I am reading currently.

Here is your clue and the condition is, YOU CANNOT GOOGLE.

Come on, be true to your heart.

====================================

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

====================================

Send your replies to me by email utbtkids@gmail.com.

You have till Jan 29, 2010 4.00AM PST

Edited to add

Law abiding citizens, the answer is

1984 by George Orwell

113 ppl have viewed this post. I get nada emails. So I take it tha ALL of you googled to find the answer. What honest citizens I say!!

Technorati Tags: guess what book

Tora Bora lives with her sister Bula/Bieja, their trusty pets Kumar seval (Kumar the rooster) and two parakeets namely Pachai Pazhuppu (pachai = green, pazhuppu = brown) and Ilamsivappu Neelam (ilamsivappu= pink, neelam = blue). She has an arch rival, Looter as in the person who tries to loot things from others.

Looter is not as bad as one would imagine. He is not the typical black or white kind of villain. He has multiple shades of gray, like all of us do. Given the circumstance and his impulsive way of thinking, he makes some regrettable choices.

For example, he steals Tora Bora’s pet fish because he badly wants to take care of something. Then Tora Bora and Kumar seval open the atlas and look for the place that is highlighted and travel there to retrive the fish. Tora Bora gives Looter a valuable lesson, ‘Don’t just take. Ask. If you need something you need to ask/work for it.’

Once Looter stole everything under Tora Bora’s Christmas tree. Tora Bora came down to find an empty tree. Even the lights and decorations were gone. The atlas pointed the duo to Iceland. She tracked Looter and found Looter and his whole family enjoying Tora Bora’s goodies. But Looter did it only because he didn’t have enough time and money to get his own presents for his own family. Tora Bora understood Looter’s plight, she shared her presents but only after reprimanding him for the act.

You get the idea. Every time Looter strays from the path of righteousness, Tora Bora and Kumar Seval step in and do the necessary. But the thing is, Looter never learns. He always relies on his impulse and Tora Bora never gives up on Looter. Unreal, but it is essential for sequels. Besides who is looking for logic? Then a lot of elements have to be cut from the story and we would have a bland, preachy monologue.

Just like Pipi Longstockings, the story focuses only on the children and the pets involved. There is not much mentioned about the parents, school and the likes of it.

Why am I rambling about all this?

This is the girls’ bedtime routine. They come up with a location, something out of random, Lebanon (CA, Why Lebanon you asked and this is the answer), Reykjavik (Iceland), Papua New Guinea…no rhyme or reason for the location. R has to look up something about these places and build a story around the place. He does an excellent job at this. He talks about snow sleds in Iceland, the wonders of Machu Pichu in Peru, the vastness of the Thar desert or the beauty of Taj Mahal in India, the paddy fields in Thailand and so on. He talks about the natural beauty and historic significance of the place/object. He is so good at this that the girls have christened him Storyman. When it is time for bed, they lie in bed and start chanting ‘storyman, storyman, storyman….’ and our dude makes his entrance and stuns them with the story.

As for me, I sit on the couch in the living room and listen to the story. After observing for months, I found that there always a context. The choice of place from the girls is always inspired by something that they heard at school or read in a book or simply mentioned by their friend. Another thing I have observed is that a storyteller can never be extraordinary if he just tells the story. He has to live it, give his interpretation of things, be emotionally involved, only then the story shines. I have heard Tora Bora rescue the arctic squirrels from the mean hunter Bora Palin, the abducted fish pet swimming in the paddy fields of Thailand and making big noise about how he is from the US and the paddy field is not up to his standards and such. R is very guarded and is a man of few words. So for me, it is like a window in to R’s mind. Sometimes it reiterates how different our thinking processes are. Sometimes it pleasantly surprises me with the things we have in common. Sometimes it just makes me laugh, roll on the floor, hold my stomach, tears from eyes laugh, which is what banned my presence in the room and landed me on the couch.

Looking forward to many more stories, Storyman, from the couch of course.

Technorati Tags: atlas, bed time, kumar seval, story telling for children, Storyman, tora bora

Part 1 of many here.

Part 2 of many here.

Part 3 of many here.

Part 4 of many here.

Part 5 of many here.

Books like Pranav’s Picture, Harold And The Purple Crayon, Dot and Ish are very helpful for the parents to understand the creative process. I have reviewed these books for Saffron Tree. I reviewed, also for Saffron Tree, a few books that have open ended art exploration ideas.

You can find some awesome projects in Sheela’s blog. Some how god gave her 44 hours in a day and an extra truckload of patience. I especially loved this and this. Imagine the fun you and your child will have doing this.

