A Colourful Summer

This summer we went to the innovative and educational 'Making Colour' exhibition at the National Gallery. It is apparently part of their 'National Gallery Inspires' programme of exhibitions, which aims to take a fresh view of their paintings alongside special loans, and features world-leading research by Gallery experts. The draw in particular for us and our rabble of ten 0-8 year olds, was the theme of colour, which was refreshingly presented in both art historical and scientific terms. From 8 month old Culturetot, for whom the dark rooms with their glowing (at times backlit) exhibits were clearly captivating, through the toddlers who are learning about shades and colour mixing, to our science-mad seven year old, and arty eight year old, there was something to interest every child. There was also an excellent, well thought out, guide for the older children full of facts and activities to complete. For the younger children we printed and laminated a set of images from the National Gallery website in advance and sent them on an I-Spy of works through the rooms. This is such a perennially simple and successful activity for our two and three year olds that we use it every time we go to an exhibition at present.

 

Following a short introduction to the colour wheel and the concept of complementary colours (indeed Renoir knew exactly what he was doing when he painted a yellow boat on dazzling blue water), together our intrepid time travellers journeyed through a set of rooms which each celebrated and unpacked the history of a single colour. First blue: once enormously expensive due the difficulties of producing the paint from natural minerals - Lapis Lazuli was transported from mines in far away Afghanistan - it was consequently used sparingly and to designate importance. Culturetot in particular was mesmerised by the backlit glowing deep blue mineral on display. Finally someone discovered how to make blue artificially and artists such as the impressionists were able to use it with abandon. Then Green, a colour vulnerable to fading over time - that is why trees in old paintings can seem blue. And why do faces of icons often appear green? Apparently artists often used it beneath pink to achieve just the right shade, now visible as the top layer has worn away. Then yellow, wildly in fashion in the 16th Century, and Orange - created using a poison. Red: I remember cochineal food colouring. Traditionally this consists of thousands upon thousands of crushed insects. What scrumptious facts for our older children. Purple: luxury and all the rage with the Victorians. Then finally gold and silver; some real, some in fact just yellow paint.

The exhibition was both aesthetically successful and fascinating. The children all really enjoyed it and I'd highly recommend it as a valuable learning experience. One warning though (and PLEASE PLEASE do not let this put you off going, I'm just arming you in advance) but visiting the National Gallery with children is not at times for the feint hearted. In this exhibition, we were disappointed to find that some of the clientele was extremely stuffy. Whilst actually talking about the art, we were shushed by older women who clearly considered it their prerogative to ponder the exhibition in utter silence, and very inappropriately a guard actually interrupted my friend who was (ironically) reading the childrens' guide to her young and impeccably behaved brood to ask her to keep the noise down. Now squealing toddlers can irritate me as much as the next person and our children are not perfect angels, they are mobile and enthusiastic, they need to ask questions, they want to have fun, but - as I was reminded as I emerged from the gallery with silent steam emerging from my ears - they were actually on pretty good form that day and all left brimming with facts and favourite paintings. So, somewhat conflicted, I went to talk to the desk. I'm not a complainer and I'm from the hardier stock of museum goers, but even I felt shaken by the experience. Happily I ended up speaking to a member of the education team, who appeared mortified by the feedback. I was surprised to learn that this was in fact primarily an exhibition intended for young people, and where families were supposed to be welcomed. When I suggested that perhaps they institute a number of 'quiet' sessions and 'noisier' sessions throughout the day so disgruntled oldies can view the art in silence while the potential curators of tomorrow actually get a respectful look in elsewhere, this was rejected on the grounds that this exhibition is supposed to be a place families can feel welcome, all the time, full stop. I'm hoping my feedback made it back to the front line though. With a brilliant education team (which the gallery appear to have), but objectionable guards who didn't appear to have read the 'families welcome' memo, I honestly think some parents in our shoes could have been put off forever. So, should this ever happen to you, please don't be. Keep going. It's worth it for the moments your two year old says her favourite thing is to get on a train to London to look at paintings, or identifies with delight a familiar print framed on a wall that she wishes "to jump into".

