trip to Chicago, we took the kids to one of our favorite art museums. . . the Chicago Art Institute.  This place is amazing and has so many wonderful (and famous) paintings on display.  One of them being this painting by Georges Seurat (if you've watched Ferris Bueller. . . there's a famous scene at the art institute with this painting).  Looking at paintings in a book is so much different than seeing them up close and in person.  For example, this painting, called "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" is huge.  And when you take notice of the style he used, called Pointillism, it's amazingly impressive that each tiny piece of color is a dot of paint.  So, picking Seurat for our Art Challenge was no question.  

 We had friends over last week, when we worked on our Pointillism piece and so we forced them into joining in the fun (they look so bored, don't they? ha ha).  We chose to do the Eiffel Tower because Seurat is French, but also, he has a piece where he did the Eiffel Tower with Pointillism and it's beautiful, but also a lot easier to re-create than one with people, monkeys, and landscape.

    We used an empty egg carton and some q-tips for this art challenge.  I modeled it with some paper on the fridge. And they followed along.  We talked a lot about how making dots is an up-down process and not a slide the paint across the paper to achieve a straight line.  My favorite is how easy it is for them to fix areas that they messed up and how beautiful they all turned out. 

 I was going to have them cover the entire thing with dots, but they were loosing interest after about 45 minutes and so they decided to do some fireworks and honestly, I love it! 

 I can't even begin to tell you just how much I love how these turned out!  The conversations that happened while they were sitting down creating are one of my favorite things.  They all worked so hard and did such a great job. . .  

 that popsicles were a must!  (and we eat them outside because it was gorgeous!).

I hope you will join us on this art challenge this summer!  Feel free to post to instagram and use #OOTRBsummerkidsartchallenge

Also, check out last week's first challenge here. 

This post was inspired by the pin from this blog post. 

Happy Creating!