Homeschooling Through the Alphabet: C is for Creativity
The artist in me just couldn't talk about homeschooling without mentioning creativity!
My boys and I do a lot of arts and crafts project together; in fact we're about 2/3 of the way through a 100 days of art challenge that we took on this summer. My boys love to create large structures out of blocks, Lego pieces, wood and just about anything they can get their hands on. I love that I can encourage my boys to think creatively and help guide them through homeschooling.
My boys and I do a lot of arts and crafts project together; in fact we're about 2/3 of the way through a 100 days of art challenge that we took on this summer. My boys love to create large structures out of blocks, Lego pieces, wood and just about anything they can get their hands on. I love that I can encourage my boys to think creatively and help guide them through homeschooling.
I pride myself in looking for ways to cover materials and traditional school subjects using my own creativity and encouraging theirs.
My middle son has always loved art and his only stipulation to begin homeschooling was that we needed to have art every day so we try to incorporate a lot of arts and crafts in our days. We're 2/3 of the way through a 100 Days of Art Challenge and we've experimented with art in all of it's forms.
We use a lot of crafting kits in our homeschool and have tried a huge variety of crafts over the years.
My boys favorite crafting projects include:
- Wood burning
- Painting ceramics and pots
- Stained glass made easy kits
- Aquarelle watercolor art kits
My boys enjoy thinking outside the box and using their problem solving skills to build complicated contraptions. Through the years we have purchased just about every type of building material we can think of. Some of their favorites include:
- Lego sets, blocks and pieces
- Keva blocks
- Qba maze blocks
- Magnatiles
- Qubits
- Wedgits
Just this weekend Ian drew up some plans to build a working screening plant that he's hoping he can add to his arsenal of trucks in our yard. He often uses design cad to aid him in his drawings as well as trying to draw items by hand.
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| A hand drawn screening plant |
Ian also started painting his birdhouse this weekend. He has been working on this project for a long time. He started by drawing the plans using traditional architectural tools paying close attention to detail and showing all sides of the house. He then cut out all the pieces of wood and assembled the birdhouse with the help of my husband and some tools. He primed the birdhouse and is just about done painting it; I can't wait to see it hanging in our yard!
You link up with a number of people I've never heard of that i had to search for...oh...for clickable images. Anyways, visiting through the abc blogging link up. I am very curious about that screening box truck...what is the purpose of it?? I like the birdhouse too. :)
ReplyDeleteIn the sidebar (if you are looking on a computer); just above my disclosure statement I have a whole page dedicated to the various linky parties I visit and link up with each day-- with an active link.
DeleteMy husband works in the sand and gravel business and screening plants are what they use to separate gravel, sand a rocks. They pour in a huge loader bucket full and the fine sand falls through a screen onto a conveyer belt and they can pile up the various size sand, rocks and pebbles for easy re-sale and use. They use them in gold mining too and my son is obsessed with shows like Gold Rush and the like so he'd like his own for using on our beach with the sand and dirt.
The screening truck is terrific! I used to work in a gravel pit. Well, in the office. The guys thought they'd scare me with a tiny painted turtle one day. I brought Bubbles home with me for my oldest son. :)
ReplyDeleteHe's actually drawing it out in design cad as I type and trying to research different small engines/ batteries he can use to make his mini plant work once he has it built.
DeleteI love all the crafts you do with your kids!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteCreativity is one of my favorite words too...and we adore doing art as well. So fun to hear your stories--thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
DeleteI love the idea of 100 days of art. Do you work on a new project each day or does it count if a project involves several days? I really need to add more creative projects into our homeschool; it's not one of my strong areas.
ReplyDeleteWe were hoping to get to all 100 projects; doing one each day and finishing up in just a few months but really we've found that we're not the art everyday kind of people. So we've been at this for 8 or 9 months creating art when we feel like it. I tend to count each project as a day but I don't see why a multi- day project couldn't count as more than one day. My goal was to just make a more concerted effort to bring art back into our weeks with more intent. Lately I've been focusing on introducing my kids to all the various forms of art.
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