Alongside the exhibition, the wonderful Usborne books (in collaboration with the National Gallery) have brought out an original and fascinating children's Art Book about Colour. Like the exhibition, and so unlike so many other art books for children, this title is captivating and can be read from cover to cover. Brimming with scientific and historical facts, and packed full of famous as well as less well known images, it explores 15000 years of colour in art. What do colours mean? How are they made? Why do some colour combinations work better than others? How have artists achieved optical illusions and interesting effects using colour? Though the culturebabies are still a little young for some of the content, the images are wonderful, and I learnt a huge amount from the book which I could then begin to relay to them in simple form. I'd recommend this book any day as an extremely valuable addition to a child's art library. Another gorgeous book dealing with colour is Prestel's large and high quality The Great Art Treasure Hunt: I Spy, Red, Yellow, Blue by Doris Kutschbach. This clever and simply stunning book has been a resident on our breakfast table on numerous occasions. Taking one painting per double spread, it offers a number of items and/or colours to spot in a large spectrum of styles and themes of art and is really effective propped up on the table as a prompt for conversation and focus - particularly during the trickier dinner episodes with my reluctant eater of a toddler. It's one of the most useful books we own on art for children. There's also a handful of other great books we have discovered on colour in art. A great board book for younger children is Baby Einstein Van Gogh's World of Colour by Julie Aigner-Clark. It cleverly introduces each of six main colours to children through six of Van Gogh's works, complete with simple questions for them to consider and short quotations from the artist. Likewise, I Spy Colours in Art, is part of a series we particularly love, which makes a game of finding items and themes through great artworks. Other winners for toddlers are Eric Carle's The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, Susan Goldman Rubin's Andy Warhol's Colors (both reviewed here) and Wow Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. 

 
Over the last year we have done a number of simple and fun activities and experiments on the theme of colour, primarily using home-made busy bags or equipment. Here are a dozen of the best:

1. Colour Sorting with pairs of coloured images and felt rectangles:

(I also did another busy bag version with pairs of coloured shapes cut from felt - two each of triangle, square and circle in each of six colours, which can also be used for creating patterns and images). These simple packs were perfect for 18 months to two years.

2. Colour Sorting Busy Box:

This activity was created from a range of materials from each of six colours, with a felt rectangle base mat of each colour. I used felt shapes, feathers, buttons, pipe cleaners, pompoms of various sizes and coloured wooden clothes pegs. These were all then packed up and contained within a small portable box. This was of most interest to Culturebaby between 21 and 30 months.

3. Colour and Shape Pairing Button Box:

These have been played with from 21 months, when I created them, and they still interest Culturebaby.

4. Learning about colour mixing with food colours:

This was our first simple lesson about colour mixing. We read the book Posey Paints a Princess by Harriet Ziefert and then we took food colours in the three primary colours. We had fun changing the colour of the water with a pipette and then experimented to create other colours by mixing these. There are some great, and more complex follow on activities out there on the internet which we will use in the future.

5. Colour Gradation Paint Swatch and Peg Sorting Activity: 

I covered this in more detail in this post: http://www.culture-baby.net/2014/06/montessori-moment-training-hand-and.html This activity is perfect from around 2 and a half when a toddler knows all their colours and needs to move on to shades. It is also a great way to practice fine motor skills.

6. Colour Palette Matching using Tate Paintings:

This game was created using this brilliant Tate quiz: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/know-your-art-take-colour-quiz Print the clues, laminate, and there you have a great ready-made activity for colour palette and shade matching for slightly older children. This worked well for 3 to 8 year olds, but is great fun for adults too.

7. We're Going on a Colour Hunt (we're going to catch a green one...):

This simple activity involved collecting a specified number of items of a certain colour from around the house - good for numeracy and observation skills. You can go on to create a colour corner or display with the items and do nature versions.

8. Colour Matching Ribbons and Playdoh Activity:

We created this for a 16 month old as part of the Summer Love Books Exchange and you can see this activity here.

