help with art

[Nealewill]

I have yet another question for all of you wonderful moms.

My son is 7 and is an art disaster student! He has limited fine motor skills (behind his peers) but he has an excellent attitude, never complains, and honestly I don't think he even knows he has a problem For example, we just finished unit 8 in Beyond. He was making a boat. He cut out his boat from brown paper, glued it on blue paper, drew ropes for masts, glued on his sails (those I cut out) and then he was supposed to "paint waves." Younger sister also does this also very similarly. However, with the sails, he proceed to take that paint brush and smears white ALL OVER THE BROWN BOAT! And they weren't even wavy, he just jams that paint brush around laying the tip on it side shoving back and forth. There is no "swiping" at all. His younger sister by the way took her picture and delicately painted these "waves" that looked like curves ~~~~ all over in the blue like you would expect to see. I know I shouldn't compare but I am having a hard time. The younger child is gifted (she turns 6 in February), does most stuff better than her brother (except math), and it just wears on me. And - my son has actually been to occupational therapy and his fine motor skills are improving but are still more limited. He has also been to speech therapy and I honestly wonder if he even understood fully what I was asking him do. For example, paint waves might have meant in his mind, paint the entire boat to look like these waves were hitting the boat. The boy is very smart and does think outside the box. I am trying to give his effort some credit and thinking he was trying do what I asked but because of his limited language and communications skills, fully explain what and why he did it is sometimes a little illusive. And no - I am not a mean mom. Every piece of art work he completes, I tell him it is wonderful and that I love it.

So my question is, any suggestions to help with art? I don't want to criticize him because I fear it would stifle him. But I think his painting could be a lot better and more comfortable with more practice. Plus, he seems like he likes doing it. He usually hustles to the table for art time and is very proud of his master pieces. (This is the first year he has enjoyed any art at all) I am honestly very proud of him too even though it doesn't always look like he art went according to plan. He tries the hardest out of my 3 kids and his stuff never looks like it. Poor guy. So am seeking for some advice on how to help him in this area. Any thoughts? And it is okay if your thought is just leave him alone too. That is all I got going on right now LOL.

[chillin'inandover]

Daneale,
This reminded me of my son. While joining me scrapbooking he covered a photo with spider webs using puffy paint markers. Where was the photo? Sometimes I need to remind him that God is a God of order, and we need to glorify God by doing our best. My 11 yo son has made steady progress in HOD that he made beautiful watercolor paintings in CTC. I was an OT for 13 years, but learned a few extra techniques from Diane Craft. My son has been allergic to pencils. How is your son's handwriting? Ask the OT for activities to do at home, and how or what to expect at home. Art is surely appreciated by the artist. At least the paper wasn't destroyed. My 7yo is neater and is an artist. It is hard not to compare when frustrated. That is what grace and forgiveness are all about.
My 7yo dd has been in speech, special Ed preschool, and IEP. We no longer could afford private therapy, so for 18 months we did it at home. We removed her from IEP before K. This past Fall she was re-evaluated. She no longer needs speech! A miracle! Speech therapist said the best therapy is that she can now read. Reading improves comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary. I look forward to Preparing as she will do more reading and all those skills will soar! She is in Beyond (8 in February). Slow steady progress. She has auditory processing issues so it varies what she understands each day. That is like a muscle , so I keep reading to her. Watching DVD's for some things has helped and the visual aspect of Singapore math has helped too. HOD has been a blessing as it has included things dd has needed to do that 3 older kiddos didn't need to do or learn as it came naturally.
Homeschooling helps all of us-patience, art appreciation, grace, academics. Who knew! Praying that you find and see each child's unique gifts, and find help to improve the challenges.

[psreit]

Daneale,

My daughter has/had many of the same struggles that you and Tammy both mentioned. She also has dyslexia, and some areas dyslexics have strengths are music and art. I know she is strong in both. But, the other problems, similar to what you and Tammy mentioned, are hindering progress in certain areas. For instance, I believe Angie has a definite gift to play the piano (by ear). But, she had CP which weakened one side of her body, so she cannot get her left hand to work the keys like it should. It's getting stronger, but it is still difficult. She LOVES art, but for some reason, painting has always been difficult for her. I remember when she was younger(she's 10 now), if I would give her paints and a plain piece of paper, she would just smear paint all over the paper, not even keeping colors separate. She would smear them all together until the whole paper was basically brown or black. Even now, if given paints, she has difficulty painting a picture, although it is getting better. But, give her paper and pencil and she can draw the most beautiful flowers. (Drawing was also a difficulty when she was younger) I wanted to get an art program for her this year, so she would have some formal instruction. So, I asked her what she would rather do, and she chose drawing. I let her choose two, so she also picked pastels (she has had some experience with that from an art class in co-op). But, she did not want painting. However, she loves to watch professionals painting pictures on the educational channel. I know she finds it fascinating. Maybe someday I'll get her some art instruction in painting. By the way, these art programs are for Christmas, so she hasn't even started them yet.