If you are planning on introducing art history or working with your child to recognize elements of a painting books, don’t fear. There is a cartload of books available. My personal favorite is Lucy Micklethwait and Usborne’s The Children’s Book Of Art.

Books like Can You Find It, When Pigasso Met Mootisse, Oooh! Picasso and Look!Look!Look! are very effective when you can follow it up with a trip to a museum.

One thing I am constantly struggling to achieve is a definitive art space for the kids at home. Also what are the basic supplies one needs? If you have the same questions, don’t fear the Camp Creek Blog is here. Check out the right hand side links for ART LESSONS and also posts under CARD CATALOG ->in the studio. That was the basic I started off with.

That pretty much summarizes all that is in my mind. Now I am throwing the subject of art appreciation open to you all.

On the subject of appreciating your child’s art, what do you do when you child shows you her art? Do you say good job? Do you define what she has created? Do you say, “Oh is that a butterfly?” In that case are you prepared to meet an answer like, “No it is you amma. I drew you.” Do you ask her to define her own work and in the process tell her that what she creates must be something that fits in to definition? What do you all do as parents?

Another thing I am trying to get a grasp of is how to store all the art they churn out. On an average day there are atleast 5 papers per child. On top of this there is their usual academic work from school. What do you all do?

So long folks. Have a great day.

Technorati Tags: art appreciation, art boks for children, art exploration, art history, how to appreciate your child's art, how to introduce art to children, how to store your children art, what to read before a museum trip

Part 1 of many here.

Part two of many here.

Part three of many here.

Part four of many here.

Okay the survey results are as follows:

92% played with Fevicol and loved it.
44% loved coloring and erasing with markers, 20% yes on only coloring, 20% yes only on erasing.
92% loved pencils and sharpeners.
Candle wax seems to be the biggest hit with 96% love.
57% did not like ripping newspaper. What a bummer?! I strongly recommend you guys try it. It is such a cathartic release.
50% love swirling paint, 28% like it, 14% are okay with it.
72% make rainbows in the shower and I am happy to announce that we all believe in showers and soap.
57% rolled chapathi dough and then ate it. 38% played and discarded the dough.
62% did not scribble in the house, no experimentation and wondered about my mother’s reaction.

My grand conclusion based on the poll results…….

As children, most of us just played for the sake of playing, without bothering about what we produced at the end of it. These are the found memories that we carry with us. These are the memories that we might have forgotten, but when kindled, put a smile on our face. This is process orientation. This is what your young child is doing. Just doing something and taking pleasure at that moment without a bother about the past, future, accolades, recognition, praise and the mess. Soon they are going to grow up and slowly get in to the product oriented mode. For now, just let them be.

This, my dear peeps, is the ulterior motive behind the survey.

Give them the art materials. Give them the space. Give them the freedom. Stand back. Let go. Let them play. Let them discover, understand and love their material. If you feel like they have to create something meaningful to an adult, get in touch with your Fevicol days. Set limits. Like for example, paint only on designated area. Because, not many of us have studio work space. So, parents need to set limits to protect the walls, furniture and carpet. If it is their first time with paint or messy material sit with them to make sure that they understand their limits. Children and mess, many a times it is not intentional, they just cannot help themselves. Even better, sit with them and participate without taking over or interfering. It provides the children with a good model and you get to realize how much fun the whole process is.

The first six years of their life, children learn their world and express their thoughts through art. So it is essential that parents understand that the process is ‘learning about the world and communicating through art’ which later, around age 7+, becomes ‘art through learning and communication’. You cannot ‘formally teach’ a three-year-old-child to make art, but you can show them the different ways to explore.

When it comes to tips, techniques and pointers, there are overwhelmingly large number of resources. But when I look for open ended art exploration for the preschool age, I carefully avoid projects that have a finished product to show for. But, hey, it is just me. Given my personality, I have to consciously stop myself from controlling what the children do. In my opinion, when we follow some one else’s instruction and strive towards a finished product, it is craft. Not that craft is any lesser, but it is some one else’s baby, not mine.

Coming up next: List of resources for open ended art and books on art appreciation.

Technorati Tags: art exploration, difference between art and craft, process orientation and product orientation, survey result

Part 1 of many here.

Part two of many here.

Part three of many here.

We all would have colored, painted, made some kind of art as a kid. Many of us do it even now. So dip in to your memory bank or your current experiences and answer some questions.

