Friday Art: Zentangles

Posted on | June 18, 2010 | 5 Comments

Zentangles by Mica Redington (13 years old)

Zentangles by Rinoa Redington (5 years old)

Both Mica and Rinoa did a great job with their zentangles. Rinoa gave up coloring in the middle of her project, complaining that her hand was tired. I think it looks great just partly colored.

The Artistic Mother: Nameplates

Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 7 Comments

So many things happening in my life right now that I would love to share here – good things. The best part is I’m meeting a lot of kindred spirits. But I’m so overwhelmed at the moment that I need to take time to organize my thoughts.

In the meanwhile, I want to share another art project that my girls did. For fun, I recently joined the Artistic Mother’s Art Group based on Shona Cole’s book The Artistic Mother and hosted by Trudy Callan. I was flipping through the book when Mica and Rinoa saw this project and got excited. And there you go! We went to the store to buy some canvases and went to work. They did everything themselves, including choosing what papers and beads to use, except that Troy drilled the holes and I printed the photos.

The M and R were painted with crackle paint which both girls thought was really cool! Although Rinoa said “How come Mica’s M is more cracked than my R?” And I said “Because she put more paint on hers.” “Ooooh!”

These will hang on the bedroom doors. They’re excited about the idea of seeing their faces every time they pass by the doors – lol!

Friday Art: Teesha Moore Inspired

Posted on | June 1, 2010 | 8 Comments

Artist Teesha Moore generously shared through YouTube her thought and work process in creating her distinctive art journals. After watching the videos (which are presented in order at the bottom of this post), I thought it would be a great Friday Art project for Mica and Rinoa to make their own ‘Teesha Moore Inspired’ art. Boy did they have fun – they definitely released their wacky sides!

“The Octopus-Racer Lady” by Mica Redington (13 years old)

“Lady Dog” by Rinoa Redington (5 years old)

Troy came home early from work, got envious, and decided to join us and make one for himself. He’s not done with his yet (just needs some journaling) but here’s what his work looks like:

“What Are You Looking At?” by Troy Redington

Here are Teesha Moore’s video tutorials, in chronological order from creating a 16-page journal to filling the journal with collage and journaling. Enjoy!

Teesha Moore’s Amazing 16-page Journal (Part 1 of 2)

Teesha Moore’s Amazing 16-page Journal (Part 2 of 2)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Paint

Teesha Moore Journaling: Collage (Part 1 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Collage (Part 2 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Collage (Part 3 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Collage (Part 4 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Pen Work (Part 1 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Pen Work (Part 2 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Pen Work (Part 3 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Pen Work (Part 4 of 4)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Lettering (Part 1 of 2)

Teesha Moore Journaling: Lettering (Part 2 of 2)

Friday Art: Tale of the Heartbroken Potters

Posted on | May 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Two weeks ago, Troy took a half day off work to participate in Friday Art Day. We had a tub of air dry clay stowed away, so Troy taught the girls the basics of clay pottery. They wedged and wedged, over and over until the clay was free of bubbles. Then they learned the coiling technique and started working on their bowls. Regardless of the outcome, their scoring and welding techniques were actually pretty good for their first time.

Rinoa rolled …

and shaped her clay into a pot.

And so did Mica.

But alas, the joy of pottery. We blame the air dry clay.

They’re not too discouraged though. They’re willing to try again next time. Learn from mistakes. That’s what matters.

Easter Greetings

Posted on | April 13, 2010 | No Comments

Just catching up on some posts here. I know it’s late but I promised Troy I’d share the Easter cards that Mica and Rinoa made …

This one is from Rinoa (5 years old).

And this one is from Mica (12 years old).

And the idea for this project came here – an awesome site if you’re looking for art project for kids.

Friday Art: Basic Color Theory

Posted on | April 12, 2010 | No Comments

I have this book, Collage Lab by Bee Shay, which is an invaluable resource for my mixed media explorations and experimentations. What’s even more fun is that I can do the experiments with Mica and Rinoa. It’s never too early to train them to push the boundaries of their creative expression.

