Perception of Colours

CH was working on her homework of 'Z', with a picture of a zebra she was about to colour.

"How can I colour White?" she pondered. Seconds later, she exclaimed, "I know!"

And she coloured Black.

Original Works

You could say children are the greatest artists. For what they lack in strength and dexterity, they make it up in their originality, and that is unbeatable by any adults. So untainted in perception, so clear of beliefs of any sort, so full of possibilities.

CH, September 2010

I like the the flowers that grow from the sky

Recently, I saw in a friend's facebook, some line drawings done by his preschool daughter, of people she knows. Maybe it is because I have been so used to seeing my own children's, or perhaps it is the noses that she has included on the faces, which do not exist in any of my children's. Her simple lines made an impression on me. If only I can have my friend's courtesy to put up some in this blog to share...

Great! Permission granted! Here are some of 3 year-old Faith Chen's works:

Faith has interestingly added something which looks like a '2' in this picture.

Perhaps she's drawn this when she was two? Or perhaps that is just part of her hair?

Makes me wonder if 'Teacher Michelle' wears glasses.

Notice how she fills up the entire page in each drawing.

Home-School Projects

CH has been bringing Home-School Projects from school. Since I am used to doing projects with the kids at home, there should not be much of a problem - or so I thought.

The first project we did was not exactly a happy one. Normally, I did not have to be in the picture. That makes things a lot easier as we are spontaneous and less conscious of ourselves. But for the Home-School Projects, parents are required to take pictures of themselves working with the kids, and email the pictures to the teacher.

I got my son SW to help us with the photographing. It was pretty much a disaster. Not only had I to juggle between supervising the photo-shooting and making the Art & Craft with CH, SW was more interested in taking pictures of everything else except us. It was a little project that did not take CH long to do, so everything finished rather quickly - meaning there were not many photographs either, most of which were blurred. I had to take over the camera at the end. Even so, there were no happy faces in the pictures. A failed project to my standard.

Along came the second Home-School Project. This time, SW was not around, so CH and I took turns taking pictures of each other.

At first, CH felt more enthusiastic about taking the pictures, ready to abandon her project and leaving everything to me. I decided that we should only take pictures at different stages of our project, and allowed her to take a few snaps each time. Rather than the results, it is usually the process that is more important when working with kids.

CH's take of me.

Although CH's little hands could hardly reach the snap button on my Fuji Finepix, she did her best in following instructions like not moving her hands when snapping and holding in position so as to maintain the focus.

CH finding a place on the 'wool' for the ribbon we

ripped off from an undersized hand-me-down.

A spontaneous act

I would grade this project a distinction.

Do-At-Home Sand Art

I thought I had a good deal getting a pack of Sand Art for only two dollars from Daiso. Turned out the two sticker pads were blank - meaning we had to draw and cut everything ourselves - a real DIY!

Original pack comes with coloured sand in little plastic bags

I got the kids to draft out what they wanted on a rough piece of paper before starting on the 2 sticker pads provided. We had to draw something that was not too complicated so it was easier to cut.

CH's draft - the details would have been tough on my hands

SW's draft - a good start

After sketching their pictures, the children could not wait to begin. Unfortunately, they had to wait for me to cut out the parts before they could pour sand in each portion like they do with the ready-cut ones. To save time, I modified some of the details. Especially for CH's, I got her to draw me another butterfly. It was a good thing as my fingers could hardly bend back towards the end...

The sand that came with the pack was not generous enough. Towards the end, we ran out of some colours. I tried to work around it by creating graduation in some portions. Though the results were not entirely to my satisfaction, they pictures were uniquely theirs.

I managed to find some ready-to-play packs with Barney prints at a chain supermarket a couple of days after that. Some departmental stores sell them too at an affordable S$3.90, and comes with a more generous amount of sand.

Fun with Oil Pastels

I have never liked oil pastels. But I realized that was because I knew too little of it.

