Following my friends at Kingdom Arrows as they worked through the book Drawing with Children for the past several weeks of last year, made me long for a copy of the book myself.  This past week – I was wandering around Bob’s Beach Books – and Voila – There it was. On the Shelf. Calling to me. (If you are reading this on the coast – Diana is great at ordering books in, I don’t pay shipping, she gives discounts often for fun, for cash, and because she’s awesome – so I usually pay 10-20% off on hardbacks, and usually spend less than Amazon. And. She has cookies. What’s not to like?)

(If you click the book above to order one – the order will support Kingdom Arrows!)

“Buy Me, I’m 30% off today, You Know You Want Me, You could Combine Art Day with Composer Day, Hello?  Anyone Buying me yet?” Well. I had no choice.

I had purchased these flat clipboards for our Nature Study Notebook Pages in the field this year. They will work well for these projects also. As directed, I put about 10+ pieces of blank paper as scratch paper and blotter. Jon was wondering if his sharpies would bleed through – and was glad when I told him – that was the expectation all along!

As directed, I set out quite an assortment of marking mediums, from plain pen and pencil – to colored pencils, sharpies, thick and thin Crayola’s. We started out sketching various drawing elements to see which medium felt best in our hand. We all agree that a trip to the craft store is in order to find some quality sharp tipped markers!

It is interesting that the book – under the ages – what to expect – talked that the boys would be interested in comparing their drawings to mine and each other’s.  First thing Jon did was to compare his to Nathan’s. Based on Nate’s drawing – he saw details that he left out, promptly correcting.  We spent today going through the 3 levels to see which skill level would be best as a start.  All three of us felt challenged and confident at Level 3. Quite a jump from last year in September!

Jon helped me put out our fruit plates with toast for snack. He went on to create little shapes after sorting the colors on the plates.  Once the day was started in art – it continued in each of the other topics. Very creative day.  We switched gears to listening to the Composer Study after this, and their notes were filled with pictures. I’ll share how it went with you on Thursday.

Both boys were excited at the challenge of the lesson so far with Drawing with Children. I just can’t get over how wonderfully well our lessons are going this year!