[email protected]

I am looking for ideas.

My six year old loves to paint and draw. How can I best help her with
this? Any suggestions for affordable, quality art supplies, ie., paints
& brushes?

Mary Ellen
Success is a process of living.
It's stopping for the moments of beauty, of pleasure, the moments of
peace.
Success is not a destination that you ever reach.
Success is the quality of the journey.

Janet

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., megates@j... wrote:
> I am looking for ideas.
>
> My six year old loves to paint and draw. How can I best help her
with
> this? Any suggestions for affordable, quality art supplies, ie.,
paints
> & brushes?


My 6 yr old is also a budding artist. I get lots of her supplies at
AC Moore, a craft store chain here in New England. Lots and lots of
neat stuff, not too expensive.

Janet

[email protected]

We take a trip to our local 99 cent stores about once a month. We find TONS
of art supplies and all other sorts of "school" supplies. We almost always
pick up craft sticks, paper, crayons (which we often melt down and mix colors
or pour into molds), water colors, containers, word search books, silk
flowers (my daughter loves to make these into hair wreaths), yarn, string,
baskets (to collect just about anything in), and all kinds of other stuff.
For painting I've bought dish scrubbers, sponges, brushes, etc. 99 cent
stores are a favorite educational supply store for us! And if you can don't
just visit one. It's amazing the things you'll find. Yes, some items don't
last to long with younger kids, but even the expensive stuff often doesn't
last long, so why spend the extram $$. The kids learn math during our trips
as I give each of the kids $5 and let them choose what they want.

Kimberly U


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 08/24/2001 5:58:23 PM !!!First Boot!!!, megates@...
writes:


> How can I best help her with
> this? Any suggestions for affordable, quality art supplies, ie., paints
> & brushes?
>
>

Gramma!

Really -- she raids the dollar store and yard sales for stuff for the kids.

Nance



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

On Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:53:16 EDT Homeschool4us123@... writes:
> Yes, some items don't
> last to long with younger kids, but even the expensive stuff often
> doesn't last long, so why spend the extram $$.

I have had the opposite experience. We always buy high-quality art
materials, as cheaply as we can, but it's still much more expensive than
the dollar stores. They're just better, and I think it's frustrating to
have to use inferior materials when you're still working hard on making
your art look the way you envision it. Working with berol pencils and
strathmore paper just feels right, and good. We buy a lot from
www.dickblick.com, they have good sales sometimes, and some of the local
artists' stores have had good sales.

I also don't use recycled paper (paper with something on the back) for
artwork. I used to, when my daughter was very tiny, then someone pointed
out to me the message that was sending - "What you are creating is not
worth a new sheet of paper." Ouch. Not the message I wanted to send. I
think that high-quality art supplies send the message that, "What you are
creating is important.", and that's important to me.

YMMV,

Daron

Lynda

The kidlets have always had "just for fun" art supplies and "I want you to
keep this" art supplies. I buy them a case of computer paper for about
$27/case but you can get it cheaper than that because we buy recycled
content paper.

Then we buy a couple of reams of colored copier paper for projects.

And for good paper I usually get the Biggie sketch pads. 9.5 x 11 are
usually less than $5.00. And the Montval field books aren't too bad in
price for watercolors.

Lynda


----- Original Message -----
From: <freeform@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2001 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: Art Supplies


>
>
> On Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:53:16 EDT Homeschool4us123@... writes:
> > Yes, some items don't
> > last to long with younger kids, but even the expensive stuff often
> > doesn't last long, so why spend the extram $$.
>
> I have had the opposite experience. We always buy high-quality art
> materials, as cheaply as we can, but it's still much more expensive than
> the dollar stores. They're just better, and I think it's frustrating to
> have to use inferior materials when you're still working hard on making
> your art look the way you envision it. Working with berol pencils and
> strathmore paper just feels right, and good. We buy a lot from
> www.dickblick.com, they have good sales sometimes, and some of the local
> artists' stores have had good sales.
>
> I also don't use recycled paper (paper with something on the back) for
> artwork. I used to, when my daughter was very tiny, then someone pointed
> out to me the message that was sending - "What you are creating is not
> worth a new sheet of paper." Ouch. Not the message I wanted to send. I
> think that high-quality art supplies send the message that, "What you are
> creating is important.", and that's important to me.
>
> YMMV,
>
> Daron
>
>
> Message boards, timely articles, a free newsletter and more!
> Check it all out at: http://www.unschooling.com
>
> To unsubscribe, set preferences, or read archives:
> http://www.egroups.com/group/Unschooling-dotcom
>
> Another great list sponsored by Home Education Magazine!
> http://www.home-ed-magazine.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

