Art is one of those things that I always want to do more of in our homeschool but somehow it seems to get pushed to the back burner. I think one reason is my perfectionist tendencies. Ideally I’d love to follow some kind of plan, studying artists by time period or by style or in some kind of logical way. But what that means is we never do it because I never seem to get it planned out. In reality what works for us is to find good books, read them and talk about the artist and their work. It’s kind of haphazard but it works ok for now.
I’m not sure where I heard about Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keefe Painted What She Pleased, a newish book by Amy Novesby but it tells about an interesting episode in the life of Georgia O’Keefe when she was invited to Hawaii by The Hawaiian Pineapple Company to paint two paintings for them. O’Keefe was already a well-known artist at this point and the company (which would later become Dole) wanted her to paint a pineapple and provided her with a pineapple picked from the tree. They refused to allow her to go to the pineapple fields to paint in a more natural setting and she became angry. Instead of painting what they wanted she toured the Hawaiian artists, creating beautiful paintings of everything but pineapples.
The story is quirky, and a fun addition to a study on O’Keefe. It’s also a good way to see that she painted more than desert scenes. It definitely gives a particular impression of her personality: strong, independent and slightly stubborn. However, for more of a complete study of the artist you would want to include other books as this one doesn’t really talk much about O’Keefe’s life or show much of the paintings most typical of her style.
We enjoyed several other books to flesh out her life a bit more:
Georgia Rises: A Day in the Life of Georgia O’Keefe by Kathyrn Lasky
My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
Through Georgia’s Eyes by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez
Georgia O’Keefe: Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia
We also did an art project to go along with the books. Because O’Keefe is so well known for her flower paintings I chose to have the kids try their hands at something similar. I gave them each a piece of posterboard and instructed them to draw a flower taking up most of the space. We then painted the flowers using liquid watercolors.
Our flower model.
Ruth’s flower painting.
My flower painting.
I don’t have a painting from John because as usual he ended up more interested in “experimenting” with mixing colors. For some reason he was really really determined to figure out a way to get the watercolors to make a dark black. He used a lot of paint and a lot of water and ended up tearing through his posterboard. But he was happy, he sees art as more of a science experiment anyway.
David’s flower painting, which I think turned out really well. The thing I was most impressed with was that he kept doing things that weren’t what he wanted to do but then he’d quickly adapt and figure out how to change it. He thought he was using a red color that ended up being orange, then when he went to wipe it off with a paper towel he smeared it across the page. He decided then that he’d use the paper towel to “paint” the entire background orange and said it was the desert. He then used a brush and different orange and red paint to do the petals.
As we did this project it struck me that in some ways art projects are like science experiments. One of the things I hear homeschoolers say all the time about science experiments is that they don’t like doing them “because they don’t work”. It drives me batty because not working is part of the experiment. If you don’t get the “right” results (meaning the results you expect) part of science is figuring out why. That’s the interesting part for me. I realized though that often I shy away from art projects because “they don’t work”. Meaning that I don’t get the results I expect, or the results that I imagine in my head.
David is our most artistic child and it was interesting to see him do this painting. I think he didn’t mind it not turning out “right” because for him that was when it got fun.
Stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday.
As you know, I’ve been playing along with 
I’m continuing to read through the lists of 
reviewing it. In all honesty, I liked it but it wasn’t a book that struck me as particularly special so it just slipped back into the library return pile. I decided to take a second look when the Cybils finalists list came out. It is a good book but I still think it’s not as good as many of the other nonfiction picture books we read last year. I do like that the text reads very much like a story, this makes it appealing to kids who aren’t huge non-fiction fans and to younger kids. The story follows a newly-born dolphin calf as he takes his first breath of air to when he learns his very own particular whistle (his “name” in Dolphin). It’s a sweet book and Davies does do a nice job of weaving in many fascinating facts about dolphins to the story of this one mother-baby dolphin pair.
