Orla art

Orla is a prolific artist, aided recently by new paint pens for Christmas, and a ready supply of paper due to our big post-Christmas declutter.

Here they all are enjoying the new supplies. Orla is working on one of her more detailed works.


However, sometimes quantity seems to be the focus. Nevertheless, there's a lot of brainwork going on in the background.

For this one, Orla said:
"For you Mummy!"
I made the classic mistake of presuming what was in the picture.
"Oh, two people".
"No, it's not two people. It's me [points to the one with hair] and a statue!"

Of course.




Seconds later:
"The babies are out at the beach with their Mummy and Daddy. They are in one tent, which is this tent [the green outline]".



Followed closely by:

"The babies in a castle with their Mummy and Daddy".



"Splashes out of the blue water going up and down".



And then, intriguingly:

"You can think about what the green things are that are shooting out of the water. [Pause]. They are fishes. The babies are here caughting (sic) them! There's me, there's C [friend], there's M [friend - all while pointing to blank parts of the page]. We're caughting them and putting them in a fish bag".



And finally:

"Me inside a green bubble".



Orla was particularly pleased to find some little square pieces of paper in the sea of white A4.

So what's going on here? We could think about the brainwork behind the pictures in terms of schema theory. From a very young age, Orla has been an encloser, which developed further into the related enveloping. The subjects of the first three pictures are all enclosed (in a tent, a castle, and a non-specific boundary). The fish are inside a fish bag. And Orla is pictured in her imagination inside a green bubble. There's possible trajectory elements too, with the fishes leaping out of the water, and splashes of blue.

Putting on more of a socio-cultural lens, Orla draws what is relevant to her. Families, including babies. Friends. Fishing expeditions. Holiday time - children out with Mummy and Daddy.

I quite liked the final "green bubble" picture. A real work of the imagination!

Art splash

I recently updated our art walls.

Here's some figures by Orla, showing people and some lovely hand prints.



Another from Orla, with text:"This is a big girl and it's me".



Marine themes from Aidan.



And a shot of one of our walls. You can tell which two are by Ewan - they are the ones painted just in the lower right hand quadrant (by short right-handed person!).

Line drawings

More horizontals and verticals from Orla - gifts of art for Mummy and Daddy.

I'm starting to see some core and radial in her art too (perhaps inspired by two of her slightly-older friends). At Playcentre last week she was drawing suns.

Vertical and horizontal

This post is a personal record for me of Orla's developing schemas. I've been meaning to write it up for ages, but....yeah, you get that.... I keep having ideas about it, but then I lose them again. I hope that if I at least get this much recorded, I can come back to it sometime.

Anyway, in February I began thinking a bit more about graphic schema. I suspected that Orla was most interested in vertical lines, with a bit of horizontal action as well. One day I observed her at home while the big two were at school and Ewan was sleeping. [Comments in square brackets were made by me]. She started by drawing a horizontal line, saying "This is a shower for everyone". She continued: "This is for you and Ewie. I'm chopping it this way so it can be nice. I cutted this one for Ewie".



She noticed my interest:"You take the photo of my pieces of paper! Funny!"

























She continued: "I'm chopping them into pieces. Look Mummy here! It's a piece of paper for you". She hands it to me. "Here Mummy. It's got drawing on it". [It has too!]
















"Do a "O" Mum. Do a "O" for me. An "O" goes like this. " She draws, with circular motions.













"I'm cutting all of it" [All of it]. "Yeah, all of it". [Look at that. You're cutting all the way across] "Yup".

"Little pieces and big pieces and little pieces. I cutted a baby half. Ha! Funny."


























"It hasn't got drawing on it. This has. I'm not going to give Baby James to Playcentre. Because I'm not going to. I found Baby James. And Baby James was awake already and we said that I am awake. I am Baby James's Mummy, Mummy. You're a Grandma Mummy".

Baby James is a Playcentre doll that Orla had taken a shine to (and has subsequently formally adopted).

"It's got drawing on it. It's like a present. For somebody to wrap up".

Orla continues cutting and making lines, saying things like:

"You need to hold the scissors with finger and thumb, finger and thumb".

"It's a rope".

"I need more Mummy!"

"O is for Orla! I'm doing a O is for Orla!".

"A boat Mummy! I'm going to make a big boat. I'm cutting this off. But I"m not going to cut my dress".

"Here Mummy. It's a rope. I'm going to cut the lines. Now I know where I'm going I'm going in the line of a spaceship. Look Mummy it's another rope! Look, I made a triangle!".


I noticed at her next session at Playcentre that she was focused on cutting a piece of paper so that she (deliberately and repeatedly) had made a series of vertical lines.

