The Grace Museum Art Class

This fall we joined the Big Country Home Educators, which means we get to be a part of activities and things around town just for homeschool kids. I have to admit, even though some of the people are very different from us, it's nice to be at events where you have homeschool in common with other people. To be able to let my I-have-to-be-ready-to-answer-people-when-they-look-at-us-and-wonder-why-he's-not-in-school guard down and just enjoy ourselves. I'm always happy to share our heart on this subject and I'm obviously passionate about it, but sometimes I feel like it has to be more of a defense than conversation because of judgements or things said from other people. And believe me, it's happening. But I'm not really going to go there- it's quite a soapbox. :) At any rate, we met some very nice people.

Anyway, once a month the Grace Museum opens up for homeschool families with free admission and an art class. We had so much fun! Both of the kids did very well (I was especially impressed and proud of my loud, likes-to-talk, wiggly three year old), and they sat very quietly and well behaved during a small lecture about the artist we were studying, and some things that were way over their head. Well, Addison seemed to be tracking with her, actually. Then she did a demonstration of the art and the kids got to make it. I think this was a good artist for Addison to copy because Mondrian was all about geometric shapes and straight vertical and horizontal line grids- right up his alley! They also learned how to mix primary colors to make different colors of paint. Here are some pics from our adventure:

Here they are patiently and quietly listening and watching the teacher demonstrate what they were going to do. Cadence did turn around and tell me very excitedly, "Mommy, there's a girl behind me!"

Cadence's paint palette only stayed like that for a few seconds before all the colors got mixed, creating every color imaginable. The kids were impressed that she made black! That's Cadence for ya....

And her Mondrian masterpiece, with almost every color possible!

Addison of course was very meticulous, making sure to even make vertical brush strokes like the teacher. The teacher noticed that and praised him for it.

Addison's Mondrian masterpiece. Very good!

And a couple of examples of Mondrian's work to see what they were trying to emulate:

Fun fun morning/afternoon! After we finished the kids romped around in the children's part of the museum, which is also very cool, but I was too tired to take pictures! We'll be back next month for the next art lesson for sure, so I'll have plenty of chances to take pics. And there you have it. Peace out from the Pate house!