Speechy Sunday: Teaching Art Vocabulary

On Friday, my husband and I took Flanna and my niece to an art show in Atlanta.  Our friend Dana had some paintings in the show, and we had visited the gallery a few times before successfully, which made me brave enough to try it out during an event.  

At the show, I gave each of the girls a notepad and pen so that they could write down the names of their favorite artists of the night. (Flanna just drew a picture of the paintings she liked because she was too short to see the cards with the artists' names on them.)  I was amazed at how having a little task to do during the evening made them really study each painting and take an interest in the types of pieces there.  By the end of the night, they were using words like, "portrait, landscape, abstract, and still life" on their own.  And they wanted to talk about how the artists might have painted each painting--by using a paintbrush (could we see the strokes?) or by using a putty knife, or even fingers!  My niece got pretty good at picking out an oil painting versus acrylic.   It was a really fun way for them to learn.  And it was neat, too, to get a glimpse into their tastes.  

Here are some of our favorite paintings from the show.  

Flannery's favorite, by Dana Johns

my pick, by Sabre Esler

one Robi liked, by Scott Hill

Flanna listing her favorites (she circled the one with the tree as the best)

My niece listing her favorites

My niece with her pick of the night, by Betty Anglin Smith

Who's your favorite artist?  I'd really love to hear.

Listen to What You Like

Pandora is the best. Really, it is.

I have this saying that "Everything is better with Pandora."

And it really is!

Occasionally Flanna and I remember to bring my laptop into the bathroom during her bath time, and she's so much more amenable to suggestions like "scrub your chin" or "clean your ears" when music's playing. (She's at that stage where her first response is "no" or "I don't want to" to everything right now. Even though she usually does what you ask soon after.)

Pandora has taught me what I like and don't like in children's music. I like folk roots, acoustic sonority, major key tonality, vocal harmonies, and lots of guitar picking. I don't like Raffi. Sorry, I just don't. He creeps me out for some reason.

So here are my top picks for children's music. Basically, they all pretty much have the above listed qualities. And they're fun, too!


Top Picks for Children’s Music:

1. Elizabeth Mitchell – She's my all time favorite for kids' music. Her albums, “You are My Sunshine”, “You are My Little Bird” & “You are my Flower”, are all just wonderful. We own the first 2 albums and love them so.
2. Renee & Jeremy – I just love their song “Sleep My Love” on the album “It’s a Big World”
3. The Laurie Berkner Band – We own the album “Buzz Buzz”, and it's really fantastic fun.
4. Lisa Loeb & Elizabeth Mitchell – Who doesn't like Lisa Loeb? And her harmonies with E.M. are gorgeous. Their album “Catch the Moon” is niiiiice.
5. Kirra Willey - A great song is “Dance for the Sun” on the album of the same title. I like this one because it sings Yoga moves!

OK, that's all I've got. I tend to find a few artists I like and listen to them over and over. And over.

My husband just loves that about me. :)


What songs do you love best from your childhood?