I brought the kids out for a trial art class which teaches art using oil pastels. My kids probably had more exposure to oil pastels in school than I ever did my life. They looked at ease with them.

The top two were taught by the teacher using blending techniques. The bottom two were before.

Left: SW, Right: CH

"It is easier for young children to blend colours using oil pastels than using coloured pencils or poster colours", the teacher told me.

With that, I came home and logged into the internet, keen to find out more about oil pastels. I found 'ehow' and watched the videos. After that, I replaced 'about.com' with 'ehow.com' under my favourite sites on drawing.

CH attended her first art class during this holiday. It is with another centre. The timing was a good twice weekly over the June holidays. I just wanted her to have some fun, and to satisfy my own curiosity of how art lessons are conducted these days (without too much commitment).

Knowing the fact that my 4 year-old draws nothing but girls with long legs, I wasn't surprised when she drew a swan like a flamingo on the first day, and rabbit like a bumble bee on the second.

There wasn't any 'preferred' medium to use, but the teacher suggested poster colours for CH after the first lesson, so I grabbed it from a nearby bookshop for her to use during the next lesson.

"Could she handle it?" I had wondered aloud.

"Yes, Why not?" The teacher had replied.

For the second lesson, we brought the set of poster colours and coloured pencils along, just in case. But CH did not use the poster colours at all.

"I didn't know she had it!" Was the teacher's reply. I couldn't believe my ears. The brand new set of plated poster colours was right in front of our eyes, on the table all the time!

For the third lesson, CH still did not use the only poster colours we brought. Instead, the teacher lent her a box of oil-pastels. I did fume after the third lesson wondering how experienced the teacher is in teaching young children. And I have to admit at this point in time that the reason why I disliked oil pastels is the mess you make with them. But CH had a good time, so we carried on with the course. To me, it is an hour and a half of baby-sitting, at 7 dollars an hour.

2nd day: I mistook her rabbit as bumble bee at first glance.

She practiced using water colour at home on the same picture.

But NOW that I know better what oil pastels could do, drawing with them have become interesting to me. And knowing CH loves to 'feel' her paintings and drawings, getting down right icky and dirty, it might just be a good medium for her to start off with!

SW's Robots and CH's Girls

SW still loves to play with Legos. He puts together little parts to make up aircrafts, ships, houses, or little robots. Recently, he showed me two of which I found really cute and reached for my camera. After that, he started building even more.

In a way, you can't display Legos the way you do with drawings. Once you display them, they remain on the shelves and you can't play with them until you dismantle the entire structure. So I take pictures. As I discovered, this became a form of recognition to them. They have learnt from my response that they've made something/drawn something that's worth keeping.

For CH, she draws so many everyday using rough papers (and sneaks away some of my good papers too) that I had to dedicate a shelf for her to store her own drawings. These days, she draws girls with super long legs. "These are big girls, not little girls!" She explained.

CH draws our family and her two girl cousins.

Daddy helped sign CH's chinese name.

CH: "The girl (1st from right) is a naughty girl

who crumbled my paper (the black dot)"

I love the girl's hairdos and the expressions on their faces. They all look different. All the good girls wear tiaras (all good girls are princesses?) and the naughty one wears shades with a nasty expression. In the first picture, she draws herself as the only one who is smiling while the rest are talking - and it looks like Mommy's got the biggest mouth of all!

Collection of CH's Drawings

CH: A Rabbit!

CH's first drawings of anything with a face bore this expression. Nowadays, on quiet afternoons when I'm cooking or doing the laundry, she'll sit by herself and draw. Sometimes, one can't help but wonder what goes on in their little minds. With her pictures I could have a glimpse...

CH: It's raining!

What started out as 'H's turned into '4's. Hey, she writes seven with the stroke in the middle like I do! Ok, now what's that oblong face doing amongst the numbers?

I like the neatness of this coming from a 3 year-old. She even signs her name - but she seems to have mild dyslexia - CH written as HC...hmm.

