Art & Artists in the Garden: Claude Monet

 I try not to play favorites, but when it comes to studying artists with children, Claude Monet is definitely in my top ten! I love that Monet returned through his paintings to the same scene repeatedly --I think this can instill a reverence for the beauty of repetition and practice in children. I don't necessarily favor his sense of perfectionism (though I can relate to it on a personal level). And although Monet was known for his paintings, I love to study his works with children using mixed mediums.



I simply cannot get enough of Monet's paintings of the Japanese bridge. And since it is one sight he returned to repeatedly over the course of many seasons and many years, I decided we make this an art study we returned to over the course of many days. Breaking up a project or art activity into several days' work does a few things.

• it allows for drying time and the use of a variety of techniques and art mediums
• it conveys a sense of importance in children's art: you do not need to "produce" something that you "finish" right away, rather, you can return to your work as the inspiration strikes and add on as you see fit
• it conveys a sense of value in the time spent to create art in general--this is not a rushed process, but rather a process led by desire and inspiration

For our study we used:

• stretched canvas
• tempura paint
• Q-tips
• Cotton balls
• Clothes pins
• blue cardstock
• scissors
• floral patterned fabric scraps
• sequins
• rhinestones 
• flower, butterfly and bug stickers
• white glue
• paint brushes
• Mod Podge* (I did this part for the boys)

You can use any or all of these materials and add in your own ideas as well.

On day 1, I set out blank canvases, a print of Monet's work and my own interpretation. Along with that, each boy's station was set with a pallet of tempura paints in red, yellow, blue, green, white and black and some Q-tips for painting with. Although this work was not done with the technique of Pointillism, I love the use of Q-tips for painting with little hands of all ages and levels. 

Speaking of little hands, these boys got really hands on (and elbow deep) with their painting! And that was great! We keep wipes and rags nearby and particularly S, who is rather averse to getting painty, was quite enthralled with the sensation that morning so we went with it. I encouraged them to fill the canvas with color, but let them explore the means by which they did so independently.

Mixing colors, getting dirty, trying different strokes and techniques were all encouraged! There are many right ways to fill a canvas and even white space was allowed. I am often hesitant to set out my own "example" of a piece of art as I don't want to sway the process of process art. I do on occasion provide one and one reason that I do make these exceptions is that I also don't like to talk a lot during process art experiences. I find that when we truly work from a "blank canvas" state, I lean toward explaining more and I'd rather explain less. Certainly, process art in its own right requires no explanations or samples. In its truest form, it is wholly a child-led experience from the selection of materials to how they are used to what is created. In these "hybrid" versions of art experience in which I aim to invite the children to create something in a particular theme or style, I like to use objects to channel that lens. This may be an actual work of art or a still life object/collection of objects and/or my own example.

On the second installment (which we actually did that afternoon), we glued on our pre-cut cardstock Japanese bridge. I did this in advance so the glue would be dry and the boys could get right to painting. I have also seen versions of this painting replicated with children using masking tape for the bridge and the children paint over the tape. When the tape is removed, a resist remains in which the space shaped like the bridge is left white. This would be another lovely way to explore this work (you would incorporate that in the first day rather than at this point).

This time, still working loosely within the technique of pointillism, I decided to create some clothespin brushes with pompoms in two sizes, one smaller and one larger. Simply pinching a pompom or cotton ball between the clothespins will make your paintbrush. They are great for dabbing, dotting, or schmearing and streaking! I especially love the small size of these brushes for developing hands. Shorter utensils are infinitely easier for little hands to control (think golf sized pencils, etc.).

Y, as usual, went at it with gusto. He dabbed and dotted his bridge and even the canvas around it. I loved the effect of layering new paint on the dried paint! Particularly with tempura paints as opposed to their more permanent and bold acrylic or oil counterparts, using many layers goes a long way toward brightening the results. S, ever the minimalist, added one dab to a corner of his bridge!

After their work had dried, I added a layer of Mod Podge to seal the paint and the cardstock collage. The canvas was now ready for our final installment, stickers, fabric, sequins and rhinestones.