[email protected]

>Any suggestions for affordable, quality art supplies, ie., paints & brushes?


http://www.classroomdirect.com has good prices (flat bristle brushes
bought singly from $0.31 to $0.64, depending on size; acrylic paint
$5.49 for 16 oz; Prang ready-to-use tempera $1.49 for 8 oz) and even
better Internet buyer specials (Prang washable paint $2.49 for 16 oz)
and carries the most common brands of "classroom" quality art
supplies. Of course, they also carry materials for every other
subject, plus office supplies, furnishings, and educational room
decorations. They have a big, juicy paper catalog for browsing (well
worth it, even if you just use it for inspiration), and a website for
searching. If you're going to order from them, you could do what I
do. Make one BIG order for the next 6 months to year's worth of
supplies--paper by the ream, paint by the bucket, big boxes of
doo-dads and jigglies--and get further price cuts for buying bulk
($14.70 for a gallon of Prang washable) plus free shipping (assuming
your order totals more than $149.00).

http://www.discountschoolsupply.com has a much smaller selection, but
I order my paint from them now, because they have a smoother,
brighter paint called BioColor, which I prefer over tempera and which
is also 100% non-toxic, all-natural, and environmentally friendly.
They sell some very interesting add-ons for their paints, as
well--media to add to it to make it into putty, foam, or fabric
paint, cool tools for creating neat effects, etc. They have other
materials, as well, and a good clearance section on their website.

Misty Blagg
athterath@...

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/24/01 7:53:26 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
freeform@... writes:


> I also don't use recycled paper (paper with something on the back) for
> artwork. I used to, when my daughter was very tiny, then someone pointed
> out to me the message that was sending - "What you are creating is not
> worth a new sheet of paper." Ouch. Not the message I wanted to send. I
> think that high-quality art supplies send the message that, "What you are
> creating is important.", and that's important to me.
>

i'm really glad this came up. i've just started reading some of the john holt
books and i saw a bit about the art saying a similar thing. it made me wonder
about my own methods and 'messages'. ds is 3 1/2. i always give new sheets of
paper, we mostly use plain copier paper and construction paper, and some
large slick paper for painting. we buy the crayon school paints or whatever
'kids' paints we can find. we have his pictures taped up all over the fridge
and around the walls near the small craft table. i've recently started asking
him where he wants to put his pictures, so sometimes we have a picture taped
in the middle of the d.r. wall for a couple of days, he generally will take
it down and sometimes treat it as a toy.

i know very little about art, but so far my thought has been to make the
stuff available, as varied as i can, and let him go, and put it up to look
at. we often spend some time on each talking about colors or what looks like
what, etc. i guess i've kinda figured that at this point his art is more
about experiencing what different things can do since he's not really into
drawing defined pictures of anything. he seems more to enjoy the dipping of
brushes and smearing of paint and blending of all colors. he has no interest
in markers, crayons or pencils.

should i be buying acrylic paints, canvas and frames? i surely don't want to
send a message that this is just kid stuff and not important, but at the same
time i'm not sure how important it is to him. he loves to paint, but
sometimes when a picture is on the fridge he'll tear it up himself. somtimes
he'll ask me if he can and i tell him that if he wants to he can, it is his
picture.

thanks for any feedback

brenda




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tami Labig-Duquette

Our 2 cents :)

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
~Ghandi

Try out this fun site!
http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=angel1bunny




>From: freeform@...

>I also don't use recycled paper (paper with something on the back) for
>artwork. I used to, when my daughter was very tiny, then someone pointed
>out to me the message that was sending - "What you are creating is not
>worth a new sheet of paper." Ouch. Not the message I wanted to send. I
>think that high-quality art supplies send the message that, "What you are
>creating is important.", and that's important to me.