Here's a selection of her paint art from term one this year - vertical lines predominate. (And thanks to big brother for assisting with the photos!).









































So....what does all this mean? Of course, I'm still unsure. Whether or not it is fully reflected in the episodes I've recorded here, I have noticed a strong interest in vertical (in particular) and horizontal lines. The interest in "O is for Orla" is self-explanatory - however I have noticed an increased awareness of letters since Aidan has been spelling and doing formal literacy work at the table. She will say things like "Mummy, I can spell e-i-o-x-c". She is aware that letters can be joined up to mean things, and that the joining up is called spelling - but there are as yet a few missing links in that literacy chain!

In the first story, perhaps there was an interest in separation (chopping) and enveloping (the gift reference). The O is also an enclosure.

Easter round up

On Good Friday we made chocolate easter buns to go with our bought spicy fruit hot cross buns. Easter Sunday was the big egg distribution day, which went down well as always!

Didn't get around to any easter craft until today, the first day of the school holidays. It was cold, so scrambled eggs for lunch sounded good - so how about blown and decorated eggs?

The blowing was reasonably difficult as I had tried to keep the holes small for aesthetic reasons. I made the holes progressively larger depending on who was finding it difficult. Orla made a specially large hole in hers after she had finished getting all the egg out.

Next, the eggs were washed and dried.

Here are the children hard at work dyeing, after having drawn on the eggs with beeswax crayons.













On the rack to dry....













And in their basket on display.















Meanwhile, Ewan still likes how things fit into things.

Competitive art

Ah! The ubiquitous colouring competition!

The children were keen to try their hand in a local competition. Even Ewan had a go. (OK, maybe for him it was a bit more adult than child-led!).

Here's the results in order of age:




Isabelle cut out the top of the paper for added interest.











Aidan worked hard on his, really focusing on his fine motor skills.











Orla worked on both sides of the paper, lightly scrunched it into a ball then offered it to me as a gift.







Ewan drew as much on my arm and the table as the paper, but simply loved it - swooping the pens from side to side, apparently marveling at his ability to make a mark.






Oddly enough the younger three are all competing in the same category - under 6s. What the judging criteria are is a mystery, and these things always have a bit of randomness attached. But you can see from these pictures the breadth of developmental stages this category crosses.

I have given several careful speeches along the lines of "well, that was fun wasn't it! It's about doing the art really isn't it, not so much winning. And you know, sometimes, it might just be the turn of only one child in a family to get an award". (Aidan merely asked at this point when he would collect his prize, but I think he understands and was just thinking positively! The last colouring competition Isabelle and Aidan entered resulted in prizes, so that skews his expectations).

I think we would have heard by now if we were in line for something, but all the art will be displayed this Saturday, and I'm looking forward to seeing theirs up there for the world to see.



(Oh, in case you were wondering....yeah, colouring in, colouring competitions - not very "Playcentre". But, meh, they were keen and engaged which gave it a thumbs up from me!)

Project

Here's one of those projects that children get up to on their holidays.

First, the big two hauled out some bits of wood and some tools and did some hammering and sawing. (I was quite pleased to see that they had a reasonable skill level with these - those days at the Playcentre carpentry table were not in vain!).



















Isabelle made a bridge to jump over (on her bike, although that's Aidan in the photo!). Aidan made a "sculpture thing".



































A bit later, more woodwork was completed, and out came the paints (being unused test pots from adult projects past). Orla got in on the act too.










































The results have been displayed in the back yard for a while now, serving play in various roles (and as a trip hazard at the washing line!).

Open day

Isabelle and Aidan's school opened the classrooms for a few hours after school so parents and family could view their work.

Isabelle used her light sabre to point out which art on the wall was hers.















But one of my favourites was her simile.

















Aidan took some photos too.















Apparently the floor was extremely interesting!














Aidan had done a multicolour P.

Homeschooling Isabelle

A bit of a cough and a bit of a snotty nose meant a day in the sun at home for Isabelle.

Here's what she got up to (all self-initiated).

First, poetry writing and collage (creative writing, arts):










Painting (arts, science):











Reading aloud to younger siblings (didn't get a photo of the actual reading: literacy):














Oh! Is that your new Bosch dishwasher?
Why yes!
And is that a shiny kitchen bench with no dirty dishes on it?
Yes again! How kind of you to notice!













Ahem...

Creating a fairy's house (our Steiner moment!), during which we discussed natural selection (science, fantasy play).














Chasing younger brother in the battle for possession of the plastic Darth Vader head on his return from Playcentre (physical education, strategic studies):









Teaching younger brother to read using Star Wars reader: ("Who is that? Anakin. So what does that say? Anakin!" - literacy).













Ballet practice (physical education):











Plus some other stuff, including me reading aloud, a picnic in the sun on the deck for lunch, a visit from Grandad and the end of day chill-out viewing Star Wars episode six.

I have thought that Isabelle would be very easy to home school because:
- she does it herself quite happily
- she can already read, write and count, so there's little angst about getting the basics sorted
- she teaches the younger ones useful things (and does helpful things for me!)
- her presence improves the mood and flow of the house.

I miss my big girl when she is at school!