On my own version, I only added some flower stickers, but by the time the boys were ready for this step, I thought, why not add in a few other options and some glue--especially for my younger artist who can't yet peel his own stickers off, but can paint glue just about everywhere and stick stuff on it!

My sister was truly a Francophile growing up, and I remember her carrying around a toy doll that looked like Linnea from Christina Bjork's book Linnea in Monet's Garden. Years later, she would spend a semester abroad in France and became fluent in French! This book, now translated by Joan Sandin with its incredible illustrations by Lena Anderson, is one of my favorite ones in our collection. It tells the story of a young girl visiting Paris and seeing many of the infamous sights of Monet's paintings and life in her travels. It is quite wordy for the preschool years, but S enjoyed some time on my lap picking and choosing parts to hear read aloud and for days afterward, he carried that book everywhere we went. I'm not sure if it was the illustrations that drew him in or knowing how much his aunt liked it as little girl. We even took it along with us in the car on our way to the local botanical gardens here where we visited a real Japanese garden and even saw a similar bridge.

 I hope that both boys were as pleased with the results of their work as I am! All three of our paintings now hang on display. S's is pictured on the left and Y's on the right. Y had some help from his Mommy maneuvering some of the stickers, fabric and loose parts, and S placed and positioned the bicycle sticker after he decided it didn't belong on his own painting but did belong on his brother's.

Although this is a wrap-up of our Art & Artist's theme in this series, we will surely be revisiting artists inspired by gardens and nature throughout our summer at Sprout Scouts Playcamp. This week, we are busy with butterflies, bees and other bugs and insects. Art is an integral part of all that we do here, and we have even been integrating some travel art activities and messy art activities outdoors. We'll be back soon to tell you all about it and more!  Until then...

Happy Playing!

Photo Friday: B"H, The Kids Are OK--And Other Lessons I Accidentally Learned as a FTG (First Time Gardener)

Today's post is a little bit different than my usual play activities with kids. Today, I'm welcoming you for a tour of my garden and how it drove me [a surprisingly short distance] absolutely crazy this summer...

The character Cliff Clavin from Cheers' once said "There's a fine line between gardening and madness." This spring after two summers of biting off more than I could chew in an attempt to bestow a love of gardening and green thumbs onto my children, I announced to my husband that I would only plant one or two things this year. Our first season here, I went bonkers with seeds and by the end of it, we had a decent harvest of cherry tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, peppers, beans and peas. But it was hot and miserable and after a while, I lost my gusto for gardening altogether. The remaining tomatoes went to seed surprising us with a forest of those little red buggers the next year. And the lettuce that bolted also made a reappearance early the next spring, when again, I went a little bit bonkers planting seeds only to give up as soon as I got too hot to schlep buckets of water outside. We have no hose hook-up and southern summers are hot and often dry.

I am a big believer in outdoor play and fresh Vitamin D, but I'm also realistic that no matter how much time and effort I put into setting up our play garden and growing my Nature-based Playgroup, there usually comes a point in the summer season at which I become a recluse and return to the comfort of my air conditioned home. So when I said I was only going to plant maybe one or two things this year, I meant it. Even as I left the hardware shop with five packets of vegetable seeds, I still meant it. And when I brought our double stroller with Y fast asleep and an empty seat plus two cup holders and the bottom basket reserved for starter plants and herbs at our Botanical Gardens annual Spring Plant Sale, I still meant it.

Those "one or two" seedlings started off really well...starter plants were a wise investment, because those gave me some instant gratification, and who doesn't like to gain an early harvest? But a week of torrential downpours and intense storms found our kitchen turning into a Displaced Plant Refugee Camp. I started waking up in the middle of the night worrying about my plants and that's when I realized a few things:

• Thank G-d, the kids are OK! If all I'm worrying about in the middle of the night is my garden, life is pretty good. I've finally surpassed the awkward years of FTM (First Time Mom) and transitioned into a FTG (First Time Gardener).