There are just 10 questions. and you can choose to be anon. So don’t be intimidated. 9 questions are about you and the last question is for me. Indulge me please. Pretty please with a cherry on top ???

You will see only one question at a time. I have provided some answers. For folks who want to tell more there is a text area. After you answer click on next. Please make sure you answer all 10 questions.

Survey will be open till Jan 18, 4.00PM PST.

Get…Set…Go

Technorati Tags: Survey

Part 1 of many here.

Part two of many here.

A child comes in to this world all geared up for survival. Think about it. Who taught this itty-bitty thing to latch on, to suck from the breast, to root, to paddle while in water, and imitate walking? All this within minutes after birth? The only explanation is new born brain is wired to handle certain reflexes. Few other things the newborn brain is designed to do is to communicate, to absorb language and to bond. These are the essential tools for survival.

If one looks at language development, music development and art development in children, it follows the same pattern. Language for example, children start with receiving language before they start talking. Talking comes in a certain order. They start with cooing, progress to babbling, figure out everything has a name and hence understand symbolism, start to say single words, move on to telegraphic speech and then comes the talking.

Children view art as a form of communication, especially in the first three years. They understand the concept of communication – thinking up something and expressing it to other people. Then they understand that communication can be using words or physical body movements like pointing gesturing etc or using paper and pencil/crayon. (The beauty about art as a tool for communication is that children use it to communicate to themselves at times. They think of a visual idea and many a times putting that visual on paper clears a lot of things for them) By this time they are masters in cause and effect, otherwise they wouldn’t know that pencil causes an impression on paper. They are developing hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills, otherwise they cannot manipulate the pencil to make marks on paper. We are talking about a 12month – 18month old child now.

Just like talking there are stages in drawing. Once there was a nice lady called Rhoda Kellogg. For 18 years she collected one million drawing sample of children in a certain age group. She researched the scribbles and concluded that

• Children first explore the art material, euphemism for your child eating crayon or grinding pencil. Or like in our house, a person who shall not be named painting their younger sister’s freshly tonsure head with red paint. And another person who shall not be named allowing their older sister to paint her head but insisted and rolled on the floor crying that her face needs to be painted too.
• Then they scribble. Children have 20 basic scribbles. Not all children use all the 20 scribbles, but they favor certain scribbles based on their intelligence style.
• They extend their scribbles, like making X and something resembling shapes. Invariably all children draw the circle as their first enclosed space. Happy face and sun figure in most of the children’s drawings. Then they combine shapes and such. This is when they draw ‘the house’ with one triangle for roof and a rectangle/square for the bottom. Even though they live in apartments with flat roof, they draw A-line roofs in their drawings!!
• Then they repeat and repeat and repeat, till they refine their style, placement, materials and they evolve their own individual style. By this time your child is six years give or take.

Are you blown away? Did your jaws will drop? Mine did when I first read about it

If one were to debate if art is nature or nurture, I would say both. When it comes to art, there are two things there is appreciation and there is creation. An artist is a person who has the ability to appreciate what she sees, figure out what makes the maximum impact on her, break it down in her brain in to simple elements and create it using a medium. The first part, appreciating what they see and capturing the main elements of the images that make the maximum impact on them comes naturally to young children (6 and under). Plus they are process oriented. Hence my belief that children are born artists (NATURE). As they grow up, they either grow in to people who create or grow out of art. This solely depends on their experiences with and exposure to art in the first six years (NURTURE).

So, should I run and sign up my two-year-old for art classes? What is art exposure? What do parents do to encourage and inspire their children? Will keep y’all posted. Before that indulge me in this survey pliss.

[tags]is art nature or nurture, Rhoda Kellog, patterns in children’s drawings, children use art to communicate[/tags]

Technorati Tags: children use art to communicate, is art nature or nurture, patterns in children's drawings, Rhoda Kellog

Part 1 of many here.

Part 2 contd…

Art is open-ended. What is beautiful or meaningful to one person makes no sense to another. Personally, I love Raja Ravi Verma. My next best would be the impressionists. I love them all, I love the concept, I love the play of colors, I love the way the artist looks at light and dark. Recently I have been introduced to pointillism and all I can say is WOW, what a vision. This is in the late 1880?! I consider this some kind of rudimentary vision which later got extrapolated to the pixel concept now used in TV monitors.

