Friday 20th April 2012 – 'Art Critic' (111/366)
We went to Cardiff Museum today and visited the art gallery with the specific intention of looking at the Monets there. He was entranced by the paintings, possibly as much as he was by the echo.
This is for a forthcoming art project initiated by RedTedArt, keep your eyes peeled!
Monday 2nd April 2012 – 'A Messy Cure' (93/366)
He hates having messy hands. With the exception of sand, he can't bear to have substances spread all over them and always wants to wash them off. Today we made Easter cards involving cotton buds and sponge printing, naturally his hands got dirty. I wouldn't let him wash his hands, in fact I got the sponge and painted it all over mine and then encouraged him to do the same. The next fifteen minutes were spent painting our hands, squelching them and smearing it all over the paper. I think he might be a little bit cured.
First House
A few months ago I discovered the wonders of RedTedArt and The Imagination Tree. Both are blogs that I admire hugely because they promote the marvels and benefits of Learning Through Play and the importance of Art in a child's life.
Before I was a primary school teacher, I trained as a Nursery Nurse and was intent upon becoming a Nursery teacher. And then I had a teaching practise in Year Five and I've never looked back, turning away from the littlies proclaiming them "too small and easy to accidentally step on!" in a jovial and, quite possibly, dismissive manner. However since having The Boy, I've rediscovered the joy of craft and role-playing with the 'littlies'. To the point where I asked my boss (in my annual review) if I could work with them again. She almost fell off her chair in shock, but at that time was unable to grant my wish.
So I channel my ideas at the moment into the most important 'littlie' of them all, The Boy. Last week, we took delivery of a Little Tikes house to review as a part of the Toyologist programme. The box was massive (well it had to hold a house!):
What do you do with a box that big?
Turn it into a play-house for The Boy to decorate!
The box was huge, big enough for daddy, The Boy and Me (see what I did there?) to get in easily. I cut a door on one side and windows with shutters on the other side, and he absolutely adored it. Daddy? Not so much, it kept getting in the way of the recycling which he needed to empty, or the toilet, or anything really. Admittedly for a time, The Boy was the only one who could get through to the utility room (through the open end and out of his door) so once or twice I had to send him on a little job!
The Boy has had great fun this week; painting, decorating, hiding and playing house in his, um, house. Which is great because it's rained a fair amount so he hasn't managed to get out to the main toy; the Little Tikes house. He's played in it with his friends and cousins, and I have discovered that there is nothing more likely to make children giggle than crawling through a cardboard box.
Well I managed to hold onto it for a week, but it's cardboard recycling on Friday and I've got a toddler group coffee session tomorrow, so we've had to move the house. I'm hoping that The Boy doesn't ask where it is in the morning!
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Click this widget to see the marvellous Imagination Tree
And this one will take you to the fabulous RedTedArt
Monday 22nd August 2011 – 'Mr. Maker' (234/365)
Monday 24th May 2011 – 'Picasso' (144/365)
Tuesday 3rd May 2011 – 'Painting' (123/365)
Galt Art Equipment
Imagine The Boy's surprise and delight when he opened up the box of the above goodies from Galt Toys for us to review. He absolutely adores all types of craft activities, but painting and drawing with his crayons are the utmost all-time top two for him. He was almost beside himself when he saw some new 'draw-draws' and when his little eyes caught sight of the paint, bless him, he couldn't stop jigging with excitement.
The crayons got the first round of serious analysis: definitely a success there! He took the pot over to his desk, sat down and started to examine the colours. In the pack of goodies that Galt sent us was a pack of 25 sheets of paper. The paper is A2 size and therefore quite large, perfect for large scale painting or sticking activities, but it also means that I can halve each sheet making it go further (we also always use both sides of the paper – environmentally aware!).
The crayons are a delightful rainbow of colours, 24 in total, including various shades of the primary colours and a range of secondary and tertiary hues aswell. They are described as chunky crayons which are ideal. As a teacher I remember a training session where we were taught not to give little children jumbo writing implements because they only have small hands and small grip. However, I've tried thinner crayons and he just ends up accidentally snapping them in half as he is too young to be aware of strength of grip.
As you can see from the pictures, drawing is a very serious business in this household (definitely a left-hander).
In the pack of art resources, we were also sent these finger paints:
The Boy is an independent little creature who likes to think outside the box already (don't you love toddler thinking?) and therefore wanted his paintbrushes to use with them. These paints are great; in the pack are six 100ml pots of bright, thick and washable paint. And yes they are washable! I've had my hands stained for hours after using the Crayola washable paints (especially the blue and green ones) but not with these paints.
*There is a disclaimer on the box that it may not remove from materials and surfaces that cannot be laundered, although it does say it can wash from most machine washable clothes.
The Boy had great fun with painting, he loves exploring the colours and textures as you can see:
We were also sent a pack of face-paint sticks to use, and I tried to test these but the little monkey wouldn't keep still long enough for me to get more than the outline of a spider's body and three of his eight legs! When he's a few months older, I'm sure that he will enjoy using these a lot more but I suspect he's just a little too young at the moment. I will say though that they are encased in a plastic tubing to prevent mucky hands with a push-up sliding holder for the actual face-paint stick in order to maximise the amount of face-paint used. It strikes me as an excellent idea.
I was very impressed with both the paints and the crayons, they are a much richer hue and depth of colour than other well-known branded crayons and paints. I will be purchasing these in future, especially because of the fact that the deeper coloured paints doesn't stain skin!
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While I received these products free of charge to provide an honest review, I have not been offered any other reward for my opinion.
