Reading with Larien and Art with Inwe

In all my ups and downs with teaching Inwe to read, I learned that you can't make a kid into a reader. You can teach them to read and give them a love of stories. I'm sure many would disagree with me, but as much as I might try, Inwe only reads the books she gets at school. She never picks up a book at home with the intent of reading it for entertainment.

This is not true of Larien. At bedtime, if she isn't sleepy, we leave the light on for her so she can peruse her stack of books. The ones she likes to read are non fiction books about weather, planets, and animals. She doesn't mind the fictional tales, though. Her default is always the nature books.

Recently, she has wanted to read to us at bedtime. Two nights ago, I picked up The Cat in the Hat. She told me that the foot book was easier. I suggested that she try the first page. She made it through those few sentences and surprised me by having the desire to read all of the story. I had to help her on a few words, but after a while she recognized even those. She read part of it again last night. The reason she didn't finish it was because I fell asleep. My Larien is a reader.

My Inwe is the creator. I bought, at Larien's request, a spin art machine. At $10, the price was right and I remember doing some spin art as a child. Larien, Finwe, and I spent some time making some art. When Inwe came home, she took over and not in a bad way. She took my suggestions and tweaked them to make her own unique style. I could see her working on ideas as she added paint and glitter. Her creations topped ours.

Banner up there

The new banner is courtesy of Inwe's art. She draws and paints so many pieces that I take photos of them instead of storing every single sheet of paper. We tried to give her a large folder for storage, but she never used it. So, we keep a stack, photograph the best ones, and recycle most of them. One day she'll move to canvases. You people will have to begin hanging them on your walls when you get a surprise package, courtesy of Inwe.

Art in Exile

My kids are happy at their aunt's house. Inwe even got a chance to have a sleep over with her 2nd cousin. I love that kids are so resilient. Even so, my Inwe said, "Mom, I enjoy Aunt Maverick's house, but I want to be back in New Orleans."

Play dough dragon

Last week, the kids requested red ("Really red, Mommy. Like, squeeze the entire tube of food coloring in it.") and yellow play dough. We made some.

Inwe and Larien collaborated on this dragon. Inwe constructed the body, complete with horn and breastplates. Larien scultped the tail. they added wings later, but those ruined the sculpture for me. I like the land dragon.

Hands of Time

Oh, those last few weeks of summer vacation have crept ever so slowly. I can tell that the kids are eager for school. Inwe asked to wear her McGehee uniform today, which I refused. She'll wear it all year. The real problem is that she had no clothes that she wanted to wear.

Larien keeps asking to do more reading lessons than her brain can handle. The more complex words require more attention and coaching on my part. By the end of the story, she's excited to discover something new, but she doesn't last long. We stop at one lesson now. She received a letter from her teachers that contained a drawing of a ladybug, the class mascot. She colored it and only needs to write a sentence about a ladybug on the sheet of paper. These will be put in the classroom on the first day.

Finwe knows that he'll start school, too. I asked him what he'll like about school. He replied so quickly that I suspect he's been thinking about it. "Other boys." Methinks he's weary of the overbearing, controlling sisters?

One of the reasons the kids are ready for organized learning is that they've only had one organized summer camp, which was only two hours focused on music appreciation. This is more about how I spent summers than any financial restraints. My summer camps were always only a week at most and only for the mornings. We played at home and on the beach and in the park. Summer camp? Ick! That resembled school way too much. While I liked school immensely, summer meant time for renewal of that excitement, not time away from mom and dad.

At the camp the kids did attend, they also did art. Two of the projects I enjoyed so much that I'm displaying them in the front of the house, a watercolor painting of flowers in a vase and these hand prints mounted on canvas frames.

Making as many cards as Hallmark

My daughters like to make cards, lots of cards. Sometimes the cards are for us; other cards end up mailed to friends back in Charlottesville. If someone comes to visit, the girls make a card. Actually, a visit is not necessary. They will make you a card then decide to keep it because it is so special. Many of you probably have a card in the pile of cards we keep in the art cabinet.

I have a wonderful way to send some of the cards that the girls will like. The boys' classes are participating in a project called Hearts Across America. The goal is for each class to receive a valentine from each of the fifty states before February 14th. Want to help? Email me at hpsarabeth@gmail.com for the addresses. Her sons are in separate classes, meaning one for each class.

I'm going to see if Larien will release the card above to her good friends. I have a feeling she will.