I’m starting them with color theory. Last Friday, we each did a color wheel and a simple experiment to explore color relationships.

I find that this is also a good exercise to get them comfortable with handling a brush – and of course, with mixing colors.

The left half is part of Rinoa’s color wheel and the right half is part of Mica’s. On the outermost right are sample swatches we did to study color relationships – like how surrounding colors affect a focal color.

Friday Art

Posted on | February 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

Fridays are dedicated to art and music in our house. Here’s what Mica and Rinoa have been busy with in art class.

This is a charcoal drawing that Mica made. A perfect example of patience and persistence paying off – over the past few months, I’ve seen her drawing skills progress from being haphazard to having more details.

While Mica was doing her charcoal drawing, Rinoa worked on her lion – one of the many great project ideas we found here. The site shows step-by-step instructions for this lion – perfect for my 5-year old. Rinoa traced her pencil drawing with a black Sharpie and colored it with regular crayons.

When they were done with the above projects, they wanted more and decided to draw cupcakes – an idea we found here. The cupcakes were rendered in oil pastels.

Cupcakes by Mica Redington (12 years old)

Cupcakes by Rinoa Redington (5 years old)

Pater Noster

Posted on | January 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

For this post, I wanted to share a video of Mica reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, which I had her memorize. (Latin is part of her foreign language course, the other part being Spanish.)

“Foreign language provides one with entry into a worldview different from one’s own. If it is important that our young value diversity of point of view, there is no better way to achieve it than to have them learn a foreign language.” – Neil Postman in The End of Education

First Language Lessons

Posted on | November 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

For Rinoa’s grammar lessons, I use First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise. This scripted book not only teaches grammar concepts, but also includes memory work, copy work, and narration. As the author wrote, “Exposure, not mastery, is the goal at this level.” and the daily lessons that are given in small doses are perfect for this objective.

After forty or so lessons, Rinoa now understands the concept of nouns, proper nouns, and common nouns. By next week, she’ll be ready to learn all about pronouns. I’m using Schoolhouse Rock videos to supplement the grammar lessons. I don’t even have to buy them, they’re all in YouTube. Below is the video that got her excited to learn all about nouns. (I just grabbed the first video I saw in YouTube.) And you can’t blame her, the song is very catchy!

Aside from learning grammar, she’s also developing her narration skill. I tell her a short story, and she tells back the story in her own words. The problem I encountered when I started teaching her was she gives too much details that her narration become too long to write down – but she’s learning to pick out the important points and tone down her summary. As for memory work, she absolutely has no problems. I give her a 4-line poem and she has it memorized in one day. Below are two of three poems she has memorized so far.

Taken August 2009

Taken October 2009

She makes up all the hand gestures by herself and the person you hear clapping in the background in both videos is Mica.

Character Sketch of Jessi

Posted on | November 17, 2009 | No Comments

In one of Mica’s writing activities for Language Arts, she wrote a character sketch of her cousin, Jessi. I promised my sister-in-law a few months ago that I would share it, so here you go …

My Character Sketch of Baby Jessi

by Mica Redington

The first time I met my cousin, Baby Jessi, was in New York. She is a very happy and playful baby. Whenever you put her in front of a mirror, she laughs and giggles. If you play with her a lot, she usually smiles. Jessi loves it when you hold her up on her feet. She loves it even more when you play music and move her around like she’s dancing. Baby Jessi is one of the happiest babies I have ever known.

And what’s a post without pictures? Here are some of Baby Jessi , taken by my brother.

keep looking »

About Me

Categories

• Around The House
• Creative Play
  • Friday Art
• Daily Musings
• Fabulous Finds
• Family Affair
• Giving Back
• Green Living
• Homeschooling
• In The Kitchen
• Travelogue

Archives

Select Month July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 July 2008 June 2008 March 2008 February 2008

© 2006-2010 Johwey Redington.

Please don't steal my text or images, it's disrespectful and you'll be subjet to karma! If you want to use any of the images, please email me for a written permission. Thank you.