Live Free Learn Free Blog » 2007 » March <title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thirteen/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/rss/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/atom/" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php" /> <style type="text/css"> </style> <link rel='archives' title='August 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/02/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/03/' /> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> </head> <body> <div id="headwrapper"> <div id="header"> <h1 id="title"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog">Live Free Learn Free Blog</a></h1> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="content"> <div class="post" id="post-242"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/10/the-origin-of-an-artist/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to The Origin of an Artist">The Origin of an Artist</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> March 10th, 2007 at 2:20 am (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>It’s one in the morning, and Kenzie is drawing dragons. He’s been telling me about how he chose the wing color - something light and airy, almost see-through. A nice, soft greenish color called “deco aqua.” He’s shown me how he draws the wing “bones.” He’s explained how the teeth “fit together.” He’s paid special attention to the scales, the eyes, the claws.</p> <p>This is one of the reasons children need real art supplies. Crayola crayons simply aren’t adequate for blending, shading, or even filling in. Cheap colored pencils won’t do the trick, either. Kenzie requires real Prismacolor pencils in many shades. He has gotten more use out of his 120 piece pencil set than any other resource he owns. He will sit at his desk for hours, drawing under the “artist light” (an old-fashioned, quietly humming, flourescent desk lamp) and listening to old <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tmbg.com/">They Might Be Giants</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://www2.cruzio.com/~keeper/AMLF.html">Animaniacs</a> songs. Every so often, I’ll hear the soft whir of the electric pencil sharpener.</p> <p>Before the Prismacolors, Kenzie rarely drew. Despite his father being an artist, I assumed he simply had no interest in creating visual art. I was wrong; he just had crappy supplies. As soon as he discovered the joy of working with high quality colored pencils, he began drawing constantly and soon took to calling himself an artist - which is certainly an apt descriptor. He isn’t much interested in paints or markers or other mediums at the moment, but his pencil set goes with him almost everywhere. It is his toolkit.</p> <p>My son, the artist. </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/10/the-origin-of-an-artist/#respond" title="Comment on The Origin of an Artist">Comments</a> </p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-241"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/05/our-day-so-far/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Our Day So Far….">Our Day So Far….</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> March 5th, 2007 at 3:31 pm (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <p>We didn’t have anything planned for today. When we got up, we had some breakfast, and I worked for a bit while Kenzie watched <a target="_blank" href="http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Muppet_Movie"><em>The Muppet Movie</em></a>. He then read some of <a target="_blank" href="http://astore.amazon.com/thejimhensoncomp/detail/0810991845"><em>Jim Henson’s Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook</em></a>.</p> <p>After Kenzie did a few rpgs on Neopets, he, dh and I all walked through the neighborhood to the local Mexican restaurant. On our walk, we talked about what we want to happen when we die - funeral-wise. It was actually a lighthearted conversation! We stopped to look at the fish in the stream and decided they were <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/">bluegills</a>. We also watched several <a target="_blank" href="http://whatsthatbug.com/images/stink_mating_taiwan.jpg">stink bug couples mating</a>! After lunch, we walked to the thrift store where we each found some good books and movies. On the way back, we stopped to look into shop windows and talk about what sort of shops we’d open in each space.</p> <p>Now, Kenzie’s outside playing and riding his bicycle. Who knows what the evening will bring. Looks like it might involve some cookie-making. Yum! </p> </div> <p class="postmeta"> <a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/05/our-day-so-far/#respond" title="Comment on Our Day So Far....">Comments</a> </p> </div> <p> </p> </div> <div id="sidebar"> <ul> <li id="meta"> <h2>Meta</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-login.php">Login</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" title="Syndicate this site using RSS">Entries <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/comments/feed/" title="The latest comments to all posts in RSS">Comments <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="search"> <form method="get" id="searchform" action="/blog/index.php"> <p> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" class="submit" value="Search" /> </p> </form> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="footer"> <p> <a href="http://wordpress.org" title="Powered by Wordpress, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform.">Powered by Wordpress</a> · Design by <a href="http://beccary.com" title="Theme designed by Beccary">Beccary</a> and <a href="http://weblogs.us" title="Theme sponsored by Weblogs.us">Weblogs.us</a> · <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer" title="This page validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional"><abbr title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr></a> · <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer" title="This page validates as CSS"><abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr></a> </p> </div> </div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var sc_project=605365; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=4; var sc_security="d224bf47"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://c5.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=605365&java=0&security=d224bf47&invisible=1" alt="free stats" border="0"></a> </noscript>  </body> </html>