by Erica Johns | Jul 31, 2015 | Art
*denotes affiliate links. All images are affiliate links as well.
Although I’m not an especially artistic person, I have found a lot of real enjoyment in taking time to do some art with my kids. It can be so relaxing to just put on some music, gather at the table, and do something creative. Last year I even hosted a class in our home where we did art, poetry, philosophy, and other good stuff regularly with some other homeschooled middle and high schoolers.
Today I just wanted to share some of our favorite items that we’ve used recently when painting. I have found that having good-quality materials really makes a difference in the enjoyment and success of various art projects, and really the nicer stuff isn’t that much more costly than cheap stuff, and in many cases it is longer lasting. I know it definitely has a better outcome for the finished product, and I believe it makes a difference even to children, in how much they feel they enjoy and are good at artistic pursuits!
I know we are all used to seeing cheap little watercolor sets for sale at Walmart, but these Crayola Watercolor Mixing Sets* are nothing like those! I first found out about these from reading an art teacher’s blog, and my goodness, these are beautiful! The colors are vibrant, they mix nicely on watercolor paper, and they last a pretty long time. From the picture it doesn’t really look like you get that many colors, but actually there is a really nice range here. Reds, orange, yellow, blue, purples are all here.
Good watercolor paper is a must for doing justice to any attempts at watercolors. The texture and thickness of the paper is needed for such a wet medium. Regular paper tends to get over-wet, rips, and curls up at the edges. Watercolor paper like this will not. The generous size (9×12) of this pad is great for all sorts of watercolor work! (other sizes are also available)
If you are looking for a good set of acrylic paint that won’t break the bank and gives you A LOT of color choices, this one is really good! You get 18 two-ounce bottles, which has so far been enough for me to share with 10 students for many class sessions without running out of any colors yet. I prefer this set to buying individual large tubes because of price and variety available. It also is packed in a nice sturdy box that makes storage and use really simple, so I don’t have a bunch of paint bottles falling all over the place. Win!
Having good paint brushes is a must. Too often I have seen students stuck with flimsy little brushes that can’t hold their shape and lose bristles frequently, thus messing up their art work. These Royal & Langnickel brushes were recommended to me by an art teacher, and they do not disappoint! They feel good in the hand, have a nice weight to them, the bristles hold their shape, and the variety of brushes is very nice. The clear plastic case they come in has a zip-lock closure that so far has held up to our use quite well. The brushes are great for watercolors, acrylics, and tempera paints. With 12 brushes included in the pack, there is enough for several children to share quite easily. They clean up great with warm water and soap. We are very happy with these!
Not being incredibly intuitive about art myself, I have found the Deep Space Sparkle site to be very helpful to me in finding art projects that are simple enough for even a beginner to do. Often, when working with unfamiliar materials, having some project to copy or guide you is super helpful for getting started. You can learn so much by imitation (most, if not all, the great masters of art did the same!) and it helps you become familiar with what the materials can do, and soon you’ll be able to branch out and do more things on your own.
Here are a few of the things we’ve done with Deep Space Sparkle projects + the watercolor items I shared with you:
I hope that you will plan in some times to do art with your kids this year! They love it when we’ll sit down and enter in to what they are doing, and you’ll probably be delighted to see how much you enjoy it. 🙂
*Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
by Erica Johns | Jul 28, 2015 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, Notebooking
*denotes affiliate link
By now I think we all know that Notebooking Pages* is pretty awesome. (In fact, you can get a free sampler collection that specifically goes with some of our collections here) It’s also a perfect go-together with everything we do here at Enrichment Studies. With literally thousands of printable notebooking pages for you to choose from and a lifetime access at a super affordable price, you will –love– the way it will enhance your homeschooling experience! Notebooking Pages work well for
- all ages
- all learning styles
- all subjects
- all levels of skill
- all educational approaches
And as if all that isn’t enough, they even offer a payment plan that allows you to get everything for just $10 to start! So, they make it pretty easy for you to have everything you need to get organized and ready for your school year right away. Check out the sale here.
*Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
by Erica Johns | Jul 25, 2015 | Freebies, Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms
I know that a ton of you are going to be stoked when you hear this!
Right now you can get the entire collection of The Tutor for Charlotte Mason and Classical Educators for FREE! You’ve got til August 15 to get this totally free with no strings attached. After that it’s going to be selling for $69! So, get on over there and get it while it’s hot!
by Erica Johns | Jul 23, 2015 | Mom to Mom, The Winds of Inspiration
*denotes affiliate link
I know I’m not the only mom that has taken advantage of the bargain prices on school supplies in late summer, but then manages to not know where on earth any of the stuff is by January. (Or October)
After thoroughly cleaning, purging, and taking stock of the school area, I found various caches of school supplies, and some half-broken pencil boxes with motley collections of broken crayons and buried child-sized scissors. Sick of the situation where people never know where to find OR return commonly-needed items, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration and that got the ball rolling.
This door leads to our coat closet, and this side of it faces the right side of where all of our work stations/desks are for the boys. In other words, all they have to do is turn their little heads to the right and their gaze shall fall upon this beautiful scene:
All you need is one of those inexpensive over-the-door shoe organizers. I got a clear plastic one. You can even order them from amazon*. Boom!
As I started filling each section and figuring out what would make sense for where to place items (for instance Sharpies: Up top.) I decided on some modifications.
I didn’t want crayons to mark up the surface of the organizer and make it look junky.
I didn’t want scissors and sharpened pencils to poke holes in the bottom of the pouches.
I didn’t want to have kids up-to-their-armpits trying to dig out crayons from the pouches.
I had a stash of clear containers from the bulk section of Whole Foods. They fit perfectly into the pouches, and solved the problem of potential pokes as well as made items like crayons, markers, and colored pencils portable. Now a child can help themselves to the container, take it to their seat to use it, and then return the whole thing. Perfect!
I also save parmesan cheese containers (they are perfect for childen’s banks, bug catchers, and a zillion other things) and those also fit nicely and worked well for certain items.
If I hadn’t had these plastic containers handy, I could have used clear plastic cups that could have been obtained inexpensively from a discount store or yard sale, or even canning jars. If you look around at what you’ve got available, you may find that you have a free solution to your needs without having to buy anything.
My children are all old enough to not go berzerk with overuse of school supplies, so I’m comfortable with leaving everything out where they can help themselves. I love it that now that the supply sales are here, I can easily see that I already have more than enough crayons, but could definitely use more pencil-top erasers. I won’t be buying stuff we don’t need.
As you can see there is plenty of extra space. I can see that these pouches could also be useful for additional art supplies, craft supplies, math manipulatives, flash cards, and other small items that need to be kept track of and made available to the children regularly.
I’m a visual person that really likes to see my stuff. With all the bright colors and the ease of keeping it organized, I feel like this will be handy, practical, and easy to keep up on.
We have used this system for a few years now and it continues to work so well for us. Clean up is so easy since it is obvious where everything goes, and it is never a mystery as to whether or not we have binder clips/colored pencils/tape/paintbrushes. Our shoe organizer has held up really well and still looks great!
*Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
