Fall Picture Study With Warm Colors

Here is an easy picture study you can do focusing on the painting The Mulberry Tree by Van Gogh and discussing warm colors. First you can start with a discussion with your children about warm colors using the facts below. Encourage them to look for warm colors around them (there are lots of places we can find warm colors during the fall season). Then you can help them find the warm colors in the art print in the post. I have also included a few follow up activities that you can complete if you wish.

Here are some facts and questions about warm colors:

• Warm colors usually remind us of fire or the sun.
• What colors are fire and the sun?
• Red, orange and yellow are warm colors.
• Can you find any warm colors around your house?
• Where do we see warm colors in nature?

What warm colors can we see in Van Gogh’s painting Mulberry Tree?

Some other questions you could ask about this painting:

• What sort of brushstrokes did Van Gogh use?
• Does this painting look like a real tree to you? Why or why not?
• What time of year do you think it is in this painting?
• Do you like this painting? Why or why not?
• What would you do if you were in this painting?

Here are some activities you can do using your knowledge of warm colors:

• Draw a fall picture using only warm colors on a separate sheet of paper.
• Find all of the warm color crayons in your box.
• Go on a warm color nature walk- look for warm colors wherever you go.

***If you are interested in adding more art, nature study and handicrafts to your homeschool, be sure to check out the Hearts and Trees Fall 2008 Kit- in all there are 7 notebooking pages, an art print with corresponding drawing project, 2 handicraft projects and 1 crafty art project included in this kit!

A few fun art ideas

So every time I have come across a fun art project on the Internet the past few months I have bookmarked it. I am getting quite a collection, so today I thought I would share a few with you. The last two are perfect for the new season- autumn.

*Glue and Pastel Landscape: Using black construction paper, school glue and pastels (or she says you can use chalk) you make a sort of stained glass looking piece of art. I love working on black paper anyway with pastels, but this looks especially fun.

*Watercolor Crayon Resist Leaf: This is an interesting take on a crayon resist using corregated cardboard to make an interesting texture.

*Contour Fall Leaves: I love the energy of this project.

I hope you have fun with these projects. Feel free to leave any links to completed projects or links to your favorite art ideas in the comments section. Look for more art ideas here in the future!

Coming Soon.... Hearts and Trees Fall 2008 Kit

This is just to let you all know that I will be beginning a two week pre-ordering period for my Fall 2008 Kit on September 18, 2008. I am really excited about this kit. It is going to include a great embroidery handicraft, an exciting watercoloring with tissue paper craft, a Cezanne art print and many other ideas and projects to help you add more art, nature study and handicrafts to your homeschool.

Be sure to check back here often for updates, or SUBSCRIBE to my blog so that you will be sure to know as soon as I am accepting orders.

I still have a few summer kits available, so if you are interested in purchasing one (or two or three), you might want to do so now, because once I begin selling fall kits they will no longer be offered.

The Habit of Imagining

Imagination doesn't come down from above fully developed, and plant itself into a mature mind like a man moving into an empty house. Like any other function of the mind, it starts as the merest seed of a power. It grows according to what nourishment it gets. Childhood, the age of wonder and faith, is its window of opportunity to grow. Children should know the delight of living in faraway lands, of being someone else living in a different time, a wonderful double life.

Charlotte Mason in Modern English Page 153

How can we introduce our children to faraway lands and people from different times, to those ideas that can encourage the habit of imagining? One way to do this is through art. Art can help your history lessons come to life, and give children a starting place for their own imaginations.

For example, if you and your children are studying ancient Japan, you can encourage your children's imagination by first of all sharing descriptions of what it would have been like to live in and experience that time and culture. Then you could share artwork depicting what that time was like. Ask them to describe to you what they see. What is happening? What would they do if they were in the painting? Encourage them to put themselves in the painting-- in the time and place you are studying.

Use art to encourage the habit of imagining.

a

By encouraging the habit of imagining in your children, you will help them to learn and remember lessons. History can come to life if you encourage your children to put themselves in the places you are reading about in your history lessons and imagine what they would hear, smell, taste and feel if they were there. You can use art as a stepping stone to help your children begin to "see" what ancient cultures and peoples were like. If you let them explore these places in their mind, they are far more likely to remember the lessons you are attempting to share with them about those places and people.