Birthday girl, flower cake 

what is art? (discuss, in not less that 500 words)

Just been commenting on here, and was tempted to go on a bit so I thought I'd better do it on my own blog!
Basically the question is what is the pont of doing children's sticky leaf collages? which I feel compelled to answer in the best way possible, as I am guilty of this by default as the group I have been running did this activity in my absence, but with my tacit consent ; )
(by the way I'm not trying to be funny, only funny ha ha ; oD. People always seems to take me more seriously than I intended on the computer- I try to be light and fluffy, maybe I neeed a comedy font?)
ok, not wanting to go on or anything ;) but I suppose you could break down 'leaf collage' into learned skills. Here are a few examples:
Dexterity: mangaging glue and brush, not spilling glue, getting the right amount of glue that works (this can later be developed into collages/scrapbooks/gluing anything, mending stuff).
Creative/artistic: composition-where to put leaf? how many? what does the result look like? colours, textures etc.
Botany/science: recognising leaf shapes- which tree? why do they fall? what are viens for? why do they change colour? Seasons- why does it get colder? etc
(I'm not suggeting that any of this is self-consciously taught or learned, only out of doing the activity itself and the questions it may trigger).
I think it just helps create a focus- ie, We think about leaves a little bit more than we would have when we are picking them up, seeking them out, looking for trees with particular colours we may want. And this leads to more questions. Ok this is not completely autonomous, but I dont think anybody can operate in a vaccuum. OK we can spend our whole lives without knowing all that stuff about nature, about the world, but personally, I find it all facinating, and it's that wanting to know, curiosity that I suppose is important.

Plus it's something to do when you havent got a telly!

Ok. here's another way of putting it:
An Ofsted inspector is witnessing a 'science experiment' in a Steiner Kindergarten where frosty leaves are gathered and placed inside, where the frost melts.
Inspector: Where are the results of this experiment recorded?
Teacher: In their souls

Ok, I' not going to question everything else I do with the kids- why skate? why Gym? I think I just felt the need to explain something- that I don't do art with kids for the sake of evidence, which is quite a common assumption, I believe. At least I think I don't. I suppose I don't question it that much, it's just what I do, and I don't think it does any harm. I mean the question only leads to 'what is art?' and 'what is art for?' which I remember having to do an essay on when I was at Art College. I didn't know the answer then. I'm not sure if I do now. But, I just see art as a necessary part of life, however you choose to define it.

wheresme dampyjamas

Well, I didn't end up doing that much today, but I suppose that's what I needed. So after a leisurely morning (porridge at 12), while the kids mooched about in and out of the garden and I caught up on a few forums! (how many more do have have to join!) and tried to sort out the Council tax, grrrr (that's what I was doing all morning, I must have blotted it out of my mind), I finally went shopping with Jem and Maeve, who helped me with the heavy stuff. I quite enjoyed it, and was chuffed with my new pyjamas, very ample and covered in moomin-like cat drawings, plus the bargain £4.99 firework set. It was really nice to have Maeve round for tea- we had pizza and chardonnay. I walked her to the bus stop and didn't nag her once or even interrogate her about college, her flat, etc! (Well I had been round there and she was doing some college work and her flat seems quite together.)
I hope I have sorted the council tax out- I sent them 4 letters, one recorded delivery, so they don't lose it this time.
Fugs played on Cat in the Hat game. Jem was very helpful after the others had gone to bed. She was looking over my shoulder (on the computer) and easily sussed out how to do a couple of (forum) things that I was struggling with!

dampyjamas= Swedish for women's pyjamas

blog birthday!

I just realised I have been blogging for one year today!

remaining calm...

