Friday night

[FussyElmo]

Is that it are the school holidays over?

Mine don't start back till Wednesday.

Are you happy they are bad to school or like me sad that they are going back.

The dark nights are coming in now.

I will soon be posting my please snow threads

Or will have an indian summer once all the children go back.

Just waiting for the bake offs spin off program the extra slice and that's my Friday in a nutshell

[Rick]

Is that it are the school holidays over?

Mine don't start back till Wednesday.

Are you happy they are bad to school or like me sad that they are going back.

The dark nights are coming in now.

I will soon be posting my please snow threads

Or will have an indian summer once all the children go back.

Just waiting for the bake offs spin off program the extra slice and that's my Friday in a nutshell

DS started school yesterday....made me feel a bit old.

DW has a strictly program on from the other day to entertain me tonight.

[FloraDora]

The weather is always good in September, when the new term starts...so I am hoping for lots of garden days.

Blitzed the house ready for the new term today, this is when I am reminded that 3 bathrooms make no sense now !
Rewarded myself after with a lovely read in the sunshine, I found a nice sheltered spot in the garden and enjoyed a late afternoon sunshine read...in my cardigan....then added some socks....but still nice.

We are having a 'cosy in' evening with the candles on, listening to George Ezra, sewing and sampling last years blackberry wine ( made from foraging blackberries so almost free) it's just about ready, but now we've opened the bottle I expect we won't wait any longer as it tastes quite refreshing and fresh.

Up early tomorrow as I start my new target of cycling for a purpose every other day. DH is a big cyclist, I used to cycle to school and back but stopped 3 years ago when I retired and I don't want to lose this skill. But I won't/ don't want to/ can't cycle a route and time myself like DH so ...every other day I will ride for a purpose. Tomorrow I have some letters to post - I have chosen a post box 4 miles away ( with another only 2 miles on the route in case I have over estimated my ability!) and so will ride out to post my letters. Sunday I will cycle into town via a long route as there is a food festival on. Tuesday I will cycle to my book club, Thursday to a friends house for afternoon tea, next Saturday we are taking bikes out on the car and cycling an old picnic / photo route.......if my bum doesn't hurt!!!

Then in the afternoon I have a macro photography course....lots of insects close up - I hope, followed by an end of holiday do with all my teacher friends ( a longstanding tradition, some are retired but others still working - always a great night - usually good weather so fingers crossed!)

Sunday is reading through my PHd proposal as I have to meet and discuss it soon to see if it's viable.....an educational, knowledgable discussion used to be my everyday life but now the prospect scares me a little, I have to know my stuff and be prepared to be challenged, It has been on my to do list all holiday, but now I am running out of time !
Then thankfully back to my comfort zone of playing with Early years children on Monday.
Happy weekend everyone.

[Maza]

DD went back on Thursday. She had a wobble a couple of nights before but seemed to have got it all out of her system and was excited on the morning. Both days she has come out of her classroom full of beans - so big relief for us.

I was childminding on Wednesday and then my last family finished - so I have started my break from childminding! I have been so busy though. On the last day we got out loads of old toys/resources for 'old times sake' and they had a lovely play. It took me the best part of Thursday to pack away all the toys and get the house back to normal. Today when we went food shopping it was odd not having to buy for the mindees. Then spent the afternoon catching up with a couple of friends with no kids in tow.

I've had three enquiries this last fortnight, all from lovely families, but I just didn't want to go there, so I know a change is definitely what I need. On Monday I will sign up with teaching agencies and begin to finally sort through my wardrobe and filing system.

Hobbies start up again this Saturday - tap and swimming, but other than that no plans. Maybe we'll go geocaching again!

Have a good weekend everyone.

[Bear23]

floradora

all that sounds wonderful

i'm sat getting files ready for ofsted x can I come and live with you xx

[loocyloo]

We went out for a curry with friends...ate far too much ... I'm still full.

Woke early this morning and can't get back to sleep, so am going to have a go at imposing some order in the dining room ( aka my 'office' and general dumping ground' ) ..dh wants to decorate ... might take a month to empty it!

Ds needs a new bag for school ... despite me asking since start of holidays, he has only just said his old one is falling apart! And i need some more scrapbooks, blank stickers etc. So am going to have to go shopping :0 (

Floradora-your weekend sounds great. Have fun everyone else. xx

[FloraDora]

We went out for a curry with friends...ate far too much ... I'm still full.

Woke early this morning and can't get back to sleep, so am going to have a go at imposing some order in the dining room ( aka my 'office' and general dumping ground' ) ..dh wants to decorate ... might take a month to empty it!