9. Introducing Watercolours:

My Dad is a great watercolour painter. I was always in awe of his ability to capture gorgeous little details of landscape in his sketchbook when I was a child. A few weeks ago he gave Culturebaby her first watercolour lesson. She loved exploring the effect of water on the paint and concentrated really well.

10. Playing with Colour:

We love colourful wooden toys, especially traditional stackers, pegs, beads and nesting toys. Great for a whole range of necessary toddler fine motor and cognitive skills.

 

11. Pom Pom tweezering, fine motor practice:

12. Threading colourful beads:

And of course you can never beat a trip to see some colourful and exciting art in the flesh, and even better when this can be handled or the toddler is invited to be part of the creative process as we were at the Royal Academy's Sensing Spaces Exhibition. We loved Matisse and we'll be going to see Mondrian and Malevich shortly as part of our continuing exploration of colour and shape. We'll report back...

Gallery Oldham

Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy

Kusama at Tate Modern

Disclaimer: We were sent copies of The Great Art Treasure Hunt, Posey Paints a Princess and The Usborne Art Book About Colour for review purposes. All opinions are entirely my own. 

2014 Summer Love Book Exchange

One of the lovely things about blogging is discovering like-minded people from across the world who love what you love and, not only this, generously share their inspiring ideas with others. We were therefore really excited to join a fun international book and activity swap hosted by The Educator's Spin On It with over 60 other bloggers this summer. Each participant was given the details of a blogger's child, and was asked to choose a book they personally love, design an age-appropriate activity to bring the story alive, and pop them in the post. Culturebaby loved packaging up our activities for her 16 month old little pen pal and drawing a card for him, and was even more delighted when she herself received a book and perfectly pitched little parcel to explore.

Toddlers adore practical life activities. Given that the only time I recall being content with a broom was during a schooldays performance of Fiddler on the Roof , I never fail to be amused by Culturebaby's unbridled enthusiasm when wielding a dustpan. Sometimes I'm convinced she makes a mess just to help clear it up again. When we first attended an art class over a year ago, Culturebaby spent the majority of the first couple of sessions with her hands in the washing up bowl. Of course, as proponents of the Montessori method explain, toddlers love to help around the house, they love to feel useful, thrive on order and don't necessarily see 'work' as any different to play. Giving them child-sized equipment, showing them the techniques and purpose of cleaning and giving them the means to carry out practical activities themselves gives them a great sense of satisfaction and independence. 

 Menai's book and activity was perfect. We received a clever little board book called Ten Dirty Pigs, Ten Clean Pigs. This 'upside-down, turn-around' title is an ingenious rhyming counting book which can either start with ten little piglets getting progressively less grimy as they bathe and learn to clean themselves, or with ten little clean pigs, who fail to stay shiny for long. Culturebaby was delighted to find that the book can be flipped over and over again in a perpetual cycle of muddy and bathtime play. 

Alongside the book, we received a package full of cleaning equipment for Culturebaby to explore. We read the book, prepared an al fresco bath in a large tub, fished out ten little pigs from our farmyard collections and she set to work cleaning, drying, lining up, and counting her porcine pals. I was amazed at how long this activity occupied my little lady and how much she concentrated on it. Such a simple idea and so successful. Thank you Menai.

So what in turn did we send to our 16 month old recipient? We included an arty favourite of ours: Andy Warhols's Colors, and combined it with a colour exploration activity. Culturebaby adored this bright and beautiful board book at this age and it's been a real favorite in our household. Toddlers love both animals and colour and this gorgeous little book uses these toddler-friendly topics and a catchy rhyming text to introduce the work of artist Andy Warhol. We wrote about exploring art with toddlers through animal themes further here. To accompany the book we made a colour matching sensory activity with different coloured and textured ribbons on a ring for the little one to explore and locate in the different pages and artworks. We also included one little pot of play-dough for each colour so that the parent can supervise and work with the baby to create their own miniature versions of the coloured animals. Again, Culturebaby loved exploring play-dough at this age and starting to shape and manipulate the material. We hope our little book buddy enjoys it and look forward to hearing about it...