My children do not think this at all, they are concerned for our natural
resources and they have never felt (or expressed) that what they are
creating is something less than because of recycled paper.
We currently have an almost complete paper mache' rain forest in our living
room :) and it is all recycled and very awesome :)
Indiana Tami
>
>YMMV,
>
>Daron


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

[email protected]

Brenda- The way I see it is when my child is ready to be serious about art,
they will let me know. For now they see art as fun, just that, fun. My
daughter loves her brightly colored construction paper, cheap sponges, etc.
For her she's happiest right now having a large variety of items to
experiment with. She loves being able to cut up the sponges into various
shapes, or no shapes at all, sometimes she'll just cut them up or shred them
and use them that way. Sometimes the construction paper is used only to cut
at. She's having fun cutting and she doesn't care about what she's making,
but is facinated with how the scissors work. My kids are all under 7 years
old and love to experiment with textures, colors, and variety right now. They
absolutely love our visits to the dollar stores so they can find something
new they can do art with. The expensive "nice" art supplies aren't what they
need and/or want at this time. They have never asked me about having "nicer"
supplies. Their thrilled with what they have now. However, if the day should
ever come that they ask for nice brushes, acrylic paints, nice paper,
charcol, etc, it will be provided to them. Right now they ask for crayola,
sponges, colorful papers, design cutting scissors and coloring books. You
don't need fancy expensive supplies to tell your child that their art is
important to you. You tell them that by letting them have the supplies they
want and appriciating everything they do with it, no matter how messy LOL.
Kimberly U


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mercedes

**should i be buying acrylic paints, canvas and frames? i surely don't want
to send a message that this is just kid stuff and not important, but at the
same time i'm not sure how important it is to him. he loves to paint, **


My 2.5 yo loves to paint and I just purchased some canvas & acrylics for
her - call me crazy, but why not?! The canvas was on sale and it's a cute
4x6 size - something for her to paint and we will give to grandma & daddy &
so on. It makes her proud and happy and that's what it's all about. I too
allow her to tell me where to hang the painting. Our home is her home so
she has her things all over, not just in her room or on the fridge.

Mercy

Janet

> I have had the opposite experience. We always buy high-quality art
> materials, as cheaply as we can, but it's still much more expensive
than
> the dollar stores. They're just better, and I think it's
frustrating to
> have to use inferior materials when you're still working hard on
making
> your art look the way you envision it. Working with berol pencils
and
> strathmore paper just feels right, and good. We buy a lot from
> www.dickblick.com, they have good sales sometimes, and some of the
local
> artists' stores have had good sales.
>
> I also don't use recycled paper (paper with something on the back)
for
> artwork. I used to, when my daughter was very tiny, then someone
pointed
> out to me the message that was sending - "What you are creating is
not
> worth a new sheet of paper." Ouch. Not the message I wanted to
send. I
> think that high-quality art supplies send the message that, "What
you are
> creating is important.", and that's important to me.

I think it also depends on the child's level of interest. From a
young age my daughter was always creating. Loves art. Talks about
being an artist. Still is. A lot of it is just day to day stuff,
not trying to make nice pictures. We use a LOT of scrap paper from
the fax/printer with writing on the back. We also have a good supply
of inexpensive art supplies from Wal-Mart. Pads of regular paper in
various sizes, construction paper, etc. AND we have a supply of good
quality watercolor paper, pastel paper with oil pastels, and better
quality watercolors that are still washable (a must right now with
her). We have a good supply of cheap brushes, and a good supply of
better quality brushes. If and when she wants "real" acrylics or
oils and canvas, we'll go that route. We don't usually pull out
the "good" stuff unless she wants to make something nice. Both kids
are happy to use the cheap stuff as well.

Janet, Mom to Caroline, 6, and Thomas, almost 3!

[email protected]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2001 00:25:13 EDT brendaclaspell@... writes:
>we have his pictures taped up all over
> the fridge
> and around the walls near the small craft table. i've recently
> started asking
> him where he wants to put his pictures, so sometimes we have a
> picture taped
> in the middle of the d.r. wall for a couple of days, he generally
> will take
> it down and sometimes treat it as a toy.

Since Cacie was really small, most of the walls in our house have been
covered with art she and her friends have done. Often it has stayed up
for years; she did a drawing entitled "Cannibal Girl" 3 years ago that I
still keep up. For a while, some of her friends used to bring over all of
the art they did in school to go up on our walls...

> should i be buying acrylic paints, canvas and frames? i surely don't
> want to
> send a message that this is just kid stuff and not important, but at
> the same
> time i'm not sure how important it is to him.

