Messy Art Again and All the Rain

This last week has been a very busy one for us. At least I remembered to take my camera with me, most of the time.

M asked to do a Big Messy Art project! Hooray, this has never happened before since he'd rather do almost anything else than paint. But this time he asked, no, insisted, on doing the "blow-dryer art". Remembering lessons learned the last time we tried this project, I prepared a couple of ping-pong balls, paint thinned with water, and a piece of paper securely taped to the box.

Also this week - we've had quite a lot of rain, but in between all the showers and thunderstorms we managed to go pick some mulberries. Actually, we got to go a couple of times, once with Chris and then, during the week - just M and I. For that second trip I got an old trike out of the attic. It's an old Kettler that I picked up at a Kids Exchange sale a year or so ago. I thought I got a good deal on it, but turned out the bike needed new set of tires which meant that the entire rear wheels assembly had to be changed. So for right now it's running as is and I'm just counting on M outgrowing his trike soon enough.

Big surprise this year - turns out, M can ride a trike all by himself... on a smooth surface and preferably on a slight downhill slope. Anything rough or uphill requires too much work, so he stops pedaling and asks me to push him. But boy, he loves riding downhill, going as fast as he can. Except that he keeps looking over his shoulder to make sure I'm not holding the bike. And when he does this, the bike swerves widely which scares me a whole lot since the breaks aren't all that great either.

Still, we managed to get as far along the Art Museum trail as the Two Mulberries. You see, the mulberries at the trailhead get picked a lot. When we got there, there weren't that many berries within easy reach. But most casual walkers don't go far enough into the woods and runners and bikers don't care about stopping and snacking. So it's left to us, serious berry hunters, to pick and eat them berries.

With our bellies full (we also had a mini-picnic half-way to the mulberries), we started heading back, but got caught in a downpour. So M pedaled and I pushed and panting we got to a little pavilion half-way to the car. It's a very nice pavilion with sweeping views of the entire Museum Park, but we never before made it there.

Another thing we did this week was testing our water wall. I saw this idea here and liked it 'cause it looked so simple. Besides, I already had all the components - a big piece of left-over peg board and lots of containers. So I took the next step - handed it all to Chris and told him that, when put together properly, it would make a terrific water toy (yes, he is a very patient and understanding man).

He set to work. Turned out that the bolts I had didn't match the holes in the pegboard. Nothing some drilling couldn't fix though. M seemed to be interested mostly in getting a hold of the drill. Once the wall was assembled, he showed remarkably little interest in it. Hmm, back to the drawing board since he generally likes everything that is remotely like a marble run. I might try PVC pipes and clear tubing instead.

At the end of the week we made a great discovery. We found a new (to us) park not far from the house (15-minute drive). The awesome feature of this park is its slides. They are built into the slopes. Somehow this makes them a lot more attractive to children of all ages (and to adults as well). M and a bunch of other boys from the local homeschooling group spent close to 2 hrs on these slides! Or rather on the rubberized slopes. There's something very compelling in being able to slide down the hillside.

Big Messy Art - Golf Balls

Ok, this particular project wasn't very big at all. In fact, it was so small that it seemed it'd be reasonable to do it indoors instead of taking it outside to the deck or the sidewalk. But it was messy alright. So in retrospect, taking it outdoors would've been a good idea. Except we'd have to run an extension cord for the blow dryer.

The project again is very simple - a cardboard box lined up with paper (note to self - tape the paper to the box BEFORE turning the blow dryer on), a couple of light-weight small balls (note to self -golf balls aren't particularly light at all), some paint (note to self - thin it out with water next time so it's not as viscous) and a blow dryer.

Even though I seemed to make every mistake in the book (actually, not in the book) preparing this activity, it turned out ok. M enjoyed picking the two colors (we only had 2 golf balls) - red and yellow. I was happy with the selection since it meant the inevitable mixing of the two colors would produce a lively orange and not the dreadful "preschool-special purplish brown".

Next, there was some figuring out of the angle at which to hold the blow dryer. It was kinda tricky 'cause the box had pretty tall sides (sounds like another note to self here...) Also, after using the blow dryer for the project, M used it to make his DIY Death Star toy skid around the room. Awesomesause.

Big Messy Art - Splat-Splat-Splat

Oh, this was the most exciting (and the messiest) project this far. M loved it and returned to it the next day.