Well I did end up going out yesterday. My back was marginally better and, anyway, Brendan had a telephone interview so would have been a bit of a rush for him to get to the puppet show. I went to open up the group on the way, and it was a good job really, as there was one other person there, but the playgroup woman who has the room before us was very snotty and locked us out until she had finished packing away. We have to get there before she leaves as we don't have a key yet (until we have proved we aren't going to disappear in a few weeks, keeping the key, which a lot of people have done before), but she has paid until the time we start and is trying her hardest to make a stand about this. The centre is not run on this basis and is otherwise very easygoing.
So the puppet play was, well, interactive, but a bit dissapointing as far as I was concerned. We have seen better. Allie was so scared I had to remove him to the entranceway, where a kind lady brought me a chair, so I was able to watch in comfort with my back against a radiator, instead of sitting on the hard floor, with a wriggly child on my lap, which would have done my back in.
We made it back to the group in plenty of time for a tea and chat as the performance was very short. Some people had organised some sticking with nature (collage). We debated whether to carry on every week as there were only 4 families, although that still made 9 children, so it still felt worthwhile. It turns out we can't have the room next week anyway as it is being repaired.
Today we had a quiet day at home (we all needed it) and managed to tidy up the piles of clutter that were in every corner of the living room. So tomorrow, the kitchen?
We did make a model dinasaur out of Fug's dinasaur kit, which was quite fiddly, but quite impressive. Jem did some nice drawing and the both had a go on the show.me.uk website. I take it all back what I said about computers! they are a godsend! but I think Fugs is now old enough to get something out of it now he's 5. They didn't squabble too much today, either. I ordered them some books (need more shelves!).

2 soup

Went to the gym class today- I think they liked it. Managed to do my back in in the park picking up whining toddler. It is worse than I thought and have subsequently been in bath/bed all evening, with hot/cold packs and arnica. Maybe had something to do with spot of mastitis I had at W/e, which I managed to control with hot water bottle, or 'botwater' as said 2-year old calls it.
Just finished the soup I made yesterday, in between painting the front and back doors blue. They were a horrible brown colour- not like wood, more like an Easter egg that gets left in the back of the cupboard because noone can face it, but keep spotting it whilst rummaging for choccie treats. So now the back door is Oxford Blue with a horrible chocolatey-brown frame as I haven't painted it yet- it looks dire. (Maybe I should leave it for halloween, but we don't seem to get anyone here- too scared of the graveyard, perhaps?). Anyway the soup had an 'I am 2' badge in it- i did fish it out yesterday, so hopefully not too poisonous and it was a very big pan. Not sure how it got in there- maybe I shouldn't do DIY and cooking at the same time, but then someone's got to do it.
Another of Allie's new words is 'spoonfork', which means any eating implement. In fact, last night while I was polyfillering he was on about a 'horrid spoonfork' and I said 'where' and he pointed at the plastic spatula I was using! Incidentally, he refered to both my hotpack and cold pack as 'botwater', as well as the hot water bottle.
I don't think I'm going to be up to much tomorrow. So frustrating this back- it just goes and then I'm f***ed. Shame- I've booked to see a puppet show tomorrow- dont think I can sent B with all 3, so won't get a total rest, but will have to cop out of organising the Hebden meeting, o well, sure they can manage. aybe its nature's way of telling me not to do too much. I've been doing a lot lately as the kids have been revolting since the beginning of September, which I put partly down to illness. It is so hard sometimes with their diffrent ages, One being so physically demanding and the others, well, sometimes I just can't turn my back or they fight. So I've been using lots of distraction tactics, which works, up to a point, but it's wearing me out. Time to go into hibernation?

Well, I've got to talk to somebody....

Cat: meeeooow!
Me: Do you want to go out? (opens door)
Cat: (stands there looking confused)
Later.....meeeooow!
Me: Do you want to go out? (opens door)
Cat: (stands there looking confused)
Later...scratch scratch scratch, some paper in the corner of the room
Me: Dont you dare! where are you? Susie, out!

Ok, that wasnt much of a conversation.

Today I had to drive to Huddersfield again to rescue Brendan's car, which had apparently conveniently broken down in a car park, hmmm. I waited till about 5 as he was recovering all afternoon from his long WALK home! (Why he didn't walk to a petrol station I don't really know. The man is a bit of a mystery to me so I don't even go there.) So then I had to do the shopping on the way home so it was after 7 by the time I got back. I still haven't put it away. Now someone's woken up.

