Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[tortoise]

I made a trip to my hometown, 45 miles away. I was planning on visiting a friend most of the day, but her kids are sick. I bought a rabbit cage from a CL posting - 24x36x16 size for $5. Will be a good "momma and babies" cage. Good find!

I picked up plastic snow fence. The goats have been getting out of their pen in the barn (surprise, surprise...). We put snow fence to fill the gap from the fence to the ceiling. DH boarded up some gaps in the fence that the pygmies have been sneaking through. I hope it keeps them in!

 

[Denim Deb]

If you really want to check to see whether or not a fence will hold in goats, pour water in the area. If it will hold the water, it will hold the goats.

 

[tortoise]

 

[hqueen13]

Lol!

 

[tortoise]

I'm officially done with work! The business has a sale pending, so I don't even need to clear out the building unless it falls through.

I'm having contractions whenever I'm on my feet. Yesterday was pretty good, but I still wasn't able to be up long enough to make supper. DH finished cooking for me. He is putting in a whole-house humidifier tonight. My doctor suspects that dehydration - especially overnight - is aggravating contractions. I drink about a gallon per day and we run a humidifier 24 hrs/day in the living room. Still can't get the humidity over 32% in here. We're hoping that getting the house humidity up will help me stay hydrated and reduce contractions.

I picked up needle felting supplies! Monday was bad for contractions, anytime I stood up I had contractions immediately and constantly. Makes it hard to get around the house or do anything. By the end of the day I was feeling terrible (emotionally) because I hadn't been able to do anything. Getting some art supplies has been a relief! It gives me something to think about and improves my outlook so much! I'm using wool I got from a member of this forum! And daydreaming about processing wool from my sheep this year!

I'm seriously considering pulling my son out of elementary art class. He brought a project home because he is behind. Oh my... There are gaping holes in his instruction. The first step of his project was to sketch a line drawing from photograph. Except.... he hasn't been taught how to sketch, how to hold a pencil, or the mechanics (moving the body) for sketching. He is frustrated and thinks he is incapable. I showed him some of the mechanics. For example, if you draw a circle while only moving your wrist, you will always get an ellipse. If you are right handed, it will tilt to the right, if you are left handed it will tilt to the left. My son was getting very upset because he couldn't sketch a circle. I showed him WHY it turned out the same way every time, and proper mechanics so he CAN sketch circles. He is all fired up about art again. He had a meltdown about drawing straight lines. I showed him how our fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder joint move the pencil in an arc. Then how to use the torso to move the entire arm/hand unit in a straight line. Again, he is all excited at the prospect of not being "bad at art". He is actually VERY good, but the art classroom is a poor environment.

I was also irritated that the teacher skipped the entire drawing process for the technique she wanted the class to use. She wanted them to block out the basic shapes...and then skip to the finished artwork. That puts my son into a meltdown. I modeled the process from sketching to the final product. What a beautiful light bulb moment. It's so good to see him encouraged and participating again. I contacted the virtual charter he is enrolled in to find out what the reporting / grading / portfolio requirements are for teaching art at home.

 

[wyoDreamer]

It is so sad to hear of teachers like this.
I wish I would have had someone like you to show me the how's and why's of drawing. I taught myself from "How To Draw" books.
How old is your son?

 

[tortoise]

He is 7. He is uhh... strange. He is in 2nd grade for art, music, and gym at the elementary school. He is in virtual charter for the other subjects which he is at late-4th grade to 5th grade levels for. He is wanting more advanced art and music instruction. He has so much musical ability - plus the patience to practice. How many 7 year olds will practice piano technique and use a metronome? I feel strongly about keeping him in the 2nd grade gym class - I think it has great variety of fun, active games and it's great for developing social skills further. My son is behind his age-peers on regulating emotion, impulse control, etc., so I think gym class helps a lot with that too.

The person interested in the business wants to come look at the location this evening. I am tanking up on Gatorade in hopes of keeping contractions to a minimum and being able to 1) take my personal items out and 2) make it clean and shiny.

 

[Denim Deb]

How'd it go?

 

[tortoise]

She has great personality and I think she would be successful in this town. She seems interested, definitely has a strong desire to be her own boss. She has been put into bad situations by employers in the past. I can completely relate to that. She seemed very interested in the type of client base we have going - which is unusual for a small rural town. The $ negotiation is up to DH. My part is done. Unless she doesn't buy it - then we have to go get everything out of the building - and that is quite a lot of stuff! I'd have to "piece" it out and sell items individually - big hassle.

I heard back from the virtual school coordinator about requirements for teaching art at home. My favorite art textbook "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is OK to use. I'd need to have graded assignments and show a portfolio of his work at the end of the semester. I'm not really thrilled with grading art assignments, part of my son's problem is far too much focus on the end result. I should be able to grade effort and following the assignment instructions, right? Other than that, I'd have to notify the elementary school -- and the hard part -- not send him to elementary school on the art class days.

My goal is to catch up on housework today. I'd like to unload my work stuff from the truck, haul it to the basement, sort/organize/store it, and sell any items I don't want to keep. There is also a big stash of work stuff in our shop building that should be hauled in before sorting it all out. It's an enormous job!

 

[hqueen13]

I never got any sort of real art instruction in public school. I took art lessons for my entire school years privately from a lady that taught out of her basement, and I loved it. When I did get back into a few art classes in high school I frequently asked if I could do things differently than the exact assignment. I specifically remember an assignment where we were supposed to draw something that showed movement, so a "series" image with multiple images showing the movement. I wanted to do an image of a cheetah running, so three or four frames blended together of the cat's running strides. Because of the shape of a cheetah, I wanted to create a piece that was very long and narrow, panorama like. I was told I HAD to work on the oversized construction paper that I was given. Seriously. So I don't put much stock in the school art classes at all.
Of course, I'm a bit fascinated by your descriptions of the mechanics of drawing lines. I just practiced, LOL. I never received instruction on those sorts of things, I guess when you do it enough, you figure it out. It really is all about eye-hand coordination, which improves with practice.
Glad that you helped him feel more successful. Would it be better to pull him out of class and teach him yourself, or to tutor him at home and help him better understand while still gaining the classroom expeience?