Spring Break is drawing to a close, and I can see the end of our stay-vacation, I want to reflect on the ways my own children inspire my art lab. As a single mom, my kids are with me during play and work. That can make work a challenge if I don't have a plan. Over the years I've developed strategies to make the boring times more pleasant. I've also noticed that if I pay attention, my children are valuable resources.
Currently, one of my favorite activities for my children is Art for Kids Hub. If you were like me as a child, and much of my reading audience now teaches or makes art and can relate, you loved How to Draw a... books. From cartoon characters to cats to perspective challenges, I could be engrossed in drawing challenges for a good portion of my day. My own kids are the same, but their favorite How to... is by Rob and his family crew. There are lots of factors that make this video series great. The first is that Rob almost always draws along with one of his kids. That is a GIANT confidence builder for my kids. They aren't just seeing the perfect adult version, but they also get to see a kid TRYING to draw. The next thing I love about Rob is how he weaves in vocabulary. His mention of terms in context, such as overlapping or shadow, is a great way to help kids start connecting the dots. Finally, these are relatively short exercises that don't require a ton of materials. I am able to get lots of work done, cleaning my lab or preparing lessons, with almost no oversight of my kids. That is MAGICAL! (Note: Rob uses oil pastels in most tutorials. Do not use oil pastels if you are in an area that must be easy to clean or if you worry about stains. I have substituted washable markers on many occasions when location or time do not allow for the smear that oil pastels create.)
So, you might be asking about now, how does this inspire her lab? Honestly, in several ways! First, As my kids grow, so does their attention span and ability level. They are a fantastic gauge for ability spectrums I can see in the elementary level. Another way the videos help is planning for substitutes. I do not always use these videos, but they have been fantastic for emergencies. I have also had students use these videos at home as drawing practice. After using the tutorials with my own children for almost a year, I have decided that I will be implementing a weekly competition next year for students who do a sketch at home using the video tutorial. I want to encourage out-of-class drawing!
Currently, one of my favorite activities for my children is Art for Kids Hub. If you were like me as a child, and much of my reading audience now teaches or makes art and can relate, you loved How to Draw a... books. From cartoon characters to cats to perspective challenges, I could be engrossed in drawing challenges for a good portion of my day. My own kids are the same, but their favorite How to... is by Rob and his family crew. There are lots of factors that make this video series great. The first is that Rob almost always draws along with one of his kids. That is a GIANT confidence builder for my kids. They aren't just seeing the perfect adult version, but they also get to see a kid TRYING to draw. The next thing I love about Rob is how he weaves in vocabulary. His mention of terms in context, such as overlapping or shadow, is a great way to help kids start connecting the dots. Finally, these are relatively short exercises that don't require a ton of materials. I am able to get lots of work done, cleaning my lab or preparing lessons, with almost no oversight of my kids. That is MAGICAL! (Note: Rob uses oil pastels in most tutorials. Do not use oil pastels if you are in an area that must be easy to clean or if you worry about stains. I have substituted washable markers on many occasions when location or time do not allow for the smear that oil pastels create.)
So, you might be asking about now, how does this inspire her lab? Honestly, in several ways! First, As my kids grow, so does their attention span and ability level. They are a fantastic gauge for ability spectrums I can see in the elementary level. Another way the videos help is planning for substitutes. I do not always use these videos, but they have been fantastic for emergencies. I have also had students use these videos at home as drawing practice. After using the tutorials with my own children for almost a year, I have decided that I will be implementing a weekly competition next year for students who do a sketch at home using the video tutorial. I want to encourage out-of-class drawing!
Another method I enjoy using for inspiration with my kids is just letting them go, with no instruction, and seeing what happens with a material. I had some old model magic, much of it was dry and needed to be in the trash. I am always excited when something my girls are creating is also helping me clean! When they worked on these pieces I saw a few things come out of their creations. The most apparent was that they were sourcing recent information. The compass rose is something Olive had seen recently in class, we ate pizza the day of the creations, and Easter is this Sunday- which means carrots have been in lots of images. Noticing this is a good reminder for those kids in my classroom that are stumped when I give them a prompt and they 'have no ideas.' I have even more questions in my pocket, about mundane activities of the day, that I can ask to help pull out a little creativity! I also love that Olive added paper to her compass rose, it made me think of some mixed media possibilities.
The last inspiration from my kids this break was also inspired by a fellow art teacher blogger. We have a new indoor trampoline park in Montgomery- LOVE IT! The girls can hop their hearts out for an hour or two (and I am a total superhero.) I saw a post on Don Masse's blog where he used images of human motion in handball to create portraits while students work on figure drawing. I thought this was such a great way to fuse student interests and foundational skills.
We had been to the trampoline park several times during our stay-vacation. I noticed a young man who has a true jumping gift. I asked his permission to take photos and he was very gracious to give me permission. You can see a handful of the images in the gallery below.
Though I haven't decided exactly where these might fit, I think whatever age group uses them will love them! How lucky that I do work and play at the same time.
We had been to the trampoline park several times during our stay-vacation. I noticed a young man who has a true jumping gift. I asked his permission to take photos and he was very gracious to give me permission. You can see a handful of the images in the gallery below.
Though I haven't decided exactly where these might fit, I think whatever age group uses them will love them! How lucky that I do work and play at the same time.