Well, if you see some and it looks neat to one or both of you, go for it,
but I don't think there are rules... we've sort of naturally progressed
through different art materials as we see them or see work done with
them, but we've never used canvases... although now that you brought it
up, it sounds cool, and maybe we will. :-)

Daron

mary krzyzanowski

I saw a cute idea. "frames" painted on the wall that you then displayed the
child's artwork in.
Mary-NY

>From: "Mercedes" <earthacademy@...>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: Art Supplies
>Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 06:02:35 -0400
>
>**should i be buying acrylic paints, canvas and frames? i surely don't want
>to send a message that this is just kid stuff and not important, but at the
>same time i'm not sure how important it is to him. he loves to paint, **
>
>
>My 2.5 yo loves to paint and I just purchased some canvas & acrylics for
>her - call me crazy, but why not?! The canvas was on sale and it's a cute
>4x6 size - something for her to paint and we will give to grandma & daddy &
>so on. It makes her proud and happy and that's what it's all about. I too
>allow her to tell me where to hang the painting. Our home is her home so
>she has her things all over, not just in her room or on the fridge.
>
>Mercy
>
>
>


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

[email protected]

I asked Gina whether her Sonic-site art started on paper and she wrote this:

Most of my artwork starts on paper and is scanned, just as the message below
says about the boy's art. Then I color it with Photoshop.
Sometimes I'll make a logo or a banner from just what's on the computer, but
even then I sometimes use pictures I already have scanned and take parts of
them, paisting them into new places and editng them.

()xxxx];;;;;;;;;;>
~~~GINA~~~
<;;;;;;;;;;[xxxx()
of Flipside Element,
http://sonic_resuki.tripod.com/the_resuki_project/


(the "below" was the other mom talking about scanning art in)

Sharon Rudd

We use everything. Lint from the dryer (when I
actually use it...after a week or two of rain),
leaves, grass, hay, flowers (pressed,dried, copied)
feathers,pine needles, palmetoes,beads (made from
everything....even plastic drinking straws and
washers...anything with a hole in it, or that you can
put a hole in, shells, rags (quilts, rugs, doll
clothes, toy animals, pockets, bags, on and on),
recycled paper (free note pads...just cut off the
printed part, paper mache', weaving, drawing, make cut
out shapes from, save really nice pictures from 3rd
class mail) old boxes, milk jugs, all bottles, most
cans, rocks, dirt, mud, clay,charcole, DH tobacco
lids.....And do you belive we STILL have trash to
dump!!! No food type trash though! That all gets used
for the critters...then composted...one way or
another.

Have Fun!! Art supplies are the only thing that are
cheap!! It really is rewarding to make something from
nothing...beauty from chaos...

Sharon


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/

Mercedes

Right on Sharon, I like your list!

Mercy
-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon Rudd <bearspawprint@...>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, August 26, 2001 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: Art Supplies


>We use everything. Lint from the dryer (when I
>actually use it...after a week or two of rain),
>leaves, grass, hay, flowers (pressed,dried, copied)
>feathers,pine needles, palmetoes,beads (made from
>everything....even plastic drinking straws and
>washers...anything with a hole in it, or that you can
>put a hole in, shells, rags (quilts, rugs, doll
>clothes, toy animals, pockets, bags, on and on),
>recycled paper (free note pads...just cut off the
>printed part, paper mache', weaving, drawing, make cut
>out shapes from, save really nice pictures from 3rd
>class mail) old boxes, milk jugs, all bottles, most
>cans, rocks, dirt, mud, clay,charcole, DH tobacco
>lids.....And do you belive we STILL have trash to
>dump!!! No food type trash though! That all gets used
>for the critters...then composted...one way or
>another.
>
>Have Fun!! Art supplies are the only thing that are
>cheap!! It really is rewarding to make something from
>nothing...beauty from chaos...
>
>Sharon
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
>http://phonecard.yahoo.com/
>
>
>Message boards, timely articles, a free newsletter and more!
>Check it all out at: http://www.unschooling.com
>
>To unsubscribe, set preferences, or read archives:
>http://www.egroups.com/group/Unschooling-dotcom
>
>Another great list sponsored by Home Education Magazine!
>http://www.home-ed-magazine.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>