• I think I might have miscalculated when I said one or two things, but math was never my strongest subject...

and

• I think I like gardening!

but, I also think that maybe, just maybe, I've begun to step over that fine line between gardening and madness. And here's a few ways you can tell if, perhaps, you have, too:

• Thinning beets was as emotional a milestone as my son's upshernish. The only difference is that I ate the micro-greens....

• Radishes are super easy to grow and provide a harvest in just a matter of weeks. Unless you are me, and then, somehow, you are on your fourth attempt to grow anything but radish greens this summer...

• I ugly cried over a sunflower and a watermelon plant. Yeah, you read that right. I cried for like 45 minutes on July 4th because a certain member of our family who was very excited about some new gardening tools over-zealously trampled over our tallest sunflower and his beloved watermelon plant. Ever the optimist, he released the following statement: "But Mommy, watermelon plants are supposed to be floppy; they're vines!" 

Yes, little man, they are vines and vines are floppy. But even vines are supposed to remain attached to their roots...

• You may have crossed the line when you want to bring your container garden with you on vacation. Mobility is one of the great luxuries of growing an edible garden in containers, right? So is it so weird that I wanted maybe just to bring one or two of my favorite plants along on a road trip to New York City? Would it have been so odd to ask my garden sitter for just a photo or two or 459 of how my babies, I mean, plants were doing? Maybe we should just invest in a simple webcam system to, you know, keep an eye on things. I pulled one aphid off the squash plants before we left. One aphid. He could be calling 62 of his very best friends over for a dinner party as we speak....

• Less than an hour before Shabbos is the perfect time to tend to garden emergencies. So we got home from our road trip and after 10 hours in the car, with less than an hour until Shabbos, I saw our next tallest sunflower had flopped to the side while we were away. Yes, this was an emergency situation. No, the garden shop was not open this late. Yes, I was willing to forgo a shower and even meals for the next two days (thank you, amazing husband who already did most of the cooking in advance and Instant Pot for the fresh chicken soup). Now, what to use to stake up my sunflowers? Knitting needles and twine, of course! "Knot" bad, huh?

• Everyone worries about fertility sometimes. Some of us even obsess a little, and that's normal. Stepping outside at 7AM even before your morning coffee with a watercolor brush in hand to pollinate your yellow squash, mini pumpkin and mixed gourd flowers is also normal. Hand pollinating all male flowers is not normal. And also not effective. The good news is that the ladies have arrived! And so, too, have the actual [wiser] pollinators...

• You're going to Google things you never imagined you would Google. Weird things like "why are my pumpkin flowers all boys?" and "will my strawberry plant have more berries this summer?" and "why don't I have any radishes?" and "is it bad to release ladybugs not hatched in an insectory?" and "is there any way to put a broken watermelon plant back together?" (Incidentally, no, there is no way to put a broken watermelon plant back together...)

• "Maybe you're going about it the wrong way" my husband posited as I confessed my level of worry and concern over the garden one night. So and so already had cucumbers and tomatoes and zucchini and our cucumber died, our tomatoes were green and our squash flowers were having a hard time finding a shidduch. The apartment down the hill had sunflowers all the way up to their second story windows already in bloom and my two foot tall stalk was being held up by bamboo knitting needles and twine... And if radishes are so easy to grow, why have we had three cops of radish tops this year?? Maybe the soil was too wet. Maybe it's root rot. Maybe the greenhouse is too hot. Maybe I should have thinned them sooner. Maybe I would just plant seeds one more time and do NOTHING AT ALL. Famous. Last. Words. What Jewish mother does nothing at all? I can't very well water the chives right next to them and not give them anything! 

But my husband may have been right this time. Oy. He's going to read this and know that I said that. I hope it doesn't go to his head. Enjoying gardening should be, well, enjoyable. And it is! I love my morning inventory walk. I love seeing my kids out there--the human ones, too. I love the irony of pulling a suddenly dead succulent out of our Please Touch the Plants Garden only to discover that the succulent right next to it had a little baby! Kind of makes you want to start belting out "The Circle of Life," but after three days of painting pollen over my all-male flowers, I should probably lay low out back in case the neighbors are watching...