If you'd like to check out some of the other great ideas as part of this exchange, and perhaps you'd like to organise your own with friends, the Love Book exchange Pinterest Board is here.

  

Illustrious Birthdays (and a Giveaway)

Don't worry, it's the angle, Peppa's snout is not in jeopardy...

We celebrated a couple of significant birthdays in our household yesterday. One of Culturebaby's favourite things is having a regular *she clarifies in case we didn't know* 'pretend' birthday. If they are lucky, her soft toys get a turn too. Yesterday, however, was different. As readers will know, my attempts at domesticity in the form of baking are far and few between, and whilst a few months ago you witnessed shocking scenes of actual bread-making in celebration of literary prowess, the culinary arts are not really my bag. However, nothing short of the best would do for our illustrious pair, so I donned my metaphorical apron, scooped up our soggy bananas, and a tutu-clad Culturebaby and I made a cake. We really enjoyed it.... and, I'm informed (in what I hope wasn't solely a show of sympathetic support from Culturedad) it tasted good. Hurrah!

Peppa and George feature in many of our projects. Here they are enjoying Matisse.

A good friend of mine will no doubt chortle when she reads that her campaign to ensure I recognised the educational merits of introducing a tiny pink pig named Peppa to my two year old was rather a successful one. Shortly after, my champion charity shopping mother acquired a soft toy and series of Peppa books, gave them to Culturebaby, and the victory was sealed. I've since become rather a fan of these endearing picture books, which simply but cleverly address every manner of toddler quandry and new experience in an encouraging way. Peppa is, of course, the stereotypical pre-schooler, and for all her swimming, recycling and artistic experimentation, she likes nothing more than jumping in muddy puddles. We went to see a touring musical performance featuring our porcine friend this year and Culturebaby was gripped throughout. Peppa and George are here to stay.

Culturebaby was therefore delighted to receive an advance copy of a new title The Big Tale of Little Peppa, published a few days ago, to celebrate 10 years of Peppa Pig's conquest of family homes across the land. Peppa, now of course a 'big girl', is faced with a baby picture of her and her friend Suzy Sheep. She insists that it cannot be her; she was never a baby. Consequently, her parents take her on a wonderful journey of enlightenment; showing her (and us) something of her earliest days - including the advent of George and his Dinosaur. Grrrr! This nostalgic book also provides a great opportunity to unearth the baby pictures to share with your own toddler. Culturebaby, for one, likes little more than examining old photographs of herself and her pals.

We also decided to utilise the cake, given my baking attempts occur with the approximate frequency of sightings of Halley's comet, to celebrate another children's literary hero. As readers will know, for the first time in 50 years the text of Dick Bruna's classic Miffy series has undergone a revamp for today's tots by award winning poet Tony Mitton. In February we were lucky enough to meet Miffy at a star-studded launch of the first tranche of new titles (see here) and we have just received the next four wonderful titles to enjoy this summer. With her penchant for birthday celebrations, one of these - the new Miffy's Birthday - was always going to be a winner. Miffy's day is simple but joy-filled - family, friends, a special dinner and some thoughtful little gifts. No mortgage-creating, fully catered, underwater soft-play trampolining bonanza for 70. This is old school and heart-warming. The book even features the arrival of Miffy's iconic teddy bear, which my creative Dad turned into a home-made wooden jigsaw for me as a child. Miffy and I go way back...

But where was Miffy's cake? Given that we were celebrating Miffy's real (re-)Birthday a cake really was necessary. We got to work. Miffy clearly appreciated it, whilst Peppa couldn't keep her snout out of the tin...

