unschooling

painting and drawing

We’ve been trying some online art lessons together. They’ve been really fun, open ended but covering some approaches and materials the kids haven’t tried before. I’ve enjoyed them and I REALLY enjoy watching the kids creating and feeling great about their processes and finished pieces. The lessons talk about colors, perspective, light and shadow, how to use different mediums. So far we’ve used pencils, block and stick crayons, liquid and solid watercolors, and colored chalks. It’s been a good, positive experience for the three of us together. Gavin loves to add science fiction details to his and Lilah likes to add some of her own notions in terms of scenery too. I think the quiet pastoral scenes (that the guided lessons build) with faintly ominous and otherworldly ships and creatures and extra moons Gavin thinks up are hilarious and fantastic!

We’ve also been trying to learn about Japanese animation drawing styles, specifically manga, as requested by Gavin. We found some videos about it and then starting looking for books about manga. Here are a few of the kids’ experiments:

Gavin’s manga drawings

Lilah’s manga drawings

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” -Thomas Merton

unschooling

owls, bison and ghost towns

We’ve been heading further out lately to enjoy the fall weather and look for wildlife and ghost town remains and beautiful views.

Antelope Island is an amazing place to see bison, antelope, birds of all kinds. We found an owl but missed the burrowing owls and plan to go back soon and look again. We had fun looking at the old farm machinery and buildings and spotting so, so many animals.

We drove south to see if we could find the ghost town remains we’ve heard rumors about. It took us two separate trips to find what we were searching for but we got lucky and found a great spot with old mining town remnants. Most of the structures we found were collapsed but Lilah found some pottery, we found some old metal mining cable, and this that was still upright.

I love ghost towns. I love the mystery and romance of them and knowing that what I see today may be gone by next year, or not. I love watching nature regain her territory, root and branches, wind and snow and time.