Ds needs a new bag for school ... despite me asking since start of holidays, he has only just said his old one is falling apart! And i need some more scrapbooks, blank stickers etc. So am going to have to go shopping :0 (

Floradora-your weekend sounds great. Have fun everyone else. xx

I have been there so often with the new bag at the end of the holiday dash! I think they think that their old bag is fine until the new term approaches, often with new trousers, trainers etcc so then old tatty things look different !

We decorated the dining room this holiday- I have a dresser that took an hour to empty! There are just two of us and we looked at all the glasses and crockery we have amassed over the years in amazement so we decided to downsize our collections.....but we need lots of wine glasses if we have a do......what about Christmas, we need 3 gravy boats then! We couldn't do it, I managed to throw out some shot glasses and a chipped trifle bowl, we decorated and it all went back in.......we are intending a 'gap year' type travel, 4 years in the UK and France, in a few years how on earth am I going to reduce my dining acquisitions! Earlier in the year I threw out/ recycled the office and my bedroom and a bit of the loft and feel much better for it - but the dining room contents are so much trickier!

[FussyElmo]

We went out for a curry with friends...ate far too much ... I'm still full.

Woke early this morning and can't get back to sleep, so am going to have a go at imposing some order in the dining room ( aka my 'office' and general dumping ground' ) ..dh wants to decorate ... might take a month to empty it!

Ds needs a new bag for school ... despite me asking since start of holidays, he has only just said his old one is falling apart! And i need some more scrapbooks, blank stickers etc. So am going to have to go shopping :0 (

Floradora-your weekend sounds great. Have fun everyone else. xx

I have 2 pairs of shoes and 2 school bags to get hopefully......

[FussyElmo]

I have 2 pairs of shoes and 2 school bags to get hopefully......

Brought the bags and shoes.

Went to see a red hot chilli peppers and a the foo fighters tribute band last night. Shame it was outside and I dressed as if it was a beautiful summer night. Im still not warm yet.

I decluttered the children's bedrooms again yesterday. I think my children are hoarders I will soon get this out of them not sure why my eldest still had a 100% attendance certificate from primary school she's now at college.

Yes Im one of those awful mums who doesn't keep everything my children get

[loocyloo]

I SOOOOOOOO need to declutter DDs room ... why does she need soooooo many half started craft kits, bits of wool/fabric/paper, pens etc, and thats before we get onto the hair bobbles/alice bands and hairbrush collection! oh, and her dolls that she still plays with, and all the sylvanians ... I'm happy that at 10, she is still a little girl in many ways ( unlike quite a few of her class mates who are only interested in clothes/makeup and pop groups )

i'm incredibly tempted to put it all in a big box and wait until she asks for it!

but if she doesn't ... what do I do with it? I think i'll have to sort it out into piles of craft stuff ... and then resist keeping it myself ( hmmmm ... is that where she gets it from?!! ) hopefully school/nursery will use it!

[FloraDora]

I am tired of reading and altering my work!!
Whilst I sat in my office glued to the screen I noticed that our sunflowers have grown loads this week and are now peeping over into next door - it made me smile because the elderly man who lives there loves it when they do this and he has some big health issues now which is making him a bit sad so I know he will have smiled when they said hello.
This made me think about what I can do with the LO's this week around sunflowers , they always seem to make everyone smile ...so I have spent the last hour painting, pretending I have little control of my paintbrush to see how I can inspire them to make strokes that look vaguely like our garden sunflowers.....that made me think about Van Gogh so I went outside and rummaged to see if I could set up an outside portable art area without easels....which made me think of grand scale....I found some old straw hats.....
So that's my art planning . We can wear the hats and pretend we are Vincent Van Gogh and paint outside on a long piece of paper ......if I provide the sunflower colours it may even look like them...or it will be a lovely creative painting mess of yellow and orange and brown shades! We wiil sprinkle groups of sunflower seeds taken from some early and now died sunflowers over it too, for texture. One LO I know will love taking the sunflower apart, another will have to be watched like a hawk so that they don't go near a mouth. Either way we will have fun!
So now the study work has halted and I am planning an artist focus a month - we have a huge Kandinsky circles on squares in the den so he has to be next which will give an invite to play with circles of different sizes I think and explore colours.
Anyone got some other Master artist focus ideas? I love Lowry, we have one in our living room which I bought on a happy day visiting the Lowry art gallery in Salford Quays ( where my youngest is moving too). So he will be on my list...I love the man on a wall ( not the one in my living room) ...so I think I will use that...we have a big wall locally so we could go and lie on it to aid inspiration about how it feels....I have a local artist's actual painting of some poppies in a field which will be good to introduce women painters ...I will probably do that around November 11th....though it's also good to wait and focus on her next year as My garden is always full of poppies...Mmm dilemma!

