Crafting inspirations

My kids love to make things. Makayla will silently disappear keeping herself busy making some sort of craft project. Matthew would normally rather draw some pictures.

Here is some of their creations that they recently made.
 
Makayla made this cityscape using some old cardboard boxes. She cut them to pieces and painted the scenes. Then she glued the one piece on the next to create a 3D effect.

Makayla's cityscape 

 

 
On the Tv program Art Attack, Mayala saw how they made this maze type game. She made the walls from papermache. She tore newspaper in little pieces and covered it with water overnight. The next day I helped her to drain all the water from the newspaper. She then broke the newspaper into smaller pieces and mixed it with glue. She shaped the walls and left it to dry for a few days and then painted it. There is a little blue ball on the right hand side in the middle that you manoeuvre around the board. The goal is to let the ball go out the hole (at the right bottom corner). The board is covered with a plastic sheet.

Makayla's game

Is that a fried egg I see on the chair? Matthew saw this Art Attack project and jumped right in. He mixed white paint with craft glue and placed it on a sheet of plastic. He left it to dry and then painted the egg yolk in the middle.

Matthew's fried egg

Closeup of the egg

Makayla saw this book at the library Die Sonskyndag Boek. This book show you how to make all kinds of craft projects. She made this sun-catcher.

The top shiny part she made from kitchen foil. She rolled it up in a snake form and then twisted it. The flower part she cut from a paper plate. She covered the flower with foil she rolled in balls to create texture and opening it up to cover the flower. The middle section she rolled a strip of foil and taped it on. She then painted the flower and added the extra decorations. The bottom part she made with string and different beads.

Makayla's sun catcher.

Closeup of the sun-catcher.

Children don't ever need to be bored. Go on and get them creative. You are welcome to share you crafts with us.

Blessings

Maryna

SOTW - Chapter 2 Egyptians on the Nile River

We continued our study of Story of the World. Last week we learned about the Egyptians who lived by the Nile River.

In this chapter the kids learned about two things:
The floods of the Nile River and how important it was for the farmers. Also the myth of why it flooded every year.
They also learned about the two kingdoms and how they become one. Also how it came about that King Narmer wears a double crown.

The activity book had a suggestion of a craft where they make a model of the Nile River.  The kids worked very hard in shaping their paper-mache and waiting patiently for a few days to dry before the big painting starts. When they wanted to start the painting they found that an army of bugs moved into their models. Needless to say the models ended up in the garbage. So no final project there :(

The photo below is a moveable model of King Narmer. It can be downloaded HERE. There is an option for a coloured figure or a black and white figure so the kids can do their own colouring.

In the video below you can see how the two Kingdoms became one.

A very interesting video explaining about Narmer and his Palette.



The kids made some artworks of King Narmer using oil pastels. .

Makayla's artwork

Matthew's artwork

On Artfactory you can find various Egyptian artworks that you can do.

Here is a nice Egyptian memory game that you can download and print.

I trust that you can find some of the projects and downloads useful in your Egyptian studies.

Blessings

Maryna

The wonder of the magnifying glass

There is nothing greater to a child than having dad teach them something new and doing something creative with them.

Hubby got a few pieces of scrap wood from a supplier close to us for free. Each with a magnifying glass in hand they started their new burning artwork.

Here is the first artwork. Matthew made a car's exhaust - who would have through of that. Makayla made the heart.

The goal behind doing this is not only to show the kids how to make artwork in a different way. They also learn a valuable survival tip - what to do when you only have a piece of glass or maybe eye-glasses with you and you have to make a fire. It also demonstrates how powerful the sun is. Very important that a magnifying glass in the sun is not a toy, it can be dangerous and cause massive fires. 

Have you done this with your children?


Blessings

Maryna

Pottery fun

Both my kids love to be creative (can you see the big smile on my face). Makayla got this Pottery wheel set for Christmas.

This Pottery wheel is battery operated and we bought it at CNA. With the set you get paint, a brush, a special plastic knife and 2 packets of potters clay.

In the picture above you can see what the box look like. If you look really close you can see the hippo's head Makayla made (it is on her finger). You can also see a first attempt at making a pot. Kids can be so creative.

Matthew will obviously not sit and watch while his sister has all the fun. He uses only a few fingers to create a small little pot. He is concentrating very hard that is why mom only got half a smile for the picture.

We hope to develop this new talent. We will use this pottery wheel in our ventures in learning about various countries and making some great artifacts.

A word of caution: This is a very messy business, ensure you cover your table with plastic and you have a bowl of water close by to wet your hands and clay to be able to form the pots.

Now over to you, come and showcase what your kids do and make.

Blessings

Maryna

Learning through creativity

There is nothing greater to me than my kids doing what they love and growing in it.

Matthew has got a big love for building models and doing paper crafts. Oh and let us not forget about Lego.

As parents we try and  encourage our kids to do the things they love to do and also learn more from what they love. As many would call it interest driven learning.

So how would they learn by building models?

They not only learn more about creativity, but also concentration skills. They learn about different countries (geography), the history of buildings and regions and much more. For our home school the biggest advantage is that they remember what they learn.

Here is some of  Matthew's creations.

Let's not forget about Makayla and her wonderful creative mind. She is always busy making some kind of arty object or trying to make some new clothes for Barbie. Currently her heart is set on cake decorating. We have got the first issue of Cake Decorating and we subscribed to the upcoming issues.

Watch this space for pictures of her delicious creations.

So go ahead and get your kids busy. Happy creating :)

Blessings

Maryna

Bird crafts (Attentiveness)

As part of the Attentiveness unit in Konos, we did a little intro to learning about birds by doing some crafts.

The first part of our intro to birds Matthew took on the task to do some beautiful 3D paper crafts. These crafts are suitable for someone who might have a little bit of experience doing paper crafts as there is small cut and fold pieces. It could be quite frustrating for smaller children.

Falcon

Kingfisher

You can download the templates free from the Canon Creative Park site for the Falcon and for the Kingfisher. There are a number of other birds and loads of other fun paper crafts on their site.

Our second part of our intro to birds we painted some birdies in a cage. I found the picture in a local magazine called Craftwise. 

Mom's version

Makayla's version

Matthew's version

We painted them on canvas, using various acrylic paints. What I like about using acrylics for children that you don't have to wait hours for it to dry, just simply use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process.
In my version of the bird painting, I used paper for the leaves that I stuck to the canvas.