My mother's banana cake is the stuff of legend amongst my old school friends. I gather the original recipe came from an old blender pamphlet, but it is frankly better than its humble origins. The blender was long ago consigned to the dump, but the scrap of paper remains. If you and your little ones fancy replicating Peppa and Miffy's birthday cake here are the simple instructions, which even I failed to mess up, complete with banana stains dating to antiquity:

 

To celebrate Peppa's 10th birthday we are excited to be running our very first giveaway. The lovely people at Ladybird have offered a copy of The Big Tale of Little Peppa to three of our UK based readers. Do enter using the simple Rafflecopter below, and please share the love with other Peppa fans you know.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tiny Ballerina

If it were possible, Culturebaby would eat, sleep, play and attend nursery in a tutu. Since beginning ballet lessons a few months ago she has completely fallen in love. Her heart belongs to her ballet slippers and full participation is mandatory. I've cooked a roast in a tutu, Culturetot is expected to perform her own solo 'dance' across the floor at our weekly lessons and even Daddy features in the daily routine of So Long Farewell, in which our very own Gretel must be carried upstairs at the coda. 

With our tiny ballerina in mind, I've been scouring the shelves for quality picture books on the topic. I was  delighted to discover that the inspirational author and illustrator of the Katie series of art books, James Mayhew, has created Ella Bella, a lovable little ballerina who is drawn into a series of famous ballets by an enchanted musical box. Culturebaby immediately related to the little heroine, who loves her ballet lessons so much that she ultimately becomes part of the dance, aiding the characters in their quest for their happy ever after. We have two of the books in the series, and I suspect we may have to invest in the others as Culturebaby regularly opens the front covers and wistfully (or craftily) identifies the images of the books in the series that she does not yet own. The series is beautifully illustrated using techniques reminiscent of screen-printed books from the 40s and 50s, giving it a vintage flavour; and James Mayhew's knowledge of music and fascination with theatrical design, which he has studied, ensure the quality and value of these books.

Culturebaby was lucky to receive, from James, his stunning take on Cinderella based on Sergei Prokofiev's ballet. Appropriately Ella Bella loses a ballet shoe on her journey to her lesson and is invited to select a new pair from a beautiful trunk. The tale of Cinderella then becomes the theme of her ballet class, where the children dance to Prokofiev's creation. After class and alone on the stage Ella opens the musical box and, as she dances, the fairies of the four seasons whirl around her, accompanied by and the fairy godmother herself. Ella provides a pair of dancing slippers for Cinderella from Madame Rosa's chest and accompanies her to the ball. As midnight strikes and Cinderella dashes from the palace leaving her shoe behind, Ella helps guide the prince to his true love.

In another title we happily stumbled across recently, Ella is introduced to Tchaikovsky's famous classical ballet Swan Lake, and again she is drawn into the enchantment. She finds herself amongst a flight of beautiful swans where she helps Odette, the swan princess, to break a sorcerer's curse that morphs her daily into a swan - keeping her from her true love. It seems that they have almost succeeded in uniting the lovers when the sorcerer arrives to the ball with his ravishing daughter Odile, dressed as a black swan and masquerading as Odette. Foolishly the prince is deceived, promises his love to Odile, and Odette flees. Culturebaby finds this section all rather nerve-wracking, so happily the author has opted for a more joyful ending amongst the plethora of possible options this ballet has featured over the years. I fear a dying swan may be rather too tragic for a toddler. She has plenty of time to explore the darker elements of this tale in future years or indeed dream of playing the prized dual roles of Odile and Odette which are traditionally performed by the same prima ballerina. Appropriately, we are told, the original idea for Swan Lake grew out of a children's ballet called The Lake of Swans, which Tchaikovsky wrote for his niece and nephew to perform at home. It was later turned into a 4 act ballet for the famous Russian Bolshoi and gained huge success only after his death. No pressure Cultureuncle...

