Our Weekly Paintings

A couple years ago, we implemented a habit of each student doing a Weekly Painting to practice our watercolor skills regularly outside of nature journaling and brush drawing time.

Each week, each student chooses one subject from any of their readings for that week. They paint in miniature: just one Artist Trading Card, which is a piece of paper pre-cut to baseball-card size.

The small format makes the task doable -- it only takes 10-15 minutes -- and it much less intimidating than a large project would be for a young or perfectionist student. It is thus a pleasant and simple part of our week rather than a burden.

These can definitely be considered a form of narration, but in our home, they don't take the place of narration. This is scheduled on Thursday afternoons, one of the last tasks of our school week. It is always fun to see what they pick -- they go back and forth all week deciding what their subject should be! (And you can imagine the mental effort happening during that culling and selection process!)

At the end of our first year, I purchased a three-ring binder and some baseball card sleeves, and the kids collected their cards into the sheets and added them to the binder. We have continued to add each term and the binder is now a wonderful record of not only what they have learned, what ideas have inspired, what topics have excited them, but also of their drawing and painting skills, and how those have improved over time.

And of course, their creativity! Each card is so delightfully different. (You can see a page-through from last year below. We have over twice that many pages now!)

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A post shared by Celeste (@celeste_cruz) on Sep 20, 2018 at 5:27pm PDT