The project itself was simple. I had 3 old socks laying around and some old sand from the sand box that we recently turned into a pool. So we filled the socks with sand, dipped them each into paint and splat-splat-splattered them all over a piece of butcher paper.

And then I turned away to answer the phone and came back to the splat-splat-splatters all over the deck (it's a washable paint, so no worries). My objections were quickly overruled as M said he was busy decorating for a party. Hmm, after some negotiations we agreed to limit the decorations to a big banner.

All in all, a really successful art project and we might repeat it next week. Or we might do something new. There are a ton of big and messy projects left in Mary Ann Kohl's book after all.

Math Games Week 1 - Symmetry

This week we've been doing a lot more math than usual. Or rather we've been playing and talking a lot more math than usual. Specifically, it was all about symmetry.

We went out on math scavenger hunts and checked objects for symmetry with a special symmetry checker tool (usually a pine needle or a small stick).

We mirrored each one's movements sort of like live mirrors of each other.

Tried making some symmetry art with markers...

... and with paint.

Folded and cut paper and created beautiful math stories...

... about a lonely small pine tree in the deep woods and a ray of sunshine

... about a small fish being chased into seaweeds by a big stinging jellyfish

... about a horde of giraffes snacking on palm fronds in the heat of African day

... and about a small black kitten in a dark room

Finding symmetry seems to be easy for M. He quickly identifies one or more lines of symmetry in objects. He also built a very small collection of things that are symmetrical - a globe, a small clay pot, a magnolia leaf.

He seems to be interested most in the story-telling aspect of it though. If there's a story that can be spun out of a game, he'll play it (or watch and listen) for a long time. If not, his attention wanders off quickly.

Next week - grids galore!

Squishy Circuits - Playing with Electricity, Sort of

I first saw this idea on Ted.com in this fabulous talk. The experiment sounded so fun, that I looked up AnnMarie Thomas's Squishy Circuits site, copied her recipes for the resistive and conductive playdoughs, picked up some "ingredients" at a local RadioShack and came up with an idea.

Actually, M came up with an idea. For some days he's been pretend-playing the episode of Megamind where Megamind lures Metro Man into a trap. Naturally, next thing he wanted to build was a trap for Metro Man. Perfect opportunity, isn't it?!

Being very ambitious, I wanted to build an activity that would combine pretend-play with math, science, and fine motor skills. Yeah, and have some sort of art element to it too.

And so the idea of a labyrinth was born. We started off by using a manila file folder that was laying around and converting it into the base of our labyrinth. I wanted M to help me draw it, but he wouldn't budge. So I drew it myself.

We then used regular playdough to build the low walls. M participated in this activity - pinched off little pieces of dough, rolled them into long noodles (he didn't like that part) and carefully laid them onto the drawn lines. This last part was particularly hard 'cause he had to make sure there were no gaps or cracks or the Metro Man would escape.

Next we painted the path bright red, sort of like a red carpet. Red is still M's favorite color, but it also fits here - looks like a red carpet (and Metro Man, with his good looks, fab hair and a knack for publicity seems like a Hollywood type).

Then we went to the kitchen to make special "electric" playdough. M helped me measure and mix the ingredients for the conductive (pink) dough, but then started experimenting on his own recipe. He eventually created something very goopy, but of beautiful pea-soup color, some fancy paint products call it "moss green" (I can never achieve this shade of green when I try, but he did it).

I then proceeded to show how a small LED light lights up when electrical current is applied to the playdough. M played with it a bit and discovered the importance of maintaining proper polarity. Finally, we built a small enclosure with the dough and put a plastic dome on top (since it's an old observatory. Told ya before - watch the movie for details). We then stuck a couple of LED lights into the dough above the entrance and connected the wires.

The trap was set and sure thing, Metro Man was caught... and caught again... and again... and then again only this time he was an astronaut.

M even wanted to play with this dough the next day, putting LEDs in, connecting the wires, and testing what happens when you stick an LED into the same piece of dough. We also built a playdough cake with a red LED candle and in the process found out that our resistive dough wasn't resistive enough and we were much better off with a piece of plastic.

We'll try this activity again in a few months. Hopefully by then I'll devise a more interesting setup that creates more opportunities for experimenting (and cook a more resistive dough).

Big Messy Art: Rocket Stuff

Our next Big and Messy project was very simple. A large scale painting is all it really was. But the awesome part is when you work with something large-scale, you get to use big and important tools, adult tools that would otherwise be off-limits. Ok, almost off-limits...

