Thursday, May 14, 2009

And then we painted some more

Painting being so popular and all, I decided we could afford three cheapo sets of watercolors... and introduced two new ideas to the boys:

1. Just outlining an island in blue is sufficient to demonstrate that it is, indeed, surrounded by water. (In hopes of making the blue last longer...)

2. One can use the lid of the paint tray to mix custom colors.

We've been reading about the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island this week. We talked about the explorers making their own maps because none yet existed. I let them create and map their own imaginary islands.


Gunnar
presented me with "G Island", (note the shape).
I let him dictate the description on the right
and helped him mix a special swamp color,
but the rest is his own work :0)


Wyatt
had in mind all the pirates Queen Elizabeth
allowed to attack the Spanish ships,
and designed "Skull Island"...
but no treasure map!


Tate
surprised me most of all
with the care and attention to detail
he put into his "Roanok Island",
even taking the time to use
several color blends, as well as
paying more heed to the lines
than he has sometimes bothered with.

5 comments:

The Hibbard Family said...

I love these! Your boys are quite the cartographers! :-)

Colleen said...

Look, girlfriend. Do NOT go sayin' you aren't artistic and the present posts like this. Posts that reveal actual creativity both on your part and on the part of your children. Posts that remind that the last time any kind of "hands-on" learning happened in this homeschool was about three kids ago. Yep, I'm a total loser when it comes to this stuff and nine years into homeschooling, I don't foresee that changing. Can you please come live next door?

leah said...

What creativity! I think it is amazing how ingenious kids are when creating their own maps. Tate used gorgeous colors on his map- has he thought about taking up art more seriously? I think he has a flair for it!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

I'm totally amazed at what the boys did... it's really not on my account at all. Especially Tate. So often he just wants to rush to get DONE and get OUTSIDE that I was amazed to see him put so much time and effort into this.

The rainy day may have helped :0)

And, Colleen, you have no idea how badly my boys would LOVE to be next door to your boys!

The dB family said...

Beautiful job -- all of you!! I confess, I tend to avoid these kinds of activites with my children. I will do better next year :0)!