We love our notebooks, but this binder is so very special for our family. It has become such a treasure and we all love sifting through it and remembering the ideas, stories, moments, characters, events...

~~~

Does this sound like something your family might like to try? Here's all you need to get started:

:: Pack of Arist Trading Cards. I buy both Bristol and watercolor cards to have on hand. Both will take watercolor without any warping, but the Bristol doesn't allow any lifting of paint and will get a bit nubby if the student isn't used to using a wet medium. The watercolor version is definitely better for washes and such, but it is also about double the price.

:: Paints and brushes. We just use the same kit we do for nature journaling. Some kids may like to use pencil and/or waterproof marker. I have our favorites here.

:: Plain binder. I like to get one with a see-through window cover so my kids can make a nice cover page. :)

:: Baseball card sleeves.

That's it!

If you have taken up the same habit or something similar, I'd love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments below. :)

(I have shared lots of #ourweeklypaintings on Instagram over the past couple years. Click over if you'd like to see more examples!)

Pre-Reading as Schole, or a Mid-Year Update on My Reading Journal

Happy Easter! I hope you had a blessed weekend.

I'd like to start off the week with another peek into my Reading Journal in honor of my chat with Brandy and Pam on Schole Sisters about pre-reading as schole and how keeping can transform your teacher prep time. (Go have a listen!)

In case you missed my last post on this personal keeping assignment, here it is! I explained what I keep in this particular notebook, why I started it, and what products I'm using.  I also shared inside the first half of my book.

The short version: this is part of my pre-reading for AmblesideOnline Year 6. I keep other notes too (more teacher prep stuff like lists of proper nouns, notes, and potential discussion/exam questions), but this is a creative twist on a commonplace book that invites me to adopt the posture of a student as I do my weekly prep work.

I can't tell you how this has revolutionized the way I think about my weekly pre-reading. By adding elements of keeping, little by little, over the course of the past couple years, I have seen so much fruit in my engagement with the material and with my students.  It has made my teacher prep time much more enjoyable, ordering my attitude toward those tasks from busy mama trying to keep up to delighted co-learner.

And besides that, it's just a lot of fun. :)  I'll definitely be keeping another of these next year. And every year!

Just to be clear: it is not as if a notebook like this (or keeping of any kind, really) is required for pre-reading to be schole. But if you're a box-checker like me and find that as much as you LOVE the books, your temptation is just to "get it done" and not fully engage, then maybe this strategy will help you as much as it has helped me.

We're not halfway through Term 3, so it's an awkward time to peek in: I'm only five pages from the end! I'll probably pop some final pages up during some end-of-the-year round-up.

For now, here is a look through my pages from where I left off last time, as well as a look back at some in-progress pages from that first batch that I have added to since then (like my timeline and maps)...

in progress :)

I hope that gives a sense of the variety that this format has enabled and the organic approach that is possible with this assignment. Adding little by little each week has really created something meaningful to me.

And I talked all about this on the Schole Sisters chat, but just a reminder: none of these drawings are out of my own head. They're all "drawing copywork": finding a drawing I like in one of our books and copying it into my book. And I have a personal goal to have something colored and something drawn on each page since my default mode is just ink + words.

Side note: I have been excited by all the moms who have told me they have started keeping a book like this after reading my post at the start of the year! You can see a couple here: MacKenzie's at BRC Banter and Arenda's at The Upcast Eye. If you keeping a pre-reading commonplace like this, let me know! I'd love to take a peek. I'm currently scavenging ideas for next year's iteration. I am always on the hunt for fresh inspiration. :)

Lettering for Kids (or Beginner Mamas!)

A few weeks ago I posted a little video on Instagram of my school-aged kids doing some lettering -- and was flooded with requests for tips and resources!

The truth is that I put some books on the shelf, suggested it for a free time activity, made the materials available, and invited them to play around or make fancy titles for their notebook work.

They took me up on the suggestion and came up with their own approach to easing into lettering with markers. It involved some steps I wouldn't have thought of including but that worked perfectly for beginners. Even my (very detail-oriented and careful) kindergartener has been able to dive in!

And this isn't just a girly activity; my boys are right at the table as well. I have some suggestions below of more boyish alphabets and resources.

All that to say: this isn't an exhaustive list by any means. I'm just breaking down the round-about way this "skill" has taken root in our home.

(Psst: mamas who are dying to learn lettering, this post is for you too! Consider this a quick-start guide for yourself, and your kids will be joining you at the table in no time.)

What You Need

Markers. 

For what I'm suggesting below, you don't necessarily need a brush tip marker because you are drawing in the downstrokes rather than creating them with the marker's brush. A nice set of washable Crayolas would be just fine!

My kids have been using Pitt brush pens because they like the size and the vibrant colors. The tips are nice and flexible but they're sturdy enough to stand up to kid use.

If you DO want a proper brush pen that's easy to use, we like the Tombows best. They're double-tipped, so you can use them for all kinds of lettering, brush or otherwise.

If you don't have double-tipped, it's nice to have some thin markers for flourishes and for smaller lettering. Staedtler's Triplus markers are lovely -- bright, smooth, very little bleeding -- and are a favorite for the older kids but are too thin for littles to use without breaking. The Pentel Paper Mate Flair pens (medium point is more durable for kids) or Sharpie ultra-fine tips are great options also.

Side note: in all of these cases, I have found it valuable to set some ground rules for marker use with children. Especially with these nicer markers, you're going to want to build good habits of using, capping, and putting away. We only use these at the table, and it's a 5yo+ activity here. I make using these a privilege that can be revoked.

Another note: if you use erasable pens a lot (like we do), those would work fine also. As would Gelly Roll pens -- we love those! You just have to watch out for smearing the gel ink when you're doing the faux calligraphy part.

(By the way, if you are going to add watercolor to decorate your piece, be sure to use waterproof markers! Many of these brands are waterproof, but a few are not.)

Paper.

These can all be used on regular printer paper. And the printer paper actually works best, because you are able to trace through it, which I mention below. We keep a paper underneath our work in case there is bleed-through.

Later, we moved onto watercolor cards and cardstock to be able to embellish with paints.

Sample Alphabets.

My kids started with these two books:

Lettering for Beginners is the one I'll be referencing. (You'll see some photos of the inside below as I describe the steps.) It doesn't provide much instruction at all. It's very bare bones. BUT it's great for the method I outline below, where you really are looking for words to copy. And it's cheap!  A great place to start for younger kids.

If you DO want thorough instruction, I really like Brush Pen Lettering. Very detailed with lots of great tips. It is more advanced and I probably would only use it with older students.

Like I describe below, at one point in this process, I gathered several different sample alphabets for my kids to use. You can Google lettering alphabets and find free printables. Pinterest is another good place to look. 

I also have a few old books on my shelf from when I was a kid that have boyish alphabets in them: The Calligraphy Book and The Lettering Book.  

Inside The Calligraphy Book:

Inside The Lettering Book:

I like The Lettering Book best because it has lots more sample fonts that the other. But as I said, I chose these because we already owned them. I'm guessing there are lots of books like this on the market right now as well!  Vincent has used these for many of his notebook headings and now Xavier is enjoying working from them too.

The Cruz Kids' Steps to Starting Lettering

1. Tracing words from book.

This step gave them practice using the markers and getting familiar with some general characteristics of calligraphy fonts: larger downstrokes, slimmer upstrokes. They got a sense of making each downstroke the same width for uniformity. They got to play around with flourishes and embellishments. They got the feeling of those swooping curves. Doing it this way, they get to jump right into making pretty things rather than practicing letter after letter, which I don't think my early elementary kids would have been as interested in doing. This they asked to do every afternoon.

Gianna's

2. Tracing words from printed page.

Once they had exhausted the pre-printed words in the book, they wanted to do words of their choice: their names, friends' names, favorite phrases, etc.

I found a few similar fonts free online, downloaded them, and showed them how to type what they wanted in that font and print to be the same size as the words they had been working with.  They then traced to their heart's delight. :)

3. Copying words.

Soon I noticed they weren't tracing any more -- they had gotten confident and were just using the model to copy the words. This allowed them to copy right into a notebook or onto thicker stationery paper (like for a penpal). Copying is easier than tracing once you get the hang of writing in this way and so is a natural progression.

Xavier's

4. Working with the full alphabet.

The book I mentioned above has a page of uppercase and lowercase letters, and soon they were using this page to practice writing the letters they wanted to learn. They made their own practice pages and had fun trying to make a "perfect c" and so on. I also printed out for them some alphabets from online to play around with too.

5. Using full alphabet to write words and phrases of choice.

They had learned how to join letters from the copywork they had done before, so now they were able to use the sample alphabets to build their own words and phrases rather than printing them first. Again, this is a timesaver, so it's a natural progression.

Cate's

6. Writing without looking at the alphabet model.

Once they figured out how to properly form the letters, they no longer needed the model in front of them and could write from their minds or from a book. This is the stage my kids are experimenting with right now.

Vincent's recent history notebook headings

Where to Go from Here?

There are many more steps toward lettering that are doable for kids:

Experiment with different alphabets -- an endless activity!
Learn about layouts and sketchnotaking.
Try different borders, flourishes, and other accompaniments.
Decorate monochrome work with watercolor.
Try different applications.

And for an older child:

Use brush markers, watercolor paintbrushes, or other brush lettering implements in their proper way: with full downstrokes rather than "filling in" the downstrokes later on. (This saves time and is the obvious next step when you have brush markers on hand.)
Transition to a fountain pen or calligraphy pen to do more traditional line work.

About that last option: a motivated student might enjoy jumping right into some practice worksheets. The Postman's Knock is a fantastic place to purchase calligraphy printables. She starts with a tracing approach, faux calligraphy -- kinda like I outlined above. Then she moves into how to use a calligraphy pen for the same effect. So her packages would be a good bridge for an interested student who is ready for real calligraphy. There are other sites like it as well.