So for this one the set up was super simple. I just rolled out a long sheet of paper (we got this perforated paper for free from a local store that was getting rid of quite a few rolls; it's thin, kinda like printer paper which it just might be.)

The tools I offered included a real-life roller (saved from our room-painting project), a small yellow crafts roller, a big foam paint brush and another real paint brush, also from our room-painting. I thought M would go for the big roller or a brush, but he mostly used the little yellow roller. Go figure!

M got to choose paint colors. He wanted yellow and red because, as he explained, he was going to paint fire that comes out of the space shuttle's engines. My suggestion to use glitter was enthusiastically accepted.

There was a bit of a snag in the project. You see, the paper was pretty thin (and perforated in places). The driveway - pretty rough. Plus all that paint made the paper kind of soggy. Well, to make a long story short, the wonderful fire painting got a fairly sizeable tear in it. Which led to tears although M didn't stop painting, but instead painted more furiously.

Once the entire thing was dry and I patched the holes with some clear tape, M rolled the painting on the floor and used it as a launch pad for all his rockets.

Big Messy Art: How to Become Megamind

The next Big and Messy project we tried involved powdered tempera and lots of soap bubbles. We tried it on a very warm, clear and sunny day.

Here's how it was supposed to work:

I were to put some powdered tempera into a flour sifter. M would then sift it over a large piece of paper. He then would blow bubbles over that piece of paper. Bubbles would pop, their liquid mixing with tempera to form beautiful circular patterns.

Here's how it really worked:

Most of the tempera fell straight through the sifter into a neat little pile almost in the middle of the paper. We had to use our hands to spread it around more evenly. We had to shake of excess powder (which was most of what I poured into the sifter). Then we learned one simple truth about bubbles - when you blow on them, even on a very calm day, they don't exactly want to float downward. Not right away anyway. First they want to fly up and sideways and this way and that way, anywhere but the tempera-covered paper. Maybe we needed bigger and wetter bubbles...

So as an art experiment it wasn't as much success as I expected. But it's not my expectations that count here, right? M loved it! First, he discovered that he can quickly make his hands blue "just like Megamind's, mama!". If that wasn't exciting enough, there were tons of bubbles to chase all around the yard and pop (being careful not to step into the vegetable beds).

This run-around was done in rainboots ('cause you know, they are simple to clean). This pair of boots, cute as they are, is a bit too big for M. So as he was chasing the bubbles, one of the boots came off and flew in a surprisingly graceful arch through the air. Which, naturally, led to a game of "kick the boot of my foot". Which somehow lead to a not-altogether unrelated game of "toss the boot to the fence".

If you've never played either of these games, try! They are really fun. How do I know? Well, I was wearing my own fancy-shmancy pair that was a bit too big for me.

Big Messy Art: The Decision

I've already mentioned how, thanks to a cold and snowy winter spent almost entirely indoors, I now have way much energy. Well, I haven't run out of steam just yet. The garden is still being worked on. M's room's been painted and awaiting some IKEA furniture. I'm still working out regularly, 3 days a week, at the gym...

Next on my list - doing more art with M or rather having him explore art more. As Maria, a wonderfully mathematical friend of mine, explained to me, there are two types of children (and people in general) - microscopists and giantists. M is clearly a giantist. He shows absolutely no interest in small-scale projects, but is eager to try something really-really-really HUGE or at least LARGE SCALE.

Which might explain why my approach of handing him a small paintbrush and a smallish piece of paper wasn't exactly working out for us. Fortunately, I picked up a library copy of Mary Ann Kohl's "Big Messy Art". Basically, it's familiar "process over product" art ideas, only supersized. Which, by the way, allows to use many exciting new "non-artsy" tools - an important point for a boy who isn't too excited about regular paintbrushes.

Our first project was a while ago. It was called "Flyswatter Painting" because it was just that - dipping a fly swatter into some paint and making prints on a large piece of paper.

M was so delighted with the project that he didn't even mind some paint splatters on his face and hands (this is definitely an outside project). Encouraged by such warm reception, I wanted to continue, setting an ambitious goal of 1 new project each day. Fortunately, the weather interfered; it got cold, windy and rainy. I cooled off a bit and decided to take is slowly, enjoying the process and letting M set the pace.