If this book was nothing else but photographs it would be amazing but Nic Bishop Snakes is packed full of information on every sort of snake imaginable. I’ve always been scared of snakes but have had to get over that a bit as John has always loved them. His favorite house at the zoo for many years was the reptile house and we have gone many times to gaze on the pythons and boas and vipers. The more venomous and deadly the more fascinating in John’s eyes. I have found that over time I’ve become less creeped out by snakes (although I do think a healthy respect for an animal that can be deadly is just common sense) and more convinced that they are indeed fascinating creatures. Nic Bishop’s book will delight future herpetologists and perhaps win a few over some of the snake haters.
So, 
We read A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead sometime last summer. I liked it well enough but I don’t remember any of the kids finding it all that special. However, when I brought it home from the library this time David immediately saw the cover and said “Oh, goody! That funny bird book!” Ruth has also requested multiple readings and today told me “I like this one. The frog is funny.” So, there you go. Shows how much I know. This quirky but sweet story of an odd friendship has also grown on me. On this reading I noticed more details in the illustrations that made me more appreciative of the story of Vernon (the funny frog) and the silent Cuckoo bird’s journey to find a home.
John has always loved non-fiction books. Even as a preschooler he would sit and listen to very detailed factual books on sharks or volcanoes or dinosaurs. (One of his stocking stuffers this year as a book that just lists weird and hard to believe facts.) David and Ruth? Not so into non-fiction. That’s why I’m always happy to find high-quality non-fiction that will appeal to them. I picked up Monkey Colors because David has always had a soft spot for monkeys. In fact, before his current bird obsession he used to pretend to be a monkey for large parts of the day. Most of the text of this book is written at a toddler or early preschooler level, simply naming the different colors that monkeys can be. Each color is represented by a realistic illustration of a monkey.
Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week at 
Poetry Friday is hosted this week at 
I’m not sure where we’ve been but up until recently we had never met Traction Man. This new book, the third in the series, delighted me and the kids. Ruth especially loved the tale of the intrepid Traction Man and his trusty side-kick/pet dog Scrubbing Brush and their adventures at the beach. She requested multiple readings, sometimes on the same day. There is something so appealing to kids about stories of the secret lives of their toys. It’s certainly been done before, but when it’s done well it still makes for a book that feels fresh and interesting. Author Mini Grey does it well here. In Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey, the superhero goes on a beach trip but must endure Grandma’s dog Truffles burying him in the sand, a giant wave that sweeps him and Scrubbing Brush away and finally a rescue by Beachtime Brenda and friends. I love the way the illustrations alternate between being at Traction Man’s viewpoint and showing what is really going on from the perspective of his owner. The text and illustrations together have a cartoon-like feel that goes perfectly with the superhero theme.
type. Kel is a daredevil, dangerous is his middle name. He eats broccoli. He faces the Potty of Doom. He even faces the dreaded bath. Toddlers and preschoolers will love this book as they identify with all the new (and sometimes scary) daily tasks that Kel must bravely face. Older kids also will like it if my two boys are any example. Heck, it says Potty. What’s not to like? There is also a bit of sweetness to the silliness as Kel ends up needing just a bit of help for his most dangerous feat of all from the experts (his parents).
Move over Frog and Toad, George and Martha, 
that it was written and illustrated by one of my favorite picture book illustrators, 
The author-illustrator team of Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long have done it again. Done in the same style as their other books (A Seed is Sleepy, A Butterfly is Patient and An Egg is Quiet), A Rock is Lively combines astonishingly beautiful detailed illustrations, lyrical text and fascinating facts to produce a non-fiction book like no other. (Well, like their others but not like others by anyone else.)
Non-Fiction Monday is hosted this week at 
Frog fell into a deep hole. ”Frog fell into such a deep hole, he couldn’t get out to save his soul.” Mouse tries to help but falls in too. Then Loris and Sun Bear and Monkey. Oh, No! And hungry tiger is coming to help. Oh, No! is one of those irresistible read-aloud books where all the pieces come together beautifully. Infectious rhyme punctuated with onomatopoeiac animal sounds and gorgeous illustrations by Caldecott Winner Eric Rohmann. We all loved it on multiple readings.
Just like 
The author and illustrator is Jessie Hartland (whose other books include 
Nonfiction Monday is hosted today at 