Trip to the Aquarium Inspires

As quick as we could after arriving in New Orleans, we bought a membership to the Audubon Institute, which has a zoo and an aquarium in the city. For $144, we can visit the zoo and the aquarium whenever the fancy strikes us and we can bring an extra person.

Already, we've been to the zoo twice as a family. Honestly, we visited one day just to eat the gumbo at the Louisiana swamp part of the facility. Good, good stuff. Hot. Good. Mmmmmm.

This past week, we took a trip to the aquarium where we walked under a tank and through a tank. We strolled along the Mississippi River, petted a snake, an alligator, one baby nurse shark, and many friendly (and barb-less) stingrays. The children marveled at the sea horses and the different medusae in artfully arranged black tanks.

Both Larien and Inwe used the day's inspiration to create art. Inwe chose a fish book. Larien, a tableau, part of which I used for the new banner.

Hat Decoration

These two have been bothering me about decorating foam visors for months. Yesterday, I caved and bought a few supplies. Here's what they did.


What you can't see is that they decorated the inside as well. Those pictures just looked odd.

Sands of Art

Good friends spent time with us today as we were on the route to their new home in Birmingham. They came bearing gifts. Inwe received sand art and bothered me the entire day, through a group lunch and a fun birthday party and dinner, about when she could open the box. We opened it after dinner. We managed to get one bottle filled for each girl before Finwe grunted his way into the bar stools where he proceeded to grab the spill tray in an attempt to spread the sand from here to eternity. We didn't let him. Inwe is itching for his nap tomorrow.

Can Argue Their Way Out of a Paper Bag

A few notes before you view the pictures:

1. I had nothing to do with the beginning of this art project.
2. The girls found their own supplies, including the tape.
3. Larien did all the cutting for her cat.
4. Inwe helped Larien apply the whiskers.
5. I only took photos as as requested.
   

This Little Piggy Stayed Home

and cut up a paper plate to make a mask.

Another from the WWF Calendar

Writing on the Wall

It is all my fault. I asked Larien and Inwe to take a short quiet time so that I could make some phone calls. Is half an hour so much to ask of a three year old?

As I entered Larien's room to tell her to come join me downstairs, I paused in the doorway. Mentally, I counted to twenty. I inhaled slowly, using the pranayama technique of yogis. After all of those anger management techniques I was able to ask, "Why are you writing on the wall?"

Larien looked at me innocently, "I didn't have any paper and there was this crayon."

I made her help with the cleaning. I did the most.

Why?

Because it was my fault for putting her in quiet time without paper when there was a rogue crayon (red with shiny bits) behind her bedside table.

From a World Wildlife Fund Calendar

What the title should mean is that Inwe drew this while looking at a World Wildlife fund calendar.

The Pacific Ocean

Background is watercolor. Marine life forms are paper cutouts with crayon coloring.

Hip Cat

Cats are her thing now. Larien, that is. She draws them everywhere, much like Inwe draws rainbows.

She notices so many details

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. The social committee at the school sent a list of activities the children could do each day for the teachers. The first suggestion was a picture, preferably a drawing of the teacher. However, my children didn't like that suggestion and decided to draw cheerful pictures.

Inwe chose a flower with "an Eric Carle like sun."

"A what?" I asked.

Inwe cocked her head as she answered, "An Eric Carle like sun. He always starts his books with a sunrise. Haven't you noticed?"

I, in fact, had noticed this, but I allowed Inwe to think that I was deficient in my knowledge of Eric Carle's artwork in his books. I kept my reply simple. "He must like sunrises."

"That a good thought, Mom."

Because it won't get there on time

Inwe and Larien decorated frames for my sister, Maverick, for her birthday on Sunday. I didn't have Finwe decorate a frame as he's 19 months of age. He can glue rocks and dirt to a frame next year.

Cat's Out of the Bag

On Saturday during the heat of the day, the girls and I did some painting. We also invited Idril to join us. We first painted some small wooden cat cutouts that Inwe received after participating in a child psychology study. We turned the into magnets, but I'll cover that in another post.

After we finished with the cats, I pulled out some pieces of press board that came with some kid furniture. Larien began painting something. As I was sorting mail while I was overseeing the other two kids, I didn't look at Larien's creation until she was nearly finished.

She painted a cat. No one helped her with the outline. I'll try to get a non-upside down picture later.

My family has its own art service

A few days ago I found Inwe drawing a picture as Larien watched. When I asked them what was going on (they were having a rather contentious conversation), Inwe replied, "Larien is using my art service, and she doesn't like how I'm drawing her dress. I forgot to draw the button, but I'm drawing it now."

This is the resulting drawing of Larien.