Day 22: Going Crazy With Crafts

Today Maren chose crafts.

I knew this one would take longer than our goal of 15 or 20 minutes, so I just let go and let it happen. It turned into almost 2 hours, but it was fun.

The goal was to use whatever crafty supplies or other odds and ends we could find around the house to make a creature, real or imaginary.

My oldest daughter, off school today, decided to join in.

After searching the house and finding a few craft supplies (google eyes, small pom-poms, felt, hot glue) we searched further and pulled out our beading stuff for wire, found some soldering wire and sparkly paints and yarn balls, and then they began to create.

The results?

Behold, the Pom-pom Dragon (complete with treasure chest) and the Bumblecorn!

Day 21: What a Rube!

What's a rube?

A Rube Goldberg machine, of course!

Named for early 20th century cartoonist of the same name, a Rube Golberg machine is a complicated and often ridiculous machine constructed to perform a very simple task.

As in this Rube Goldberg original:



The explanation from Wikipedia:

"The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin."

What, do you ask, does this have to do with Jump-Start With Art?

Oh, my. I had hoped you would have learned enough already to not need to ask that question.

Rube Goldberg machines are ALL about creativity! There is even an annual Rube Goldberg competition that is entered by college science departments from all over the country. So there's crossover there--science meets art.

We categorize this type of creativity under 'Design,' which is what Maren chose today. She wasn't too thrilled about that choice at first. But when we decided to explore the wonderful and entertaining world of the Rube Goldberg machine, her interest piqued.

We began by viewing one of THE most amazing (and large) Rube Goldberg machines I have ever seen. It's in a music video by the music group OK Go, titled This Too Shall Pass. Here it is:

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Holy cow!!

After watching this, and a few other Youtube videos, we began the process of designing our own Rube Goldberg machine that will crack a hard-boiled egg. How very ridiculously unnecessary a task is that? In future days we'll work on that machine, probably designing from the end backwards. I imagine we'll be cracking a lot of eggs before we're through.

Day 20: More Charlie Chaplin anyone?

Today Maren chose 'Drawing and Painting.'

To ride along with her new love of Charlie Chaplin, she decided to paint Chaplin in black and white.

She got online and found a few images of him, chose one, photoshopped it, printed it, and painted it.

As we played around with photoshopping it (mainly playing around with what it looks like in different colors, what it looks like blurred or sharpened or with enhanced contrast), we talked about light and shadow, reviewed what we've learned in the past about drawing being little more than copying lines and shapes, and that to most successfully paint Charlie Chaplin, she should start looking at him not as a person, but as a blob made up of different shaped blobs of white, gray, and black. So she painted white, gray, and black blobs to get this:



As you can see, she did pretty darn good, with the exception of the face. That's not unusual. We, as humans, have such a close connection to the human face that even the best of us have a hard time separating ourselves from it to the point that we can simply view it as a series of lines and shapes of color.

Day 19: SILENCE!

Today Maren chose Film.

We haven't yet done film, so I thought we'd start our study of film at the beginning--silent movies!

We found a series of Charlie Chaplin films on Netflix and watched one called "The Rink."

It was hilarious! And CLEAN! And apparently people at the beginning of the 20th century didn't read very quickly, because the word placards (You know, when they stop the film to show what someone is saying or give some narration on a beautifully decorated placard that was set up in front of the camera?) were kept on the screen long enough to read them 5 or 6 times.

As we watched we also talked about how the music would usually be played live by a band or an organist or a pianist while the movie played.

When I was a kid there was a restaurant near my home in Salt Lake City called Pipes and Pizza. You'd order your pizza, sit down, and watch silent movies while a live organist played this amazing old-fashioned organ that was set up on a big pedestal at one end of the room. Very cool. Here's a picture of the restaurant at Flicker: Pipes and Pizza Photo. Notice the added feature of the windows through which to view the organ pipes, and the old-fashioned belt-driven ceiling fans.

We also talked about how the first silent films were an offshoot of the Vaudeville stage tradition, so the acting was very gregarious, the makeup gaudy, the sets simple and straightforward. Early films were really nothing more than stage productions on film.

Buster Keaton, on the other hand, made some huge strides in changing that. In his film The General, Keaton takes his crew on location and plants the camera on a moving train.

The history of the early filmmakers is fascinating. Charlie Chaplin and others were instrumental in the formation of United Artists that began as a group of independent filmmakers who, in 1919, wanted to support greater freedom in their art rather than be swallowed up by the controls of the Studio system, which was already growing very early in the century. In fact, the term "The inmates are taking over the asylum," came from the head of Metro Pictures who said it of Chaplin's group and UA.

United Artists today is a subsidiary of MGM. Sad.

But that's all boring if you're a 7-year-old.

