Farty Arty

We've all been missing doing some art, and today we seized the opportunity.  Middle and Youngest couldn't wait, so first of all they grabbed the glue & glitter and had fun making a huge sparkly mess!  This led to much fun later, as Middle has started a tradition (apologies for this, but he is a boy!)  One day he decided that as Mummy is so joyful I must fart glitter!  I was so happy to be seen as joyful that I passed over the less refined (and physically impossible) aspect of the statement.  Anyway, since then, whenever he (or his brothers) see a pile of glitter in our house... well, you can guess the inevitable conclusion that is drawn!  After today's arty activities the glitter was positively heaped up, all over the kitchen, and trailed through the house... cue ecstatic laughter!  sigh.

Our art continued with some oil pastels and watercolour paints.  Previously the boys had mostly just used poster paints, so it was nice to experiment with something a bit different.  Eldest as always had a very clear idea of what he wanted to do - and he made one of my favourite ever pieces of art by him...

 Middle experimented for a while and came up with a couple of signs for his "Best Club In The World"...

 Youngest just had fun experimenting with colours, and producing his version of "modern art"...

I had a go at something that I had seen something similar to while browsing on the web the other day. Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it, so apologies for the lack of link.  It's not how I wanted it to look,  but I've learned what to do for next time...

The rest of today was spent largely on Reading Eggspress - and in helping Youngest who has decided that he wants to do an 'Ocean Creatures' lapbook like his brothers (inspired at least partly by the glowsticks that they chose to reward themselves with for completing their lapbooks).  He is not one to procrastinate, so I spent much of the morning trying to help him find a level of activity that wasn't beyond him - and something that he could complete in a couple of days, so that he doesn't get too discouraged.  In the end we went for a simple folder that we stuck 26 flaps into (one for each letter of the alphabet) - in each flap he chose an ocean creature that began with the corresponding letter sound (the older boys and I helped with the more obscure ones like 'I for Icefish'), then I found clipart of said creatures to print on to paper, and he cut them out and stuck them into each flap.  Tomorrow we are going to write each letter onto the fronts of the flaps - and then he'll be done!  It looks great already, and he's really chuffed to have made a lapbook like his brothers!

Yesterday was much the same too - Mathswhizz, lapbooking, watching Eldest's Horrible Histories DVD over lunch at Youngest's request (hmmm, not stomach-churning at all.....) The enormous cardboard fort that still resides in the front room (blocking the view of my lovely, new, & organised shelving unit, mumble mumble) didn't get much of a look in because the weather outside was so lovely!  We were so happy to see the sun out - it feels like spring has been a long time coming this year!  We all spent as long in the garden as we could.  We didn't get to craft club again as Youngest is fighting off yet another bug, bless him, but fortunately he was well enough to get out in the garden and bounce for ages on the trampoline with his brothers - so although he can't move too far away from a toilet, his energy levels don't seem badly affected. 

Today was sadly not so warm again, (not that that stopped Youngest stripping off and streaking around the garden briefly), and we have been stuck in the house a lot more than I like lately - but no matter: we had a lovely bit of creativity together, and spring is definitely on the way!  The evenings are getting lighter, the noticeboards on facebook are starting to fill up with park visits and woodland rambles... I feel like our season of hibernation is coming to an end - hooray!