It's turned out such a lovely day it has to be spent in the garden I think.....with a cardi on, but ideal to practise what I learn't about macro photography...( I wasn't very good yesterday, eveyone else was a super duper photographer and certainly not a beginner to Macro so I got a bit angst and I am never any good when I feel a bit useless. I shook it off eventually , stayed under the radar and enjoyed it in my own way ) so I am just about to go on a bug hunt!
Happy Sunday.

[Maza]

Loocyloo, I know what you mean about the half finished craft sets! A few months ago I sorted out my dd's room and got out all the craft kits - a different one each day until they were all completed. I find that I pack them away nicely and they are out of sight out of mind and so don't get played with/used and so I had to make a point of setting them out in an inviting place. Other kits you can just get rid of the big bulky box and take out the glue, pot of sequins and ribbon, or whatever and add them to your general supplies.

I can't get rid of lots of pre-school resources as DD still plays with them but also has resources for school aged children too, and so like yours she is in a transition phase which results in twice as many resources!

It does feel like the cuddly toys are taking over sometimes though...

[Maza]

Floradora I would have suggested Lowry if you hadn't said it already! It is one of my favourite 'teaching units' and children always love it. I must admit, the man on the wall isn't one of my favourites - but I love your idea of lying on a wall! Will be copying that idea. I love the Market Place. DD and I worked on our own version of it using huge paper and a lovely HUGE box of brand new Crayola crayons that someone on here recommended. I know Lowry obviously didn't use wax crayons but the shades in the Crayola box were amazing. It dawned on me that DD had never actually been to a market!!! Field trip sorted. Next time we go to visit my sister in Glossop we are going to look at his monument (is that the right word?) So much history to be learned from his paintings- the fashion, the style of the prams...

I think Lowry sounded like such a lovely, respectable man and so I am always happy to be promoting his work. Hubby finds his work depressing, but I find it heart warming. I love the song 'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' too and always introduce that to the children (drives hubby up the wall and used to drive my parents up the wall because my brother and I used to sing it constantly after an older relative introduced us to it as children). I like the 'message' behind Lowry's story - his family and professional artists said that his work was simplistic and wouldn't amount to much, but he refused to change his style.

You have probably seen it already but there is a 'unit of work' online which gives you ideas on drawing buildings in the style of Lowry. Please share your ideas on Lowry as my DD would love to do more.

[Lal]

Just this week my mindees have been fascinated by our Escher print 'Trappenhuis'. I've planned lots of activities relating to steps, up/down, spirals, rolling and using black and white to draw. I've also found an Escher calender from a couple of years ago we can cut up.

[FloraDora]

Floradora I would have suggested Lowry if you hadn't said it already! It is one of my favourite 'teaching units' and children always love it. I must admit, the man on the wall isn't one of my favourites - but I love your idea of lying on a wall! Will be copying that idea. I love the Market Place. DD and I worked on our own version of it using huge paper and a lovely HUGE box of brand new Crayola crayons that someone on here recommended. I know Lowry obviously didn't use wax crayons but the shades in the Crayola box were amazing. It dawned on me that DD had never actually been to a market!!! Field trip sorted. Next time we go to visit my sister in Glossop we are going to look at his monument (is that the right word?) So much history to be learned from his paintings- the fashion, the style of the prams...

I think Lowry sounded like such a lovely, respectable man and so I am always happy to be promoting his work. Hubby finds his work depressing, but I find it heart warming. I love the song 'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' too and always introduce that to the children (drives hubby up the wall and used to drive my parents up the wall because my brother and I used to sing it constantly after an older relative introduced us to it as children). I like the 'message' behind Lowry's story - his family and professional artists said that his work was simplistic and wouldn't amount to much, but he refused to change his style.

You have probably seen it already but there is a 'unit of work' online which gives you ideas on drawing buildings in the style of Lowry. Please share your ideas on Lowry as my DD would love to do more.

Market day here on a Tuesday so what a great idea to do a field trip! We could buy some fruit and veg for lunch, nuts for the birds etc... I understand what you are saying about Lowry being a gentle man- Van Gogh is always a bit difficult to discuss!
I loved his Wales sea pictures in Salford - so different to anything you would imagine him painting. Song is a good idea - and some match stick men pictures with matchsticks I think!
I used to use the unit of works - great reminder thank you, for ideas to scale down.
The National Art Gallery does a series of Picture based units too. But they are all a bit old - for Y2 plus I think.
Thanks for all the ideas.

[FloraDora]

Just this week my mindees have been fascinated by our Escher print 'Trappenhuis'. I've planned lots of activities relating to steps, up/down, spirals, rolling and using black and white to draw. I've also found an Escher calender from a couple of years ago we can cut up.

