Art through books – what could be better!  There are 17 chapters divided into three parts covering elements of art, principles of design and artistic styles.  Looking at the book, I think that each chapter would equate to one or possibly two sessions.  Each chapter includes an explanation of the element or principle, fine art examples to show the children (you have to find these yourself, they aren’t included in the book) and book recommendations.

The first chapter is on ‘line’.  We talked about how artists use line and read Mirette on the High Wire: here, the artist has changed the angle of the high wire to reflect how the protagonists are feeling.  When Mirette is first learning to walk the rope and is often falling off, it is shown in sharp diagonals.  In contrast, when Bellini and Mirette are walking the rope successfully, it is horizontal.

We then did one of the suggested activities in the book: using strips of paper to make a picture.  The book gave examples of horizontal, vertical and criss-cross lines – both Edward and Isaac thought the criss-cross lines looked the most fun!  This activity was also great for fine motor skills as it required the boys to draw lines with a ruler then cut the strips carefully.

What fascinated me about this project was that although Edward and Isaac both chose to do a criss-cross pattern, the outcome was completely different from each of them.  Edward placed his strips in a star-like pattern

whereas Isaac placed one diagonal strip one way then all of the others across it in the other direction.

I love this look of concentration – cute!

The really exciting thing about this project is that we – spontaneously – came across another example of artists using line while reading Always Room for One More today.

This isn’t one of the books suggested in Teaching Art with Books Kids Love but it should be!  The artist has used line to create most of the characters, buildings and other features in the book in a really interesting way:

After reading it, Edward had a go at creating his own picture using the same technique

Here is the detail of the man.  I think he’s done really well with this!

I’m really looking forward to further sessions with this book.  I’m thinking that we may try to use this as well as Artistic Pursuits…but I may be running away with myself here (it has been known!).

Anyway, we’ve continued on ‘bare minimum’ since Christmas, although I can feel myself emerging from the newborn stage so I think next week should see the beginnings of a return to something approaching normality.

We had also started the Jolly Phonics workbooks and continued to work through those, one sound per day.  We gradually worked through the seven books throughout the year but by September (after a long break over summer), Edward was becoming more resistant to doing the workbooks, mainly because he increasingly disliked the writing.  This led to several clashes between us (of the type where Edward was ‘daydreaming’ and not concentrating and I reacted with impatience, so entirely my fault for not handling the situation correctly).  Andrew and I discussed what to do and eventually decided to stop the Jolly Phonics books for a while: we were both concerned that if we pushed it too much, Edward could switch off learning, or certainly writing (as, apparently, is common in boys).  Instead, I decided to try and follow his interests to try and spark some excitement for reading and writing so I asked him if he would like to write his own I Spy book (this was his greatest passion at the time and his most prized possession was his On the Motorway I Spy book).  The change was amazing!  He would actually ask to do the book and showed more excitement about doing it than almost any other ‘school work’ we had done before that time.  I made a proper book for him (with a cardboard cover and sewn binding) and he would draw the item on the page (a road sign or similar) then tell me what the caption would be.  I would write the caption on the whiteboard and he would copy it into his book.  Ironically, this involved much more writing than the Jolly Phonics books ever had but he didn’t mind at all because it caught his interest (italics for my benefit so when I re-read this I am reminded of this fact for future reference!).

We finished the I Spy book just before Carys was born and between then and Christmas, we really only did reading practice.  We had read a few of the BOB books, which he enjoyed because they gave him a sense of satisfaction in finishing a whole book but we needed to move onto something a little more challenging.  I have a selection of early readers but the ones that took Edward’s fancy were the Peter and Jane books.  Although they don’t follow a phonics approach, they really are great early readers.  The text starts off simply but still with some interest value and the pictures are lovely.  We have chuckled a few times at the cultural differences between the time they were written and now (one day, Edward asked me ‘where are their Mum and Dad?’ and it’s true – Peter and Jane go to the shops, the beach, on the bus, to the park and all without any sign of their parents, which I suppose was the norm at the time they were written) but they have been the key to Edward really ‘taking off’ with reading.  Perhaps we started reading them just at the time that reading was clicking with him anyway but it’s been wonderful to see him gain in confidence and with that, enjoyment of reading.  It’s also been interesting (and gratifying!) to see how much of the Jolly Phonics instruction he took in.  When reading, he will often say   ‘oh that’s the magic ‘e” or ‘when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking’ so despite not showing much enjoyment of the Jolly Phonics workbooks, they have obviously helped him to learn to read.

The final piece of this jigsaw has been the Jolly Phonics CD-ROM.  I can’t speak highly enough of this CD: it’s has three levels of difficulty (so Isaac has been able to try some of the games at the ‘Easy’ level and Edward can try the ‘Medium’ or ‘Hard’ level) and a huge variety of games, each one targeting a different aspect of phonics or reading.  The boys both love playing it, it’s been a real help during those moments of disorganisation with a newborn in the house (‘You can play with the Jolly Phonics CD while I change Carys’ nappy’) and it really has helped advance Edward’s reading and Isaac to begin to learn the letter sounds.

So, as Edward is about to turn 6, I can say he is a confident and happy reader.  He enjoys reading signs while we are out, leaflets that arrive with the post, labels on food items, words in books I am reading to him – anything really.  Learning to read has been a huge confidence boost for him and for me, probably the most enjoyable thing we’ve done up to now, in educational terms.  After Christmas, I suggested to Edward that we could start Jolly Phonics Pupil Book 2 (the Pupil Books seem to have replace the workbooks – Book 2 is for children who have covered all of the sounds and are progressing to the next stage) and he has been enjoying the work, so I think we’ve overcome the negativity about writing too. I’m hoping we can achieve the same success with Maths in the rest of this academic year – but more about that in another post!