Modern/abstract art, I simply don’t understand. I have always thought, a child could make it, what is the big deal. But one of my classmates, with a masters degree in art, explained to me that it is the process, not the product. During break time, we were discussing Jackson Pollack’s abstract expressions in particular and I said, “Jack the dripper??? Come on, my three year old can do it. I can do it. Drip, spit and roll in paint. Hah!” and my classmate said, “But did you do it? Did you have the guts to exhibit your three year old’s painting? A painting is an expression of a thought or the artist’s perception/reaction to a mental image. Pollack captured it in a way that no one had done before. He deserves credit because he was the first to think about that particular expression and had the guts to back it up.” Post that conversation my attitude to modernism and abstract expression has changed from condescension to respectfully saying, ‘two thumbs up, but not my style’. Jeez, I don’t want the enormous responsibility of looking in to some one’s mind. I am not quite ready.

But modern art does have its merits, purely from my POV. I have found from experience that children are likely to be less intimidated by modern art. They find some sort of kinship with the artist. May be it gives them the same, ‘hey, I can do this’ confidence?! May be because before six years of age children are still pure and process oriented?! I was blown away once when Chula (she was 4-ish I think) drew the drawing below and explained to me, ‘This is you amma and this is you dancing. The dancing you is moving, just like the picture lines in my class room is moving.’ The picture in her classroom she was referring to is a Kandinsky.

So what is art for a young child? It is nature, it is communication. It is a basic instinct.

Part 3, if art is nature, then why aren’t we all artists? Chk here.

[tags]what is my art, preschooler art, child art, art product vs art process, is art nature or nurture, raja ravi verma, pontillism, impressionism, kandinsky, pollack, abstract expressions, what is modern art, do young children prefer modern art[/tags]

Technorati Tags: abstract expressions, art product vs art process, child art, do young children prefer modern art, impressionism, is art nature or nurture, kandinsky, pollack, pontillism, preschooler art, raja ravi verma, what is modern art, what is my art

Balaji of Bbthots writes a guest post for Saffron Tree. Check out his review of Quicksand Pony.

Guess what book we are currently reading at home? Clue is the picture below. You guys have time till Tuesday, Jan/12/2010.

Edited to add: Alice’s adventures in wonderland, A pop-up adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s original tale by Robert Sabuda.

Suki, San bingo. The two of you get three hi-hip-hurrays each.

SV, Kowsalya, thats why I strategically put three tea cups in the pics.

Chox, I had my be riding on you. What with me asking you about simple Alice in wonderland for kindergartners. In fact I wanted to add in the post “Chox is not allowed to comment”. Tiger who came to tea-eh? Recommended by you, five starts from amazon, will check it out from the library.

DDMom, that is a good suggestion, will ask them to email me instead of commenting. Reg the plug-in pls chk the comments for this post.

Boo, Goldilocks? Was this purposeful misdirection? Oh master riddle cracking ex-MTB, puzzle breaking machine, cross word superstar, did you say Goldilocks on purpose?

Technorati Tags: guess game

It was business as usual at work. We had just put the younger children for their AM nap, the older ones were engaged in work. The loud noise made me think that there was action going on in the elementary upstairs. But it dawned on me with the sudden movement. Earthquake.

We did the usual emergency routine and thankfully we were able to return to the usual routine, if you could call it usual and go on about your routine.

4.1 is relatively small. Probably mother Earth just sighed, stretched or sniffed when compared to the wrath she has unleashed in many places. But something being with children changes the whole deal. Mind being a monkey jumps and leaps and leads you to places where you don’t want to be. Children, though they do not have enough life experiences to fear the what if, are pretty acute on latching on to adult emotions. For the rest of the day they were a bit off put.

I am with Chula and Mieja in the same campus. So a quick peak through the window was a HUGE blessing. I did not fear their safety, for they are in the best possible care. But just their smiling faces soothed me, chasing all the unspoken fears. As soon as I could, I called R and we touched base on our family’s emergency routine. He said, ‘I will come and get you and the kids.’ And we had a good laugh.

[tags]earthquake[/tags]

Technorati Tags: earthquake

Chula: Amma, tell me about Lebanon.
Me: Errr…Lebanon?
Chula: I want to know about Lebanon.
Me: Okay, why do you want to know about Lebanon?
Chula: Because, I don’t know about Lebanon. That is why I want to know about it.
(Told with a sigh, eyes rolling, hand shaking and intonation as if explaining it to Rainman)
Me: But I don’t know anything about Lebanon
Chula: Googal it amma.
Me: What it?
Chula: Googal it.
Me: What is google Chula?
Chula: It is something that lives in our computer and when we ask a question it tells us an answer.

So we know about Googal, inspite of not introducing Googal formally.

[tags]google[/tags]

Technorati Tags: google