Another good suggestion- we have some loose stairs that DH made to go with an open plan house he made - they will be perfect to play around with too.
Thanks

[Maza]

Sorry, still wittering on about Lowry...we also tried to recreate a Lowry scene using our shadows on a sunny day. It was really interesting that the children made their bodies/shadows into the shapes that Lowry would have used to paint his pictures. My boys, who were not keen on putting 'pen to paper' at the time built a Lowry scene with the bricks - their idea. I think I mentioned it before - it started off as a Lowry scene and then a few seconds later they decided it was 'Lego Land' instead! My DD also drew on napkins as we read that Lowry used to do that. One Christmas my Yr 1 class did a display in the hall of a Christmas scene in the style of Lowry - it was beautiful. I might get DD to do that this year.

I usually look at Monet's Water-Lily Pond when we do 'The Billy Goat's Gruff' and we talk about different types of bridges. I also like VG's Starry Night and usually link it in with Bonfire Night and looking up into the sky.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to Art and so I would love to hear other people's ideas. I think I'll do some Kandinsky, thanks for the idea Floradora. I will be looking up Escher too!

My DD's nursery used to base their whole terms work around a famous painting. The whole school did (different painting for each year group) as the Head (her words) realised that the children in that catchment area weren't very cultural. Actually, she put it nicer than that but that is what she meant. DD's class did a picture of a girl and her granny (so ignorant myself I can't remember the artist) and their topic was 'Families/All About Me'. In the Summer term they had a seaside painting (not Lowry, lol). We didn't go on to use the school beyond nursery but I wish I had paid more attention to the paintings they used.

[FussyElmo]

Maza a friend worlds in a school and they do something similar but they base the terms planning around a book and everything comes from it. I think its a great idea and am loving the idea of a painting.

I had planned a piece of artwork for my afterschoolies starting back tomorrow now wonder if I can link to a certain artist/painting.

[FloraDora]

The National Gallery's programme is called Take one Picture- I'd put a link in but my elderly Ipad has given up saving links today ( hints for Christmas gift from now on I think) .
Some are a bit dark and gloomy and I think you have to really like something to promote it with children- I can just see a class mesmerised and stimulated with enthusiasm by Lowry through Maza's love of his work!
But The Graham children by Hogarth have caught my fancy as their clothes are obviously so different to now - I think I could go somewhere with this one.

My normal way of linking things is through a book, I focus on one a fortnight but last term I tried using Composers - that went quite well but we just looked at 4. It was nice though that by the end of term the children could recognise the tunes by the first bar! I play classical music quietly during lunch - Childrens choice.

We looked at the Kandinsky starry night in the star gazing week last year Maza - but linking with Bonfire night is a great idea. I teamed it up with the Don McLean song Starry starry night - got the idea from a you tube film.
Now that would be a good idea - artist- composer/ song writer - author links!
Now, what song / tune goes with sunflowers?

Update ! Just asked this question to DH and he immediately suggested a song written by Neil Diamond for Glen Campbell - called sunflower - ️sounds quite catchy!

[loocyloo]

I love the 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm' by Henri Rousseau and not sure if it is actually a painting per se but also love Henri Matisse's 'The snail' we took DD & DS to see it at tate modern when they were both quite little and they were so taken by it - we went on to create lots of block/mosaic type pictures.

DS has always been drawn to 'The Fighting Temeraire' by Turner ever since he was little; to this day, he can't explain why, just that he loves it. I like monets waterlilies, and VG starry night as well, and Lowry. I'm not struck on paintings of people though!

that's one thing I miss about living so far away from London now - no popping up to London for the day, and whiling away the hours in the national gallery ( or occasionally tate modern! ) I remember going lots with the children I nannied for, and one little boy aged 3, lay on his tummy for almost an hour, looking at, and drawing his own version of 'Whistlejacket' - which lead us to spend the next few weeks at assorted stables. luckily he decided he didn't like them to ride or touch, just to watch!

you can get some super sticker books for children, based on famous paintings https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/pr...book/p_1019058 we have these, and even completed, we love looking at them.

and then there are the 'katie' books - when a little girl ends up in paintings https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/pr...wers/p_1038306, oh and the series of books by Laurence Anholts books about Artists ( more for primary school children )

'the dot' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dot-Peter-H-...ywords=the+dot is a super book to encourage anyone to draw.
and this isn't quite an art book either http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lines-That-W...es+that+wiggle - but it has encouraged some of mine to draw a line, and turn it into something ,and the lines in the book are embossed, so it has a sensory aspect.

hmmm - I do love art. I'm thinking I might need to add artists/paintings into my planning! I need more hours in the day! ( to cover everything I want to do with the children, ( not to plan! )