And gardens are a circle of life. Or a square. Or a massive blob in all directions... I planted these seeds to show my children a place where things can grow and flourish and inspire awe. Where G-d's miracles are visually present. Where it's OK to do everything right and still fail. Where it's also OK to do nothing at all and still succeed. Like so many aspects of life, gardening gives us the illusion that we are in control. That plants need us to grow and thrive and in reality, they don't. Ever seen a weed? And it's nice to feel in control. It's nice to feel needed. It comes with a burden but it also gives back, each and every time I carry in the latest harvest. And sure, I wonder why my peppers are so small or if I should have left that tomato on the vine a few more days or if I missed the boat with those radishes this year. 

But I also am amazed that a zinnia I cut and put in water over three weeks ago is still fresh and bright whereas store bought flowers wither after just a few days. And I'm biting into arugula that bites back with flavor. And it's kind of a nice break to wake up at 4AM worrying about my beets and carrots instead of S and Y... In a few hours, we will all be awake taking that morning inventory stroll in the garden, marveling at the wonder of it all, watching in amazement and anticipation. This is the stuff that salads and memories are made of and that is why, no matter what, I'll always plant "one or two things" each year!

Art & Artists in the Garden: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir has always been one of my favorite Impressionists! Impressionism is one of my favorite artistic techniques to introduce to children. The idea that art need not be an exact representation of what the artist sees, but rather an impression of the vision or even the feeling behind it is a beautiful way to empower young artists toward creativity without the restrictions of perfectionism. Pointillism, or the technique of creating impressionistic paintings through the use of many patterned dots, was a style that derived from Impressionists like Renoir. Although he was not known himself for this technique, I took my own artistic license in introducing it to my boys as we
explored his famous painting "A Girl with a Watering Can."

We used canvas this time and I love using canvas with children. If you can hold out for flash sales on multi-packs at your art supply store, this is a great medium to have on hand. Eager artists will love the opportunity to work on such a "grown up" surface and even those less prone to art projects and activities tend to be drawn to them when "real materials" are provided as opposed to the standard paper and crayons. I love stretched canvas already on frames because they are sturdy and ready to hang and display. I also provided a plastic pallet (available from art supply stores, Dollar Tree or online) with red, yellow, blue, green, black and white tempura paints. Acrylic paints would definitely give a bolder color, but I opted for something more washable since I had this set out at breakfast time.

Lastly, I set out a print of the original work. S got such a kick out a painting depicting a girl about his own age doing something he likes to do, watering the garden! I decided that using photos of the boys would be a wonderful way to capture that feeling on canvas.




I set one pallet on a recycled sushi tray and a few Q-tips. I wanted to invite and encourage mixing colors. I did not provide a sample this time, though I did discuss and demonstrate using the Q-tip for "dotting" and S immediately noted that you can also make lines and swirls and whirls! Y enjoyed using his fingertips for dotting as well.
Neither boy "filled the page" in the end and that was OK. I aim to not fear white space anymore than I fear a space that is covered from corner to corner! The final step once the paint had dried was to glue on a photo of each boy in his "garden" background. I painted a layer of Mod Podge overtop to seal everything in place. You could intentionally photograph your children holding a watering can if you wish or even add a picture of one. We left it simply "as is" and proudly displayed the results in our family gallery.

I love these little pallets (from Dollar Tree) because they store beautifully in a ziplock sandwich bag. No paint goes to waste and you can rinse and reuse once you get to that point!

We'll be back soon! Happy Playing!

Art & Artists in the Garden: Pablo Picasso

I honestly do not remember a whole lot about the decor in my childhood homes growing up. I do remember a few particularly unique needle-points handmade by my grandmothers and I also remember a poster print of Pablo Picasso's "Bouquet of Peace."

The artist originally did this piece in watercolor and it was later printed as a color lithograph. As a child, it's childlike simplicity really appealed to me. This was a wonderful piece to invite my own children to study Picasso as we simultaneously began to enjoy vases full of blooms and foliage cut from our own garden!

