I remember this horse hanging in the hallway when I was in school. Standing in line, my eyes would wander over all the dusty cowboys and cactus-laced western scenes until it rested on this long-lashed pony. It was my favorite time of year when the rodeo would come to town and our class would get the challenge to draw something for an award. I was 11 when I won the Rodeo Art contest with this little black and white sketch of a horse. It was much more of an honor for me (to get that blue ribbon) than it had been when a bank borrowed my still life drawing from the school and hung it in their lobby. After all, my horse was there in the hallway for me to see - the still life was boring (hated drawing it) and I never got to see it framed in the bank. A kid thinks with their eyes - and that other picture was out of sight, out of mind.
There never seemed to be enough time in the day for art when I was a kid. I was one of those dreamers who would rather doodle on my papers than finish them to turn them in. In my free time, I was always drawing (what little there was of it). I spent more time on the covers of my creative writing stories than I did on the story itself. For me, there was always an excuse to doodle. And when art wasn't on the schedule, I took to fancy handwriting instead.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Makes sense that my kids turn every math page in with artwork scribbled in between each row of problems. Funny how you forget these things until you see something you drew so many years ago. Looking back at your childhood is a wonderful tool in helping you understand where your kids are coming from.
This particular little horse was flooded like most everything else that I owned when my husband and I lived in Houston. I snapped this final shot of the mare and threw her moldy frame (her included) in to a plastic trash sack. Thank goodness for photography; or she would have been forgotten.
The purpose of sharing my rodeo art with you? Just a little reminder to you homeschool moms out there that are as busy as I am... don't forget the art! Leave some time in your hectic schedule for daydreaming and scribbling... and smudging charcoal and pastels over thick papers. It's music for the soul.
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Buzz Words: art, rodeo, horse, kids, children, homeschool, drawing, illustration, parenting, sketch, memories, homeschooling, teaching, western, personal
3 comments:
One of the best ways to get art in is by using it to teach other subjects- even math. There are a lot of excellent books out there that integrate math and art, or science and art, or history and art, etc.
Drawing with Children has a whole section devoted to integrating art with other subjects. There are also a lot of great resources here on the web. Since this is just a comment and is already running long, I won't go into them here, but I'll put a post up at my blog about it soon and I'll drop back by to let you know when it is up.
PS Love the horse and I love your little baby widget!
Blessings,
Julie
I always came back from our state's homeschool convention with lots of paper and art supplies. The kids looked forward to it like Christmas :)
Hope you are feeling great, and that the first trimester queasies are subsiding...
I love to have my kids write poetry or short stories, sometimes even just one sentence, and see what kind of illustration they can come up with. Word problems are much easier, too, if a little drawing is done.
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