First acrylic & rock painting

We were inspired by this book to try some rock painting.
Written by Linda Kranz, it's filled with beautiful illustrations and artwork of rock fishes.

Our poster colour simply won't do, so I got us some acrylic paint.

Have you ever painted with acrylic? No?

Neither have I.

I didn't know the paint dries quickly, so basically you can paint your designs
over the base colour in one sitting.

Tiger was in awe and my cool mom status went up several notches *ahem*.

For our first trial with acrylic, it went well.

 If you compare his purple and black fishes with the ones on the cover...very close, aren't they?

 Art is subjective. Don't judge. Haha.

Since he already smeared paint on the paper,

I suggested an underwater background instead of throwing it away.

We added some details together. I drew a submarine and some plants.

He added his deep sea creatures by Safari Ltd.

These creatures are the coolest.

The Buncho poster paint was used to paint the deep dark ocean floor.

I hate to say this but I couldn't remember their names :p

Thank goodness he made some name cards for the set a few months ago.

Weird names:  Gulper eel, hachet fist, dragon fish, giant imopod...

 

For children five and above, acrylic paint is great. It is going to be a staple in our art pantry.

For kids like Dragon girl who likes to paint on walls and floors, I would wait a few more years.

So, what other medium should we try next? 

We've tried air dry clay but he didn't enjoy it much.

Not even when I presented it so nicely.

These kids have no idea how lucky they are to have a crazy mom :)

Homeschool Room For Kindergartener and Preschooler

Some quick updates for March 2015.

It is an evolving process since I enjoy organizing so much.

I will post updates on the playroom and outdoor classroom later.

 Because lovely Hubs stole my "grass" carpet for the living room, I've had no choice

but to use this ELC alphabet tiles because the others were too small.

Initially they looked haphazardly cheerful, like this.

Last night, I rearranged them.

So. Much. Better.

Why didn't I do this earlier??!?

I've replaced the doors on the lowest levels of the bookshelves to reduce clutter.

And I've also removed the dangerous metal door handles and replaced them with some 

DIY pipe cleaners and XL pony beads.

So much nicer and child-friendly.

Those are currently the kids' treasure cupboards. One each. No fighting.

This week's Toy-centered Learning:

Cars

Playset from Enfagrow milk powder.

There was a broken toy car for Tiger to take apart but it's missing now :p

Some big machines books and his fav Usborne Look Inside Cars.

 

Space

Inspired by this Toobs set.

In the study room itself, the biggest challenge was delineating the 'zones' for my kids 

to reduce friction. The two aren't exactly best friends right now.

And the room is really tiny.

 Dragon Girl's Baby School Area is mostly to the left of the room.
Their artwork are proudly displayed no matter how, erm, creative they look.
The trays are created with a late 2 year old in mind.
Nothing advanced for her like what I did with Tiger. 

Left (top to bottom)

1. Peep Inside Zoo with miniature animals for matching

2. Two-to-three pieces animal puzzle

3. Froebel J1 for sorting.

Middle

1. Magnetic puzzle

2. Sponges for threading

3. M&D stacking blocks

Right

1. Clock

2. M&D letter stamping with ink pad

3. Our construction sensory bin

 

The creative area. 

This is mostly used by Dragon girl only.

The cart can be rolled off to gain access to the materials behind it.

Occasionally, Tiger tries to be artistic too :)

Tiger's kindergarten skills area

Math area

English and Chinese reading area

Music and science area

A 'secret' writing area that's placed higher up to hide our sand tray from Dragon :)

Last but not least, their small little games area just outside the study.

The marble run is surprisingly very, very popular and well used.

I've placed more board games on the bookshelves since they seem to enjoy those now.

Alright, that's all for now, folks. I am grateful to have the resources to teach my children in a loving, protected environment. I cannot imagine doing anything else in my evenings. Have a wonderful weekend!

PS: Just leave a comment if you are curious about the materials/toys used. If I do not reply here, please pm me on Facebook.