This week I wanted to start introducing some of my interests to the girls, obviously they are familiar with my plant based healing and general knowledge of herbs that are good for us, herbs that heal us and herbs that harm us. I thought we could start with a review of a new plant each week. So,I got out my Complete Medicinal Herbal book, an amazing used book store find. And we started learning...
As I flipped though the pages, I asked Sonja if there was a plant she wanted to learn about.
She picked Marigolds. My dad has some growing in his yard and she asked him to bring her some seeds, which he did, that same day. This is one of those perfect examples of non-schooling, I have a general idea of what I want to do and she helps me pick specifics. She get's a vote in what she learns about and that is something that doesn't happen very often in a classroom. Because she picked it, she's already interested!
Anyway, I talked about the healing properties of the plant, how it's been used to treat skin infections, it can be brewed into a tea, distilled into an essential oil and used in a variety of other ways.
Then, after I read her part of the book, I took some time to draw the flower with her and Vera. To keep the two year old entertained while I was teaching I gave her my drawing to color in.
We used these tempera sticks from Stubby Pencil Studio to paint our flowers.
While Vera was coloring in the image I drew, Sonja and I worked on her painting of the Marigold.
After she added all her long and skinny petals to the painting, she added her stem and leaves.
To color in her Marigold she chose the gold tempera stick.
"Mom, I'm going to use gold, because it's like Marigold, like Marigold, gold same thing."
They loved these paint sticks. They are SO MUCH EASIER to work with than actual paint. My girls love using my art supplies, but since I've had these in the house they're sneaking paint sticks instead of my paint brushes. Which, actually, is what makes these really awesome, there are no brushes to wash out. They just twist up like a glue stick and back down to put the cap on.
Super toddler friendly, and since they come in sets, we got the neon and metallic sets and have every color they could possibly need.
As I stepped back to document their art making, I was so excited to see their interest in painting. As a mother it's always sweet to have your children find an interest in your own hobby/career/outlet. It's just exciting to connect with our kids and I'm always looking for those opportunities.
Sonja loved this project so much she asked me to draw her another flower like Vera's, then she painted that one too.
And while she kept a pretty realistic color scheme for the flower, she decided she wanted a more abstract background. LOTS of purple.
Vera's favorite color! BLUE.
She wouldn't put them down, just one painting after another.
and another.
and then more on top of her Marigold painting.
Sonja's completely independent Marigold painting.
and of course no artist is a good artist unless they clean up after themselves, but this is the extent of effort to clean up; twist down, put cap on, put back in box. So easy a toddler could do it.
and she did do it, she cleaned them all up by herself and handed them to me to put back in the locker.
Their finished Marigold Paintings.
What are your kids learning about? What kind of art projects do your kids like? I'd love to hear about any home schooling, non-schooling, art schooling projects you might have, drop a comment and tell me what you think!
While this post was created in partnership with Stubby Pencil Studio the view points and opinion are, as always, mine and mine alone. I only collaborate with companies I believe in and products I authentically want to share.
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