I wanted to include mixed mediums in our study. Since the piece depicts a set of hands, I also wanted it to be truly hands on. We used white card stock, a rainbow pallet of washable ink, a couple of shades of green marker and black tempura paint.

I prepped each paper in advance with green lines for stems. This is a step that older children can do independently and even Y can master a marker in his own right. If you want to keep it genuinely a process art experience, leave out this step altogether. I did set out a tray of dark and light green markers so the boys could add foliage and other details and accents. I set this out at the same time as the ink pad, but left the painted hand-print as a final step. You can also set out the ink and markers separately if you prefer. I did make a sample version of this (hey, a Momma's gotta have fun, too, right?) but I really encouraged the boys to use the materials as they wished. Fingers, thumbs, even whole hands in the ink pad were a-OK!

And on that note, here's my little shpiel about messy art. Y is a hands on and hands in artist right now. S is a bit more reserved with certain textures and materials, though given time and space and reassurance (and access to wipes or a wet washcloth), he will go elbow deep! Messy art is GREAT! It is good and healthy for children to experience textures and sensations associated with art and play. It can be overwhelming for the adults involved (particularly if you are sensitive to getting dirty or particularly cautious about messes in your home). Children sometimes intuit our adult anxieties over this and many children have aversions or reservations about messy play and art with or without adult input involved. As children grow, their feelings about these sensory experiences may change. A child who loved to fingerpaint at the age of 2 may be hesitant by the age of 4 and vice versa. Here are a few things to consider:

• Check in with yourself and your own level of messy art anxiety. If doing a messy project indoors is too overwhelming, take it outside. Summer is a great time to get messy, get out the hose and spray clean! I'm actually in the process of plotting and planning messy art afternoons outdoors for us at least once a week if I can. Alternatively, use a cheap shower curtain or vinyl tablecloth to contain the space in which you do messy art. And breathe! Talk yourself through it if need be so you can model the language about messes being OK and people and things being washable. 
• Prepare for the worst and expect the best! A little bit of mindful preparation can go a long way. Having a large space prepared with a drop cloth as previously mentioned can help. Having wipes or wet rags already set out so that messy hands don't need to reach far for them is also helpful. Smocks or cover ups for the children and for you can reduce stains on clothing. Dressing for messy art might also mean choosing something to wear that can withstand a few splotches of paint or ink. And think ahead! Where will children need to go to wash their hands when they are done? If your hands are also covered in paint, you might want to first wash your own, and then assist others. If a step stool is needed or assistance with the faucet, you'll want your own hands to be available for the task. I like to have children "hold their own hands" together as they walk to the sink so they don't accidentally paint the whole world within their path. Another thing to consider is where you will place wet artwork to dry. It is helpful to have an out of reach space already prepared and covered to contain finished work until it is ready to be displayed.

• Take your time. Don't do a messy project when you're short on time. You'll likely also be short on patience and there's nothing worse than feeling rushed. Allow time for children to dive in or slowly dip one toe (or finger) in at a time. Allow time for clean up and a smooth transition. And have something planned, perhaps even in another space, for when the activity is done so that you have the time and space to handle any residual mess.

I love that each of my boys had their own way to express themselves through the ink, markers and paint. S even dictated a little bit about his process and asked me to write it down on a sticky note:

"I am making green leaves. This is not a stem, it's a whole branch that fell down!" Y loved making dots with the markers and dragging his ink covered fingers across the stems. This is such a sweet little keepsake and would make an adorable gift or greeting card for loved ones. For now, our "Bouquets of Peace" are displayed in the family gallery and we will be back with a beautiful rendition of Renoir's "A Girl With A Watering Can" in our next post. Until then...

Happy Playing!

Art & Artists in the Garden: Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse is a fabulous artist to study with children. He worked in a variety of mediums from painting to printing to sculpture and even cut paper collage. And cut paper collage was just the perfect medium for us to explore his work with flowers!

