Arty

Nat has made some fun pictures lately.  I thought I'd share a smattering (so I don't have to actually keep them.)

This is a drawing Nat calls "Go" which she is still learning with Babysitter J, who says she's coming right along:

Here's a pretty painting.  Only recently, she's started paying more attention to filling space and color in a way she finds pleasing and balanced--as opposed to just going nuts with the brush for kicks.  I like this one, because it's in my favorite color scheme:

I dictated the letters and Nat wrote Selina's name.  I thought it was pretty good:

Nat has started to write a lot of words lately.  I only dictated this one.  Others she's written include "bear" and "apple."  She spelled bear correctly on her own, but apple, she spelled "APPL."  But I was impressed that she put two Ps in there.  Invented spellers at Nat's stage would typically just write APL.  And Bear--maybe BR.  But she reads a lot, so I guess she picks up some spelling that way, unconsciously.  I want to start writing stories with her, but I need some pointers on getting good stories out of children.

Here's a fairly typical face these days.  Sometimes, though, they do get quite elaborate with jewelry and appendages and clothing.  She still hasn't hit the torso stage.  When she does limbs, they come straight from the face:

 

And finally, a cameo from Selina!  Her style is interesting. Unlike Nat, who I mentioned has only recently started thinking about filling te space consciously (painting above), Selina is already quite focused on filling the page in a balanced way, with similar marks, in a variety of colors, evenly spread over the page:

Comments

[another sue]

The blog the Other Mother had some good ideas about writing stories with children not too long ago. Do you read her/them?

[haitian-american family of three]

We used to take stickers of animals/nature/objects and let each kid pick one, put it on the page at the bottom and then have the kids write a small story about the sticker. It was a pretty effective way to practice writing and storytelling and really fun to read later years later. I plan on doing these storyboards when A. is a little older.

[Lula]

Artbabes!

[kate]

Wow, I'm in love with that painting-- gorgeous colors! The others are neat, too. I also take a lot of pictures of stuff to avoid having to keep it all around. It's neat to watch kids' development progress through their artwork.