Attempts drawing arms and long hair

CH draws kor kor (brother)

CH draws nature with crayons

CH: This is you! (She was angry with me)

She loves me most of the time...

All the Time in the World

So much has been said about not having enough time and that life is short. Watching 2012 is certainly a consolation!

While vacation is coming to an end soon for most kids, it only began about 2 weeks ago for SW who attends full-day childcare. Although his school is still on until 31st December, I decided to let SW take the last 2 weeks off, enjoying the privileges of having more time to himself.

Having both kids at home during the day means I will be the only one without a vacation and loosing the weight I've been trying hard to gain. But putting the priorities right is important - so I made it a point to take leave too by staying away from my computer and sitting down with the kids - even it means watching Winx!

Nearly every other day of the year, we have to get up early, rush to get everything done within the shortest time possible, following a time-table that is set for us or one we've set for ourselves whilst being as productive as we can. I wonder - if Albert Einstein had led a life like ours, would he have had the opportunity to observe how light reflects and refracts while he sat with his sister, looking out into the lake? Would Galileo have had a minute to observe how a ceiling lamp swings back & forth and measured it against his own pulse?

"Mommy, do I have to go to school tomorrow?" SW has been asking me everyday since the start of his precious 2 weeks.

"Mommy, why don't we take the stairs instead?" SW liked to ask me when the lift took ages to land on our floor when we were running short of time. At the start of his holiday, I gave him the privilege of time to understand why by allowing him to climb the 11 flight of steps Up.

Kids have their special moments when it comes to sharing their thoughts. I appreciate having the time to listen and answer his questions at breakfast without having to worry about the school bus and at supper without having to rush him off to bed for school the next day.

HM and I aren't the happiest person to have SW at home. Being born with sibling makes CH naturally more sociable than her brother, and is in more need of attention. Doing things with her brother makes her happy and more settled, somehow. Although she enjoys dabbling paints with me, doing it with her brother is more fun. So I gave them the time in the world to do the things they want minus my nagging.

Taking time to paint a clay magnet the way they want it - as the saying goes - "Ya can't rush art!" (from Toy Story)

Last night, SW asked me again, "Mommy, do I have to go to school tomorrow?" When I said no, he continued, "When I wake up tomorrow morning, can you tell me I have no school so I can go back to sleep?"

I know exactly how that feels, my dear child. To have all the time in the world to do what you want and to rest enough...

As the year comes to an end, here's wishing everyone:

All the Time in the World

to do what you want to do and

to have the rest that you truly deserve!

Happy, Happy New Year!

Festive Drapes

It's about time I change my green clover felt drapes. The rings are rusty and some of the pieces are coming off from the kids' tugging. With the festive period approaching, what better time to source for materials!

After about an hour's browse at Daiso, I finally found 2 leftover packs of Red Felt Stars to my liking. They were hooked up high against the wall near the checkout. Got a friendly young assistant to help me using a tall ladder. It was worth the hassle. The red stars are good as I could keep them through Chinese New Year, which will fall on 14th February next year.

We don't have a family tradition of putting up Christmas tree and decorations, but those sparkling, shinny stuff are just so inviting they spell festivities! Working on my drapes gives me a good excuse to use some of these decorations...happy, happy, happy...

The red perforated stars came in 3s which would be too sparse on the drapes. I decided to get some felt sheets to work on additional stars - felts because my drapes are hung near my doorway, sort of like a divider between the doorway and the living room. They won't scratch your skin when you pass them by.

The extra stars I am sewing. The dual colours gives a contrast against my mahogany main door.

CH draws me standing on a stool working on the drapes. I like that heart she has added. And where is that kitty from...?

CH Draws Me

This is CH's recent portrait of me using a highlighter. I thought my 3 year-old was drawing herself, but the bun on the head proves otherwise. Somehow, she prefers to see my hair swept back. I love that grin on the face. Still think it looks more like her...