We are learning Art!

Most of us are used to the idea that we need to attend lessons to pick up a skill. Maybe it's in our culture or a mindset, that we can only learn from an expert or someone who is trained formally in that skill.

Ever since I became a full time mom, the mindset has changed and I have proven to myself that it is possible to pick up a skill without formalised lessons. I have taught myself cooking and sewing all through recipes and the sewing tutorials available from the internet.

This time, I am taking on another challenge. Teaching Kyle art, while also learning art at the same time. I took art for my O levels, but had very little interest in Still Art, which to me, was the dullest technique that I have learnt through through an art education. Maybe I am just bias towards classical art, or simply have little interest towards it.

It would have been a totally different story, if I read children art books from Laurence Anholt, Katie Series of books from James Mayhew; exploring artists from the Italian Renaissance to Post-Impressionism. Classic art appreciation did not quite happen for me until I became a young adult. Even till today, my preference for art strays far away from classical art, looking at my choice of art prints around the house.

To get our art journey started. I got a couple of children's books with the theme of encouraging creativity in art.

Top L-R  The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, Ish by Peter H. Reynolds, The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola, The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and Lines that Wriggle by Candace Whitman

 

Art is really all about the process and not the product. But it is hard to get a 4 year old to understand it. Kyle has been doing alot of open ended art with different mediums since turning 18 months old, but he has always been not too enthusiastic about the product he creates. So to help build his confidence and fan the interest towards arts, I went with a different strategy to get him to enourage his exploration of art.

He created these pieces with little encouragement needed and willingly sat through 2 full hours of drawing and colouring! It really amazes me how interest can encourage his attention span towards the activity.

The technique I used was to scaffold the learning, breaking up the shapes and the details of the picture step by step. This way, it makes it easy for him to follow and adapt his own preferences into the picture.

Since we have started on this method, he has been asking to draw every evening, and have asked to do more art activities. So I think it's time to re-introduce new open ended art experiences :), before embarking on some classical art exposure. From there, with the exposure, it will help to develop his preferences for art in general.

 

As for my art experiences so far, my preferences lean towards illustration. I have been squeezing whatever time I can find to doodle and colour into my sketch book. Learning slowly from japanese doodle illustration books, a doodle at a time.

Share it:

Related posts:

A new milestone

Was contemplating whether to share this on my blog. But after thinking it through and after a chat with Pauline, she was right to say that we keep our blogs like our online diary to record our memories of parenting, kid's milestones, our challenges and interests at specific points in our life.

Ok then, it's my space and I can share whatever I like, really doesn't matter even if I get labelled.

So the latest milestone is that Kyle can read.

I discovered it about 4 months ago and it pleasantly surprised me. When he turned 2 and a half years old, I started teaching him letter sounds phonetically and we spent about 18 months learning all the letter sounds at his own pace. Thereafter, I introduced word families end of last year to get him started on blending, but he was not responsive to that method, so I thought that it will be best to take a break from all reading activities for a while.

We took a break for about 4-5 months and did not do any reading activities, except for bedtime stories that I would usually read aloud to him. I spent that time evaluating if his slow progress was due to a lack of interest or just simply non-readiness. Then in April this year, I decided to give it another shot, pulled out the phonic readers from my bookshelves, and started reading it aloud to him by sounding out the sounds and blending the letters together. I did this consistently for about 2-3 times in 2 weeks and he was able to pick up the blending method through the modelling method. During the last parent-teacher meeting prior to the June holidays, his teacher remarked in a surprised tone, "he can read!"

So at 4, is it still considered early to reach this milestone? In my perspective, the exact age or timing is of little consequence. What matters is that I picked up on the indicators that showed that he had a propensity to learn to read at a specific time. And I am quite certain that I would not have the same ability to be so sensitive to his unique time table if I were a full time working mom.

I hear alot about moms posting on the local parenting forum, enquiring how they can help their child to read at 2. Seriously, why would you need your child to read at 2? Unless, the mom can say with a resounding "Yes!", when asked if she thinks that the child is ready to learn to read at that age, then by all means go ahead. But please do the research on the various methods that will be best suited to your child. The problem with most who participate actively in forums is that they will go what seems popular amongst other parents and follow the advice shared, which may not be a suitable method for their child's learning style.

What worked for Kyle was that since he is a kinesthetic and auditory learner, he learned letter sounds through games and songs, and could grasp the concept of decoding when I use the modelling method. Coupled with lots of good quality phonics books which he enjoys and plenty of read alouds on a daily basis, which I think encouraged his reading development. Half the battle is won when the parent encourages their child's interest for books. When the child enjoys being read aloud to, they will eventually be motivated enough to want to read books by themselves.

He is undoubtedly a lazy reader. He will initiate picking up the phonics readers these days, but he will ask me to sound out all the letters individually for him, while he blends it together. So this may not the most ideal kind of reading development, but I am thrilled nonetheless. I can now take my time and let his reading development 'take-off' naturally the next two years. And he can start to use his new found skill to entertain his grand-parents to bits by reading environment print out loud in their presence.

As for chinese language development, that's a different story altogether. It's an uphill task and we are progressing at super snail's pace.

Share it:

Related posts:

Preschool pains

Kyle was in one of his moody moods yesterday, and it was all because his classmate S pinched him twice in school that afternoon. Hb was feeling very protective and told Kyle to defend himself and push S if he tries to pinch him again, and then kick the latter if he attempts again. My respond differed a little from hb's as I told Kyle to say. "No! Don't pinch me!" and not to push or hit the boy, even if the latter attempts to hurt him again and to make sure that he tells the teacher that S was hurting him. I already knew what was the cause behind S's antagonistic behaviour towards Kyle.

Kyle became rather upset over the pinching incident and was all whiny and clingy the whole afternoon. He realised that he was the cause behind S's pinching as he antagonised the latter about a week back. I recalled Kyle mentioned that he sat in the naughty chair in school twice last week for pinching S. And the reason for his misbehaviour? He pinched S as he was frustrated over the lack of response when he asked S to share a toy, but S totally ignored him. So he pinched the latter to see if he could get a response from him. So S responded by 'taking revenge' this week.

He asked me this last week, "Why is it that S does not answer back when I ask him nicely. I said please..and I asked a few times, he said nothing. If he say no, I will play something else." My reply was, "Not all kids know how to respond when someone speaks to them. That's why it is important to always answer when someone asks you a question, and not just ignore them. It is very rude to ignore and not respond. But at the same time, you cannot pinch him just because he did not answer you and you are frustrated with him. If he does not answer you, just walk away and choose something else to play with."

Kyle response to hb and my advise was, "I don't want to fight back." I asked him if he told his teacher about it. His reply was "Yes, but the teacher did not scold him." I assume that the lack of attention to this little wrangle at school could be likely due to the teacher's assumption that Kyle started this and thus deserve this response from S. Better to let them to fight it out amongst themselves, or it could just be that there are just too many kids in the class to address every single issue.

I try not to over-react and highlight this to the teacher at this point. Even though Kyle is only 4, I think it will the best to teach him how to try to manage this with his classmate. I can't be there 24/7 for him, and he needs to start to think how best to manage situations like these with what he has learnt from us. In the meantime, I will monitor the outcome and see how it turns out the next couple of weeks at school.

How will you manage this if this happened to your child in preschool?

Share it:

Related posts: