Art Gallery

Role models and shadow drawings

Montessori is big on mixed age groups of kids. The idea is that the older kids get a chance to be a "role model" and show the younger kids the rhythm of the classroom and ways to be engaged. Everybody wins. Unity has been in mixed age classrooms her whole life, from preschool to her combined Kindergarten 1st grade classroom and this fall she'll start in a combined 1st 2nd 3rd grade classroom. And of course our household is a mixed age bunch all the time.

This summer she's really taken on being a helper for younger siblings of friends. She has enjoyed helping our 2 and 3 year old friends, and their parents often appreciate the help as well. It's fun to see her playing this new role and enjoying it, even if it does make her seem so old. 

Yesterday afternoon, we did an art project from this book, which is my absolute favorite art book for kids. Since it was hot and very sunny, we picked some interesting shapes from the garden and then traced their shadows. It was a fun project and afterwards we colored the pictures any old way. It was lots of fun and super easy. 

Stocking up

We've been doing projects out of the Artful Parent book lately, it is such a great book for fun and fairly simple kid projects. Unity made about a hundred bean and glue pictures. 

I've also been trying to stock up, getting ready for the start of the year. The kids and I made two versions of these breakfast bars;  one with nuts and one without. They always love a baking project and I put them in the freezer so we can just grab one in the mornings, or stick it in a lunchbox. We have a little bit of summer left and a few more adventures, but I can feel that shift in the air. 

self portrait

 

This is Unity's self portrait from art class. She gave herself earings and lots of bright colors, of course. That is my girl, full of color and fancy.

 

One of the big changes that Kindergarten has brought is that there is a bigger piece of her life that is a mystery to me. When she was in preschool I knew who her friends were, I knew how she played with them, I knew her favorite works and I had a pretty good idea of how she interacted with her environment.

 

Maybe that's coming, with time. I do have an idea of who her friends are ( and I am still instrumental in defining her friendships, a role I am in no way ready to release) and I hear fragments of her days, I see the worksheets and the stories as they come home. But it is clearly true, that there is a big piece of her life that belongs only to her now, a self portrait she has to show me when she comes home. (Or I have to ask and plead to see, as the case may be.)

 

I know this is what happens. My job is to help her let me go. Not completely of course, and over a long period of time but still. My job is to prepare and nourish the soil where she will inch into her own vibrant tall-stalked self.

 

It's a good thing no one told me about this part when I was a new mom, holding the small squalling collection of needs that came from my body, that felt like another extension of my body. Or maybe they did tell me and I couldn't hear it, this is an old old story after all. That first mad rush into love, when there are no boundaries between Self and the Beloved, when you become each other. And then, always, the realization of boundaries, of limits, of the edge of limbs and hearts. Learning to say, over and again, "Hello, here I am again" and teaching each other again, how to know, how to love each other.

 

She's bringing home her self portrait. She's teaching me who she is.

dancing and art

 

Over the weekend we got to see a great kindie band play. The Board of Education writes fun dancy songs about nerdy stuff, it's a great combination. (Their most famous song is called "Why does dad get so mad about Star Wars?" and it's about the generation gap between the 80s Star Wars movies and the prequels. )   Pretty awesome, you have to admit.

 

 

 

 

We went with a bunch of friends from preschool days and Unity had fun dancing with them.

 

 

and with dad of course.

                                      On Monday Brixton and I went to the Kid's Museum with Tarah and Baird.
                   We used to go all the time with Unity but it's been a while, and B had mostly forgotten
about it. Which was great, it was like a whole new place to him.
                                     

                                He loved the pretend grocery shopping. Sometimes, it's the little things, right?

Nature Walk

A few months ago, Unity's preschool toured a fire station. The firefighters gave them some coloring books that illustrate how and when to call 9-1-1. One of the charming activities was this word search.

                                 You have to wonder who created this, Wednesday Adams? Honey, can you find
                                 s-e-v-e-r-e p-a-i-n?

                                         We went to the Arboretum. Unity took her notebook and carefully
                               recorded what we saw. Stick. Rock. Tree.  Hey, it's better than b-u-r-n.
                              Much much better in fact.

                                Somehow she's all Reese Witherspoon and he's all James Dean.

All that nature inspired us to come home and work on some collaborative paintings. And no, there were no i-n-j-u-r-i-e-s.

Are you tired of date night pictures yet? Well we're not tired of doing it so....

                                I guess we'll have to manage somehow.

                                  We had a dress up dance party.

                                   and a group drawing project.

I am sorry we don't have any pictures of baby Baird. I guess we were too busy holding him.

and the snow has almost all melted away into muddy slush. so we can go back to the usual. hurrah.

Snow bound

            Well our weather seems to be changing, the snow is melting and things are tentatively starting to open again. Just in time for the weekend. Sigh. But it is good to know that we can ease out of our snow tunnels and back into regular. Yesterday we were starting to claw the walls a bit, but we managed. We made cookies.

We were out of chocolate chips and the only grocery store I could get to was the discount outlet. Of course they don't have normal chocolate chips, so I had to settle for chocolate kisses with carmel. Since we were going untraditional, I decided to go all out and started throwing in random things from the cupboards. Coconut! Coffee! Peanuts! Oatmeal!

I'm calling them our kitchen sink cookies, and they turned out rather well.

Thank goodness for neighbor friends. Every day this week, we visited Reuben or he visited us. I'm so glad we live close by and can visit each other even in extreme weather. The kids had an art show.

and today Unity's school is open for a few hours and Chris is working at work instead of in the basement and maybe Brixton and I will leave the house. Hallelujah.

Hammer Time

We went to the Seattle Art Museum today, with Eric, Meridian and Archer. We saw the Nick Cave exhibit Soundsuits which was really fun for the kids. In front of the museum is a famous statue called Hammer Man. It's iconic in Seattle- 48 feet talland slowly but steadily hammering all day long. (According to the internet, he does take Labor Day off.) If you look closely through the reflection in the window, you can see part of his arm. Unity and Meridian come up to Hammer Man's ankles and I probably come up to his shin.

A discovery....

Oh....so that's how you get the cap off.