LACMA

When I first heard about the kid's membership at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art I was very excited, but a little skeptical.  Free trips to the museum as long as my kids were under 18?  It sounded too good to be true! 

We recently made our first trip using our Nexgen membership cards and I can't stress enough how great LACMA's Nexgen program is! I highly recommend that anyone in the Southern California area take advantage of this free museum membership for kids.  In addition to one free adult admission with your Nexgen kid, there is a children's art gallery, where kids can create their own art. Free art totes and children's audio tours are available to check out as well. We hope to check these out on our next visit. This time we were too busy exploring!

On our recent trip, we went on a scavenger hunt to find the artists we studied this year.  We were able to see work from three of them:  Miro, Mondrian, and Klee.  My kids love to sketch at art museums.  It's a great way to make the experience a little more hands-on and lets kids practice their art skills just like real artists.

Homeschool Day at LACMA is May 27th.  Sounds like a fun end of the year field trip!

Art Co-op

Our little homeschool group met at my house in January.  It came up rather quickly after the holidays, so I thought art would be a fun but easy-to-plan theme to explore.  After worship and sharing time, we started by reading Mouse Paint and followed the mice's example by doing some paint mixing in ziploc bags.  A drop of yellow paint, a drop of red in a bag.  Seal it up.  Squish.  And a new color magically appears!  This was great for our little kids (3) and our biggest kids  (2nd grade).  Sometimes finding activities for all the kids can be challenging, but this one was a hit all around!

We had three centers where the kids could spend as much or as little time as they wanted.

Station 1:  First we had Jackson Pollock inspired marble painting.  A few blobs of paint on some paper in a box (like one from a flat of cans).  Add a marble or two, and make the marbles roll all over the place.

Station 2:  We had some Piet Mondrian inspired art with primary colors finger paint, black markers, rulers and electrical tape. 

Station 3:  Plenty of magazines and scissors were available to make some collage art. 

When all the kids were done we had quite an art collection drying in the sun!

And of course plenty of mess!

Degas at the Norton Simon

The Norton Simon Museum is a great place to go to see the art of Edgar Degas.  There are more than 100 of the pieces in their collection, many of which are on permanent display. 

Gracie made a beeline toward this piece, "Little Dancer of 14 Years," which has been on our artist wall.  We also read a book inspired by this piece, so we feel we've come to know this little dancer and her pose quite well!

Another piece in the same gallery was "Dancers in the Rotunda at the Paris Opera."  A fellow Degas enthusiast pointed out that you can actually see Degas' fingerprints in the paint on this picture.  So amazing!  Can you see it?  Look closely on the dancer's legs and the skirt.

Well, there's nothing like being surrounded by the works of the great masters to inspire a little art creation!

And the finished product...

Since my husband isn't back at work until Wednesday, this was able to be a "just the two of us" trip, a very special treat, indeed!  My girl is turning into quite an art appreciator and I love our museum outings!

The Getty

We just managed to sneak in a trip to the Getty museum before the end of summer. I've been there twice before: once before kids and once when my oldest was 9 months old. This time I had all 3 of my munchkins and was amazed at how kid-friendly it was!

We started off by visiting the Family Room which acquainted us with lots of art we would see later in the galleries. Even my 18 month old was able to run around and have fun with the hands-on exhibits!

There we experienced (and rearranged) the art of David Hockney,


made a mask inspired by James Ensor (Belgium's famous painter),

and recreated the sculpture at the Getty's entrance.

Then we picked up these:And went on an art hunt.

Then it was time to run around outside in the gardens!

Our last stop was the sketching room where we made our own art.Looks just like the real thing!

I'm already thinking about a spring trip to the Getty Villa which focuses on the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Perfect way to wrap up our year of ancient history!

Art in the Park

Last week I planned a preschool art play date for the moms group at my church. It was a lot of fun and wasn't too tough to put together. I made six different stations:

1. Sidewalk chalk

You'll need chalk.

2. Crayon Rubbings

You'll need crayons, paper, and an assortment of objects with interesting textures like leaves, paper clip, and coins.

3. Shaving cream sculpture

This became paint the tree trunk white! You'll need shaving cream and some kind of tub.

4. Suncatcher Collage

You'll need tissue paper squares, clear contact paper squares, and optional glitter. Put a piece of contact paper sticky side up. Put tissue squares on one at a time. Add some glitter and put another piece of contact paper on top.

5. Colored Bubble Art

You'll need bubbles and food coloring, but be careful! Mix at least half a little squeeze bottle of food coloring (the McCormick kind) into a small (3 oz.) bottle of bubbles. When you blow they bubbles, catch them onto white paper and they will splat into a subtle, but beautiful print.

6. Finger paint

You'll need finger paint and paper.

I put up a few sign so people would know where the activities were, but it wasn't absolutely necessary. It was a great way to get together with friends, be creative, and make a mess somewhere other than my house!

Do you ever have art play dates? I'd love to hear about them!