Children of all ages can create cut paper collage. For younger ones or with multiple ages, you may wish to pre-cut your paper pieces. Older children can definitely cut their own and with these abstract shapes, there really is no going wrong.

 I set our table with a print of the original work, glue with a couple of brushes and a variety of shapes in a rainbow of colors to glue onto the large white construction paper. S, ever the minimalist, glued on four flowers because "I'm 4!" Y, ever the opposite in style, glued on as many as he could!

You could keep your set up as simple as this one or include markers for added detail. I love using a variety of sizes of paper for our artist studies. This was a larger scale project and you could go even larger than this and make it a collaborative work if you wish.

With larger scale works, table top space can be more limiting. This size did work at our space, but you might consider working at a larger horizontal space, on the floor or even vertically on a wall. You could definitely bring this outdoors as well, though you'd want to make sure it's not too windy or that you otherwise secure your smaller pieces either by storing them in a bag or a deep enough tray or basket that they won't blow away!

I love the primary and secondary colors in this work! It is a bright and cheerful addition to our growing family gallery. While many great works of art inspired by nature depict it in ways that are more exact and anatomically accurate, it is so important and beneficial to also expose young children to modern and abstract artwork. Modern artists portray ways in which the imagination leads a person to paint, sculpt or otherwise recreate the feeling he or she has upon seeing something in nature. For younger artists, this gives a great deal of room for expression through art that need not be "perfect" or "exact." Children who are more prone to perfectionism in their work will get great joy and build confidence when exploring within this framework.





 I would also note here that even with children more prone to "minimalism" like my older one, it can be helpful to resist the urge to push them to add more. Yes, sometimes a child leaving a project is due to lack of interest or a desire to move to another activity. I try to leave our materials out and available at least for the duration of our morning for this reason. However, many times a child who "only glues four pieces onto his collage because he is 4" is genuinely intentional in doing so--just as intentional as the one who glues a bazillion on!

We will return with a great activity to explore artist Pablo Picasso and his classic painting that depicts a simple and colorful bouquet of flowers. Until then....happy playing!

Art & Artists In The Garden: Vincent van Gogh

We have been busy here! Between activities at home, around town and a trip to New York and back, summer has been packed full of all kinds of fun. A Sprout Scout is always prepared to find the beauty in nature, whether that is a morning inventory in our own garden, a stroll through the park or a burst of sunflowers popping up in the median of a busy Brooklyn street. And speaking of beauty in nature, many of the world's greatest artists find their greatest inspiration outdoors. One of our favorite play themes at Sprout Scouts Playcamp this summer has been Art & Artists in the Garden. Our themes are all great individually explored in succession or "a la carte" style (which is somewhat how we've done things here). Art and artist studies have a wonderful compliment to all of our outdoor exploration and experimentation. And the more we explore, the more ideas we gather to express through art! This week I will take you through a few of of our artist studies in a series of shorter posts with some great art activities that are wonderful for a variety of age ranges.

We'll begin today with a couple of activities we did with artist Vincent van Gogh:

Starry Night: When we think about the beauty of nature, many of us envision images during daylight. Many of nature's most glorious sights are visible only at night, however! Stars, the moon, fireflies and a wealth of unique nocturnal animals only come out after the sun has set. Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is one of his most famous paintings. A canvas print hangs in our bedroom, so to provide some inspiration to draw upon (pun intended), I set it on the kids' table along with some dark blue card stock and chalk pastels in selected shades of yellow, white, green and other shades and hues that are present in the original work.

The boys are free to explore the materials at their own pace, in their own way, and even in their own space (hence the fact that S has moved to the bigger table away from his younger brother's eager hands). Y loved exploring the colors freely on the blue paper. S decided to draw a rocket ship with fire underneath. I do not instruct with these studies. I do provide a print of an original work and explain a bit about it. I might provide my own sample as well, but I always allow the boys to create in their own way. Sometimes S will have some words to go with his artwork. In those instances, I love sticky notes to capture his statement so that I am not writing directly on his work.




