Taking advantage part 2: art

I have another kid with another interest running at high rpm's right now. Sly is developing the budding artist within him. For quite some time he has wanted to learn to draw. When he was doing vision therapy a few years back, he began to add some depth and interest to his scenes, though his figures were still stick people. Later he said he wanted to learn to draw, but he never really stuck with it. He'd doodle some, but it really wasn't anything impressive.

One of the 'electives' we got with Sonlight Core 4 a couple years ago or so was Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. I showed it to him, he got all excited, and then it sat on the shelf for a long time. A couple times it got pulled back out, but never for very long.

Well, in January we started Sonlight Core 5, including the scheduled Bible study, and including the not-scheduled art lessons in the Bible study. Sly looked forward to the art lessons, but found them challenging. However, the idea of drawing what you actually SEE rather than a cartoon or a symbolic representation of what you see was an interesting cognitive concept for him.

Then a few weeks ago, he noticed a 20-something at Bible study who was doodling and drawing a winged horse during the lessons (she's one that has to fidget to pay attention). Sly was fascinated with her realistic drawing, and pulled back out his own sketch pads to start drawing again himself. And I must say, he was getting better.

He packed his drawing stuff (the sketch pad and a #2 pencil) to take to FL and kept himself busy sketching and drawing. His biggest frustration was when little brother SB3, now mobile, would get hold of his sketch pad and tear another page out. But hey, they'll both learn, right?

Now, back from FL, he has rediscovered the Draw Squad book from Core 4. You know, it never ceases to amaze me how Sly has his own time table for learning. Even though he was interested in the book before, I suppose he just didn't have the developmental readiness to follow along with the lessons and to practice and develop the skills being taught. But now, 2+ years later, he's all over it! He's studying independently and applying what he's learning. He's previewing lessons ahead to see what's coming, but then going back to the earlier lessons to practice and build his skills.

And so, I'm taking advantage of his artistic pursuits. The plan was that we would be doing Japan this week back at school, but instead, we're doing art. Sly was absolutely tickled when I looked at him yesterday morning and said, "Go outside and draw me something you see." You've never seen anyone so happy to do school! This morning, in an unrelated series of events, I learned that Mark Kistler has videos on youtube (btw, some of the comments I saw on one of the videos are very inappropriate, so you might not want to leave your kids alone watching these if they scroll down and read the comments, but Sly was delighted with the art lesson!).

What else is Sly learning through all this? Well, how about economics! He saw Mark Kistler using a 'stump pencil' to blend some of his shading in a drawing. He began trying to blend his own shading, but without great success. #2 school pencils just don’t ‘blend’ well. I pointed out that there are other pencils that artists use that have softer leads and lend themselves to blending and smudging (which is exactly why schools don’t like them!). After lunch, we stopped by Michael’s and took a look. Now, Sly got to thinking and considering what if anything he should spend money on, seeing as how he’d like to save up enough to buy a Wii (yes, I’ve told him if he can buy it, he can bring it in the house, though I will still set the rules on when it can be played and for how long). There were lots and lots of options, but we kept looking and found a beginner’s set that had a couple charcoal pencils, a few assorted sketch pencils, and even a few stump pencils for blending, along with a sandpaper thingy, sharpener, and eraser. And all that for $5! He asked, “Who pays for this? Me?” I smiled and offered to share the cost with him, much to his delight. In fact, he’s thanked me for pitching in a couple bucks several times since then!

Now, he’s taken to doing some research and experimenting. He has made marks with each of his different new pencils, and tried blending and smudging them with the stump pencil, and made observations as to how they compare to his old pencil and to each other. He’s commented that the art pencils draw so much smoother than the #2 he had been using. And he’s demonstrating his discoveries to me along the way.

Now, my plan was to do Japan this week and next. But plans change. Once again, while there’s a passionate interest, we’re pursuing it. Eventually the passion will slow to a simmer and we can then get back to more scheduled academicky pursuits.But for now, Sly is learning not only how to draw, but also how to pay attention to detail, experiment and draw conclusions, research and find appropriate guides and tools to teach him, some economics, and yes, he’s still got to consider time management and non-negotiable obligations (such as cleaning the cat box, keeping his stuff out of SB3’s reach, and making it to guitar lessons and karate on time). This weekend we’re going camping (or that’s that plan). He has already noted that that will give him the opportunity to draw things from the campsite. Of course, he’s got to help set up and break down camp too—but after that, I’d love to see what he sketches out with his new pencils! As this little mini-gallery tour shows, he's improved immensely just in a few days. I am truly impressed.