conkers

I haven't had time to take any pictures at the Hebden Group, but here are some pics taken at the Skipton music group, where we did corn dollies and conker webs.
A conker web, or spider, is made from a fresh conker with 8 coctail sticks pushed into it around in a circle. It is a good idea to cut off one end of the coctail stick and start the holes with a sharp object (done by adult!). Different coloured wool is wound around in a circle or spiral, widing around each stick as you go. Start with a knot or wind wool around one stick until it holds. Its similar to making 'god's eyes', which can be made using 2 or more crossed sticks and winding round in the same way. To hold the sticks together for this start with a cross, ie, wind several times diagonally across the centre and then the other way, until they are firmly in a cross (or star) shape. multicoloured or space-dyed wool is good for this as you get stripes without having to knot on more wool.
At the Hebden group some people got very creative and started going 3D, adding cocktail sticks at different angles and even more conkers! O, well, it's good to leave room for people to do their own thing!
It is a good idea to do conkers at this time of year, as they haven't become too dried out to make holes easily. Plus its a subtle nature lesson thrown in! We also used the stalks of chestnut leaves to make god's eyes. The other picture is us collecting conkers. They are looking up at the tree as we were being pelted with half-eaten conkers by a squirrel!

Huddersfield

I've been wanting to blog for some time, but the longer I leave it the harder it becomes. Things keep happening and I just dont know how I'm ever going to catch up. So I'm not going to try, (but I have put a few things on my HE journal blog- why did I start so many blogs, I don't have time for just one!). I've ben so busy lately. It seems that now I'm doing proper full time HE my life is so totally hectic and taken over I dont have the time for much else. And my computer time has been spent on Ebay: I've done a bit of decluttering, although you wouldn't know it if you saw inside my house!
And I've been busy starting our new HE group in Hebden, which has been going well. A lot of the children are quite young and seem to do a lot of charging around, which can get a bit wearing after 3 hours, but I did mange to improve things a bit this week, by having some building bricks, etc to play with and arranging rugs, toys and furniture stratigically around the room, in such a way as to mimimise charging around space. And opening the door into the garden! We did some wet on wet painting, which was great and created a few minute's peace as well! I have left some drawing stuff there, which can be got out every week. Last week we did corn dollies and conker webs and this week there was leaf rubbing, leaf printing (with hammers, oops, a bit noisy!), and clay, incorporating natuaral materials eg, pine cones and beech nuts to make pixies with hats (limited uptake on the pixies! but you wont stop me trying!). I have rooted out some largish weaving frames and miles of binding tape in the garage, I have some smaller weaving frames somewhere...? and oodles of wool. (Hopefully this should declutter my home some more!).
As you may have gathered, there is quite a strong creative bias to this group, although is was my aim to get together families who were HEing within a 2 mile radius and had never met! Well, I hope this goes alright for everybody else, but it's what I enjoy doing best and what I'm skilled in so why not. Plus its in an Arts Centre, so it should fit it there. Maybe I should call it an art and craft group and attract people from further away. I'm all for children developing their creativity- it's such a vital part of life and there's plenty to be learned through making stuff, etc. Plus it's fun, well I think so. I'm quite excited by it all, really. There is also a room with computers with broadband access and a very old friend of mine on hand to show people the ropes. (am I plugging this or what?). I need to find out some more ideas for group activities (come on, you can do it, there is a community artist in you somewhere!). Planning a visit to the Scrapstore in Halifax to get some free materials.
(I'm not getting a minute's peace here- since I started writing, Brendan phoned up to say his car had broken down in Huddersfield, the cat started pestering me for no apparent reason and somebody has been wandering around upstairs)
Where was I? Today we went to a group in Huddersfield with the theme of Egyptians. I thought I knew nothing about this until I remembered I actually went to Egypt many years ago, so I got out my old photo's and showed the kids yesterday. (They struggled with the concept of photo's that weren't stored on the computer so I had to explain how we used to do it!). I don't think they quite knew what to make of the crocodile embalming/mummifying activity, which was very impressive. But Jem liked the belly dancing and the great story-telling.
Last week we went skating and Jem wants to go every week now! Not sure how this will work with the others unless I leave her and take them to the National Museum of Photography, round the corner, and which they really liked. We didn't get that far in the hour left I had in the car park: The animation bit where they have some original Wombles and the Smash ad robots (had to get another oblique reference to Huddersfield in there!)