~~~

This new interest in our home has sent me on a search for various calligraphy books that can be used with kids! I have several en route and will review them in a Part II this summer, once we have had a chance to try them out. I'll also be updating on what steps my kids decide to take next! My girls already finished their first comissioned piece -- some watercolored word art for Grandma's guest room. ;)

Do your kids enjoy lettering? Any favorite resources?

(Many of the links above are Amazon Affiliate links. That means I get a kickback from Amazon when you click over and shop -- without either of us doing anything special! :) Thanks for your support.)

My Reading Journal :: A Commonplace with a Creative Twist

This post, and the many pictures that follow, is for...

The mama who wants to pre-read but needs something to liven up the task.

Or the mama who wants to get better at nature journaling by adding some extra drawing practice into her week -- but needs it to be meaningful.

Or the mama who loves keeping and is always up for trying a new notebooking process to see if it suits her mental flow.

Or the mama who relies on her children's school reading to be the bulk of her personal reading too, and so wants to engage more intimately with the material to feed her soul.

Or the mama who has a newborn and needs a little extra creative outlet to keep herself sane.

(Or maybe you meet all of those criteria, like me!)

Last year, I decided to expand my pre-reading by keeping a commonplace, maps, a timeline, and a century chart alongside my kids.  (You can see some of the results here.) For me, this was a life-giving activity rather than a time-sucking one. I appreciated adding these tasks to my week because I felt like they made my pre-reading and planning sessions more pleasant.

Schole-ified them, if you will. ;)

This year, I was wanted to try something that meshed all of these worthy actions into one notebook that would also challenge me creatively.  Because honestly, I need an excuse for creativity, especially during a newborn year.  Something new and fun sounded like just the trick.  And this notebook, which I am calling my Year 6 Reading Journal, has been working perfectly.

This is what I've "kept" so far during this first nine weeks of our school year:

in progress -- waiting for the perfect fit for that long spot on the bottom :)

my kids and I will be learning the countries of africa starting in Term 2

in progress -- still have a little corner there at the top to fill in :)

my WW2 map will be on this page

As for the logistics: this is a notebook I have been meaning to try -- it is lovely. Creamy, smooth cardstock-weight pages that lie flat, sewn bound, with a sturdy cover.  It's also, in my opinion, the perfect size for this kind of project. (The one I have is the Flexbook Sketchbook, 6x8.5, blank.  Way cheaper at Dick Blick than at Amazon, though they carry it too. I found it for a deal a year ago, and it has been sitting on my shelf waiting for the perfect use.)

Almost all of what I keep in here is for my Year 6 reading, though I have an occasional quote from someplace else that I couldn't resist adding because it struck me as "in conversation" with the readings here.  This doesn't take the place of my other commonplace books: favorite quotes from my Year 3 and Year 2 readings go in the notebook I keep for school-related selections, and then I have notebooks for Charlotte Mason reading, religious reading, etc. But the ones for Year 6 go in here.  It also doesn't take the place of my pre-reading notes; I still keep those on a weekly sheet.

I don't require myself to keep a certain amount per week; I just fit it in when I can. I keep a large post-it on the inside cover, and as I do my pre-reading for the week, I make note of quotes, diagrams, maps, or sketches I want to add.  And then when I get a chance, I know just what to start in on.

Most of my drawings here are what I think of as drawing copywork -- I am copying illustrations from our books or maps I find online. Trying to draw my own scenes and such stresses me out. So I just don't do that. ;)

To be honest, it has become one of my favorite things to do when I do get a spare moment without a babe in arms.  Can you tell?  That's why I wanted to share it here, in case it might be something you would enjoy trying as well.  I only wish I had thought of it sooner!

I'll be sharing updates from this notebook in my {Keeping Company} posts each month, when I think of it.

If you decide to try out something similar (or if you're already keeping something fun like this!), I'd love to see what your version looks like. I am always inspired to see how each mama adapts habits such as these for her own uses, needs, and personality.