Just like Mayhew's Katie series, another favourite in our household, these books are a wonderful, accessible, introduction to the stories of the famous ballets; allowing little ones to believe that they too can leap into the dance and become part of the magic. We've developed a lovely bedtime routine with these tales, which has really captured Culturebaby's imagination. Whilst we read the stories and as the musical box begins to play in the books, we listen to the real music of the ballet in the background. Once we finish the book we then snuggle up and view a couple of clips of famous companies performing scenes from the ballet using You Tube. I've been amazed at how well, once she knows the story, Culturebaby is able to concentrate on, and discuss, these. Watching her enthusiasm is frankly good for my soul. She dances all day, and she can't tear herself away from her ballet lessons; peering round the curtain to observe the 'big girl' class as long as she is allowed. I've heard that there is a shortened annual production by the ENB entitled My First Ballet designed for young children that will shortly be announcing next spring's season. What a wonderful idea. I can't wait to take her.

“Swan Lake is hundreds of years old and Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, go back to ancient times – to the magic of China and the very oldest Greek stories. This is the magic that I was part of, with The Royal Ballet. Night after night I was transformed in my dressing room from an ordinary person into a princess who would experience good and evil. My world on stage inside the magic of these wonderful stories was not too different from the world of Ella Bella ballerina you can read about here. James Mayhew, through the eyes of a child, reveals the exciting sense of possibility that children see and understand – and sadly grown-ups lose. These books can inspire all those children who dream of entering this world. They certainly take them into a magical realm. And who knows, like me, they might stay in there for years.”

Doreen Wells, former Prima Ballerina, Royal Ballet

Disclaimer: We were sent Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella for review purposes. All views are as always our own. We love these books.

Inspiring Finds: Not a Stick

Sometimes, when you least expect it, the perfect book launches itself instinctively into your path at just the right time. I keep meaning to record these literary gems when they do, so here is this week's little treasure - purchased for a hefy 5p from our local library's bargain bin. Culturebaby is a big fan of imaginative play and some of her favourite props at the moment are sticks. In recent days the humble stick has been transformed into kites and umbrellas, has slain dragons, swept floors, prepared cinderella for the ball, caught fish and featured in ballets. Initially I was a little nervous about my enthusiastic daughter wielding a stick in public... until I saw what she was actually doing. Of course it wasn't a stick at all.

So when we opened Antoinette Portis' clever little book Not A Stick for the first time Culturebaby immediately related to it and loved it. By the third reading she was completing every line. A little pig is consistently told to be careful with that stick, look where he is going with that stick, don't trip on that stick, be careful where you point that stick, and each time he insists it is NOT a stick. With beautiful illustrations, we the readers are invited to glimpse what is really going on in his imagination. Indeed the stick is not as it seems. Pig is leading a band, lifting weights. He is Van Gogh, Lancelot, Buffalo Bill... He's the tamer of dragons, the hunter of sharks. This book is a wonderful accompaniment to Julia Donaldson's Stick Man, another current favourite. Taken from his wife and children as he goes for a jog, Stick Man is of course not a stick at all, but why can nobody see it? He isn't a boomerang, an arm, a sword, a Pooh stick; he doesn't want to be chased by dogs or form part of a nest, and he certainly isn't firewood! Will he ever make it home to the family tree?

Here's a great printable to accompany Not a Stick, and a very simple activity we'll be trying in the next few days will be to collect sticks from nature and use them as the basis for creating our own pictures.

One of Culturebaby's Montessori trays this week has also been particularly appropriate. I dug out a vintage set of Construct-o-Straws from my mother's toy hoarde and it is proving to be rather a winner. As well as providing great practice for fine motor skills, this set has been transformed into crowns, houses and simply used as wands. You can easily create a similar activity with straws and playdoh or even try pipecleaners and a collender.

 

As a mother of girls, I found that this brilliant little advert really affected me:

 

My daughters are beautiful, but they are so much more than that. If Culturebaby wants to wear tutus whilst pretending to mow the lawn, climb trees and play with trucks I'm happy. I will tell her every day she is loved and that she can be who she wants to be. I want to allow my girls to be free to experiment with nature, build dams, climb trees and let their imaginations run wild. At this magical age a stick is rarely a stick, a box is rarely a box, and toddler's dreams are fragile, beautiful and in need of nurturing. Never was a custodian's job so crucial.