It's boring if you're 12, too, apparently. *sigh*

But we do have a new fan of Charlie Chaplin in the house.

Day 18: Building Things

Today Maren chose Architecture again and decided to build a structure using sticks and electrical tape.

That's just up her alley. She's always loved doing that sort of thing and has, since she was a small child, begged to have access to hammers, nails, and spare wood. When she was small the prospect frightened me. Now that she's older, the prospect still frightens me, simply because she's bigger and stronger now and capable of making a much larger mess and using more dangerous tools than she did when she was small. Plus, we have a lot more spare wood in our yard than we did back then. She could, if she put her mind to it, build a whole house back there.

Which is what she's doing today. Except it's a house for her bunny.

We talked about the strongest shape in architecture and found out it's a triangle. So she's building a triangular pyramid of sticks with grapevine thatch.




The bunny seems to like it--eating it, that is.



Bunnies like to chew, in case you didn't already know that. Her bunny house will end up being more a chew toy than a form of shelter, so she's being sure to build it with woods that won't poison him. Did you know that cherry bark is toxic?

As it turns out, rabbits LOVE grape leaves. Thumper, here, is no exception. But then, Thumper loves anything that's remotely edible.

Day 17: Off to the Theatah!

Today Maren picked Theater.

You know, the kid loves Shakespeare.

Why? I can't figure. I'm not that big a fan.

At any rate, I thought she'd be super excited about picking Theater today. But, being the constant skeptic and being like my other children who have tended to be slow to inherit my love of learning, she wasn't so sure today's theater lesson was going to be as exciting as she wanted it to be.

And it wasn't. But it was her fault.

I pulled out a copy of one of MY favorite plays--Cyrano de Bergerac. I told her about the play, what it was about, how the storyline went (leaving out the big finish, of course) and we chose a scene to read. She played Cyrano, I played Roxanne, and my son played Christian. We read through the amazingly sweet and funny scene in which Christian fails at wooing Roxanne in the garden because his in-person speech doesn't compare to his beautiful written words and she can't understand why. Christian then meets up with Cyrano and Cyrano comes up with the plan to coach Christian from beneath Roxanne's balcony, which doesn't work very well either, because Christian is too slow-witted to keep up with Cyrano's whispered words; at which point Cyrano tells Christian to shut his mouth and he delivers (in Christian's voice) a beautiful speech in which his (Cyrano's) true feelings for Roxanne are expressed.

It's enough to make one weep for poor Cyrano. I LOVE this play!!

Try as I might to get Maren to 'act,' she refused. Apparently it's just too embarrassing.

*sigh*

For this activity, smaller children could be coached in saying and delivering simple lines. I'd avoid Shakespeare for small children. Find something they can understand. There should be books of plays for children at your local library, or you can spend time with your child making up one of your own--maybe a short adaptation of an Aesop Fable or a Grimm Fairy Tale. This site, Lazybeescripts.com, has quite a lot of scripts for simple plays, including some Aesop.

Day 16: Ah, Internet, How I Hate Thee!

We recently made the official switch (which was inevitable anyway) from Qwest to Century-Link.

For the past two days my internet has been DRAGGING! It's like having dial-up again! Coincidence? Hmm.....

At any rate, the flu has made its departure and we are back in action. Slow action, because it takes a few minutes for the New Post page to appear. I can practically HEAR the little internet gear grinding away, their little wheels and cogs squealing due to the need for virtual grease. It's painful to watch.

Today, Monday, (even though I'm not getting around to posting it until Wednesday) Maren picked Textiles.

As her project, she chose to make a simple stuffed toy out of fabric, thread, and a needle--and stuffing, of course. This is not one of those projects that can be finished in 15 or twenty minutes, so she did a little research, picked a design, drew it on the fabric, and cut it out. She'll sew and stuff it later.

Because she is a horse-crazy girl, she chose to make a horse out of a couple of scraps of blue satin fabric I had lying around from a previous Hallowe'en costume venture. She also decided she would use strips of the fabric to make the mane and tail. Now THAT'S creative thinking!

Here are some SUPER simple stuffed toys that a child of any age could do by first drawing an animal or doll on white fabric, coloring it with permanent markers or acrylic paints, cutting it out with a large edge, and sewing around.



Remember to turn the design to the inside before sewing, and remember to leave an opening at least an inch long to invert the cloth and to insert the stuffing. After that, a simple stitch can be used to close it up. It won't be perfect, but does it need to be? NO!!

For younger children, use felt for the fabric, yarn for the thread, and a very large blunt-ish needle. You can buy 9 X 12 sheets of felt at craft stores for very cheap (around 50 cents), and a skein of yarn can be had for less than $2, and you'll have TONS of yarn left over for other projects.