Elizabeth and Art

For school we do picture study and "Drawing with Children" by Mona Brooks. The way we do picture study (Charlotte Mason style) is we focus on one artist for 6 weeks. I find pictures by that artist on the internet and save it to our family computer desktop and screensaver so the kids see it everytime they pass by (which is often since our computer sits in our main living area). We read child-friendly books on the artist that I find at the library. Elizabeth describes the picture without looking after having seen it a couple of days. Another day I have her draw the picture as well as she can (just a another way of describing ~ not expecting her to do an exact replica of the artist's work). We do one picture per week, so that we get 6 works of art per artist. Jonathan even recognized one of the pictures we had studied ("Florida Jays") in the book we're reading on that artist (John James Audubon). So he's taking it all in.


"Drawing with Children" is something we work on once a week. Right now we're working with the five elements of drawing. So we'll be able to break down any object or picture into those 5 elements, see it in a simpler light and be able to draw better.

Elizabeth is constantly doing her own projects also. She took some sewing supplies and made her own princess costume with a heart pocket and stylishly done trim. Today she made some fairies to give away at her birthday party (do you think they'll make it the 2 1/2 months till her birthday?). She drew some pictures of Mater and Lightning McQueen last night without looking at any pictures of them. They have amazing detail and I recognized right away what they were. Lightning had the number 95 on the side and Rusteez on the top just like the actual car. Anyway, it is fun to see her progress in art. I'm constantly amazed at her creativity and know that it's a gift God has given her. I hope we can continue to help it grow!