GIVE A CHLD SOME PAINTS

Imagine you were a child again.

And someone gave you some lovely art equipment.

Nobody told you to BE CAREFUL! DON'T SQUEEZE SO MUCH OUT! DON'T WASTE IT!

And you have a fantastic time. :o)


A few years back I had a book out of the library that encouraged me to Do Some Art! (very good book in some aspects but sadly, not so good in other ways).

I imagined what it would be like to walk into an art studio, and have someone say to me "There you go! Feel free to use anything you want! Play! Have fun!"

I was so enthused by this prompting, that I got all our 3-D paints out and we had a FANTASTIC time with them - we used them all up!

Of course, we need boundaries - we don't paint the deck, the dog, or PURPOSELY put paint all over our hair and clothes ...

But we really shouldn't use the word WASTE when it comes to art.

A child who is bored with art, or looking for attention in the wrong way, or left to themselves when they want company and direction may WASTE things - but the child who is engaged and enthralled by the materials and the process should be encouraged to USE all those goodies - paints, glue, paper, cardboard.

YES it's messy.

YES it requires set-up and clean-up.

YES it's much easier and better for everyone if you ALL set-up and clean-up together which requires training.

BUT PEOPLE!!!! I encourage you so much - GET BUSY WITH ART!!!!

If your child wants you to work alongside - be there.

If your child wants to be silent and uninterrupted - give them space.

If your child wants you to sit and watch - give them the gift of your time.



The "mess" that we made on coloured card with our 3-D paints that day, was carefully sorted out, and I kept the most pleasing artwork.

And the other day I dug out those 3-D paint splatters and look what we produced.


Blessings

The Mummalady

GIVE A CHILD A MATCHBOX

A lovely game to get the children out hunting for tiny little items in the garden.

How many different sorts of things can you find to fit inside a matchbox?




Miss Seven decided she wanted to draw some of those beautiful little things.




The fantastic selection of coloured pencils are Faber Castell - these are the best pencils we have found. Please don't buy your children cheap, scratchy pencils!!!


Blessings
The Mummalady

GIVE A CHILD SOME BELLS

We thought that five months old was just the right age for baby to have his first instrument.

The best part of this game, apparently, was pulling the socks off his feet!


Blessings
The Mummalady

GIVE A CHILD A JUG

When we provide beautiful things for our children (like this lovely chunky pottery jug) our children may surprise us with what they will do with that item.

What a work of art!

Blessings
The Mummalady

ECO-FEST

Little girl, Mummy and baby have just come back from the Eco-Fest. It was great!

Some of our favourite things:


We met the lady who made this DVD. We had previously borrowed the DVD from the library and the children loved it - so we bought our own copy. Highly recommended viewing!






This fantastic creation is something we would like to make (our little girl wants to call ours "Bug Town."





Here is the website for more information.

Bye for now

Blessings
The Mummalady

WHAT A LOVELY DAY

Had a trip out to visit a settlers cottage.

Beautiful.

:o)


Blessings
The Mummalady

USING OTHER PEOPLE'S PHOTOGRAPHS

Dear Readers



It has just been brought to my attention that when you copy a photograph from the internet it is considered stealing.

But isn't anything on the internet for public use? Any thoughts??

Should I go back through my posts and take off the pictures I have used from the internet - like the one of the snake skin, and the baked potato etc etc ...

I wonder if there is a situation where you can actually use these photos without it being considered "stealing".

The picture above is our own. It's an advert for our friends!

Blessings
The Mummalady

DECORATE YOUR HOME

Is your home lacking colour and personality?

Get busy with the paints, crayons and coloured pencils!!

Then stick the results up for everyone to see. :o)

Most of all - remember to have fun when you are doing art with your children. Encourage them not to focus on the "end result".

Let them choose which pieces they'd like stuck on the wall (or in our case - the laundry bi-fold doors), which pieces can be cut up and used for cardmaking, which pieces will be put into their Notebooks, and which pieces are not so precious and can be thrown away.

Blessings
The Mummalady

MAKING A BOOK

We found a book in the "free" room of the local Re-Use shop.

The pictures were lovely but as I read through the story I realised that the little girl had a bad attitude towards her father, she complained, and worst of all there were references to occult things.

So I cut the pictures out, glued them onto paper and made up my own story. The little girl now loves her family, prays with her father and gives thanks to God when her prayer is answered in a way that she could never have imagined.




The presentation isn't the best, I know it would have looked nicer typed up, and the binding certainly wouldn't win any prizes - but often the children don't care about presentation.

They love this story and it has been read many times since I made it.





Blessings
The Mummalady

KNIT A BALL

We've had fun knitting balls just recently, so thought I would post a photo of how you construct these balls.

I used the pattern from here.



Lovely that there is no sewing up to do!


Blessings
The Mummlady

BEAUTIFUL HYMN

GIVE A CHILD SOME STICKS

Daddy made the children some sticks to play with.

The younger ones made fences for animals and a some simple towers.

When the little ones went to bed the big boys had a go with the sticks.



Clever boys!


Blessings
The Mummalady

FIRST STEPS!

Our business has now officially taken its first step!

We have purchased the domain name: www.willowcottage.co.nz

This is very exciting, but also a little scary as we step out into cyberspace and try to figure it all out.

Our first products, beautiful wooden baby teethers, are happily nestled in a box of tissue paper, waiting to be purchased.

Blessings
The Mummalady

RECENT RESEARCH SHOWS ...

The above image is a picture of Miss Charlotte Mason - from this website: http://www.squidoo.com/CMbasics


Hi readers.



I just wrote an email to someone, and thought I would post some of the thoughts I shared with her.

One of our children just turned 17. He is mostly self-directed in his education - learning Japanese, still doing maths and handwriting etc. He is also designing a webpage for our family business which we just purchased the domain name for! He's been homeschooled since birth.

And having just been blessed with a new baby, I believe it is profitable for our family if I spend time researching and learning about new/different educational ideas and seeking encouragement in our home education journey.

I've been researching many different educational styles - so far I have studied Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Steiner/Waldorf, Reggio and am now looking at Thomas Jefferson Education.

Whilst Montessori, Steiner and Reggio have some wonderful ideas I also see some of their philosophies as very dangerous. And whilst I admire Charlotte Mason's philosophies and ideas I realise that some are way beyond my capabilities!!

I must also say that having read (several times!) The Fallacy Detective by the Bluedorn brothers, it has opened my eyes to many fallacies and (sometimes) outright lies that people either unknowingly, or knowingly insert into their research and philosophies.

This is a very, very interesting field to study (when I have time!) and I'd like to give a presentation to some of the Mums from our group towards the end of the year.

I will be publishing my findings on this blog when they are in a readable state!

In the meantime if anyone wants sound advice on how to raise and educate children I recommend reading the Bible - this is our first and last word on the subject. This book has no fallacies, no lies and can be trusted to stand for ever.

Blessings
The Mummalady