Van Gogh's Sunflowers: Oh, do we ever love sunflowers here, and so did Van Gogh! I decided to use collage as the medium with which to explore this great painting of a vase of sunflowers. I set each space with a square of blue card stock for the background, torn brown card stock for the table, and a selection of pre-cut shapes for the vase (in shades of cream and light brown), dark brown circles for the center of the flowers and yellow tissue paper for the sunflower petals at each spot. A second middle tray was set with shades of green oil pastels for leaves and a container of glue with paint brushes. The boys could then have at it while gleaning inspiration from a pail of artificial sunflowers, a print of the original work and a sample of my own interpretation.

 Y loved exploring the glue and coloring, laying some tissue paper flat and scrunching it a bit, too. He needed a bit more support than S, who was quite busy neatly arranging the different parts to create a "sunflower house" like in the children's book by Eve Bunting, also titled Sunflower House.

Our Museum: One of our favorite family field trips this summer has been to our area's museum of fine arts. It is so wonderful for children--even young children--to experience the great works of art on display in a museum. I highly recommend adding a trip like this to your own summer bucket list if location and time provide! Displaying your children's artwork in unique ways at home can also convey the importance of art, not to mention the importance of their art. We have gradually been converting our stairway wall into a family gallery with our artist studies this summer. It brings all of us such joy to see our family museum as we go up and down the stairs. And while the kids' art is represented in nearly every room of this house, it is especially lovely to see it so thoughtfully and intentionally displayed!





We will be back tomorrow with a colorful study on artist Henri Matisse... Until then, happy playing!

Sprout Scouts Playcamp: Stellar Sunflowers

We've talked about the whimsy of tiny little wonders in the garden, but what about the glory of garden giants? We kind of have a thing for sunflowers this year! It began with this incredible sunflower patch at our local botanical garden center and continued with some sunflower seeds planted in our own garden. Of the seeds we planted, three sprouts emerged, standing in ascending size order. One of those natural garden lessons occurred this past week when a certain young gardener, S, got a little carried away with some garden tools and accidentally caused the demise of the tallest of our growing sunflowers. The remaining two are catching up to their tallest friend's legacy, now with newfound exposure to sunlight that undoubtedly their eager counterpart was stealing for himself! Even the sad parts of gardening pass onward to reveal hidden blessings. Patience, acceptance of mistakes and hope are all lessons safely learned in a play garden!





As our Sprout Scouts Playcamp continues our exploration of Art & Artists in the Garden, sunflowers took center stage this week in a study in still life and collage based on the work of Vincent Van Gogh.

Our "Morning Work" table was set with a print of Van Gogh's interpretation of sunflowers, our own arrangement of silk sunflowers and a variety of colored card stock, yellow tissue paper, oil pastels in shades of green and white glue for each of the boys to create their own work of art inspired by these stellar blooms! Our family gallery proudly displays all of the works of art we have completed and observed and both boys love to see it hanging as much as they love the process of contributing to it!



We checked out Eve Bunting's Sunflower House from our botanical gardens' library a few weeks ago and that (along with plenty of visits to their sunflower patch) inspired our "sunflower playhouse."
Last night after the boys were in bed, I got out our fort building kit, some tablecloths, play silks, blankets, clothes pins and plenty of silk sunflowers, I set up an indoor sunflower house for the boys to play, read and snuggle up in. This time of year, Shabbos is very long and with our current heatwave, much of that time is spent inside. I thought this would be the perfect way to add a little fun and whimsy to our family time together this weekend and the boys were thrilled this morning!

Y quickly got busy planting flowers in our DIY Garden Planting Set and then headed to the kitchen set to whip up some pretend soup to serve in the house. S decided we needed more decorations and gathered some pipecleaners and more flowers to hang and display. He also spent some time gathering baby dolls and blankets to put to sleep in the sunflower house and then added a spider finger puppet to the scene! I think we will all have fun playing in here this Shabbos. Waiting for our own sunflowers to grow and grow and hopefully bloom is hard--but this wonderful and whimsical replica of a sunflower house will tide us over as we wait...

Happy Playing!