I remember when we started doing the art projects in HOD, my daughter could not understand just drawing lines a certain way. We did Beyond, and I don't remember how we did the boat you are referring to, but I may have drawn a pencil line wave and had her paint from the line down. She needed that visual. I know she could see it in her mind, but she couldn't get it on paper. She is also one that becomes very frustrated and gives up when something doesn't go right. So, she needs a lot of guidance in certain areas. I know this project is already finished, but for future projects, like the example I gave for the waves, make an outline, or give him a pencil and guide his hand to make the outline himself. Then he will have a boundary and will see how, as Tammy stated, things are done in order. Just keep guiding and I believe you will see progress. HTH

[Nealewill]

His handwriting is much better than last year. He can only print and he doesn't do cursive (we are in Beyond so we won't do cursive till next year.) And for copy work, he writes for a solid 5+ minutes without complaining at all. Since we are copying poetry, he usually writes 4 lines each day. But he does use special pencils for handwriting that are big and thick. This has helped him a lot. And his muscle strength in his hands has greatly improved. Those are the things they worked with him on most. I am kind of tapped out on cash and we aren't taking him to OT anymore or speech. We started with Speech 2 years ago and then he improved enough he could read and people could understand him. So they basically graduated him and recommended that we just work with him at home. Then we did OT for a little while after that. But once he could do things slowly and correctly, then they graduated him there too. He still does strength exercises a couple of times a week now. But now he is in counseling for anxiety. $7,000 later I am officially broke and still paying for some form of therapy LOL!

I am encouraged to hear that your son is doing much better with his painting in CTC. I was half wondering if using a table top easel might encourage him to hold his paint brush differently and help him to "stroke" the paper maybe. We also got him some thicker handled brushes since that seemed to help with writing but I have seen no change. What do you think about the easel?

And I do love HOD and what it teaches. I have actually thought about holding him back about a half a year or a full year anyway to give him just a little bit more time to work on fine motor skills, communication, and understanding because I don't think he will be ready for R&S next year in bigger at the beginning of the year. He is 7 1/2 right now. He probably could start DITHOR on time though because his spelling and hand writing is much improved. I think he can actually spell better too because he can hear the word and now uses his mouth correctly to make the sounds of that word. Math he is a wiz so I am not worried there. But I am just worried with the drawing in Preparing, the grammar and the narration (actually making cohesive connections that you can put together). Plus I am worried about his language with writing in general since it language seems a little limited with respect to using multiple of different words to communication a similar message. I have been reading a ton to my kids so that is encouraging to here that it should hopefully help. And he does notice some words that are unfamiliar because he will ask what this word or that word means. He can also recall what is read to him now better than before. I am hoping by the end of the year it gets better still. Realistically, 3rd grade is when I have heard that most kids "catch up together." So the kids that were ahead aren't nearly as advanced and the kids that were behind are now much more similar in level all around. But I guess if he doesn't really make huge strides once we start Bigger, then I that will be my final confirmation to hold him back some. Kids are so tricky as you know. With using this curriculum, I feel like we are a year behind because it teaches differently. And I love what it does teach. That is why we switched. But now I am wondering if I will want him to take an extra year.

[Nealewill]

I remember when we started doing the art projects in HOD, my daughter could not understand just drawing lines a certain way. We did Beyond, and I don't remember how we did the boat you are referring to, but I may have drawn a pencil line wave and had her paint from the line down. She needed that visual. I know she could see it in her mind, but she couldn't get it on paper. She is also one that becomes very frustrated and gives up when something doesn't go right. So, she needs a lot of guidance in certain areas. I know this project is already finished, but for future projects, like the example I gave for the waves, make an outline, or give him a pencil and guide his hand to make the outline himself. Then he will have a boundary and will see how, as Tammy stated, things are done in order. Just keep guiding and I believe you will see progress. HTH

Thank you Pam,

I think you are right. I think I should probably try doing my own and show him what I am talking about. That would definitely help with fine motor skills. Plus, I could might get him a paint set this Christmas. I actually got both of his sisters one. So he would probably enjoy his own. That way he could work on what ever he wanted. He is actually very creative (to a point), it just doesn't always look like what you think it is.

[LynnH]

My ds has mild Cerebral Palsy that mostly involves his hands. He has hand tremors and weak hand muscles so he has difficulty writing. His handwriting will never be a very functional way to communicate so he types most things although he does do the copywork in the guides and writes for fill in the blank type things. When he started Preparing at age 10 he had great difficulty even coloring in the lines. For Draw and Write Through History I let him trace the pictures and then color them in. When he did the watercolor painting in CTC his paintings never looked like what I thought they should and were pretty basic. Having said all that I accepted whatever he did as long as I felt he had done his best. Every year his skills have improved. Now in MTMM my son still isn't great at painting, but his nature journal and his Draw and Write Through History drawings are pretty good. In fact he drawing is one of his favorite things to do in his free time. All the art in HOD has definitely made a difference in his fine motor skills and his hand strength.

You said that your ds now likes the art and seems pleased with what he has done. Hearing that I would not try and correct anything he does. It sound like at this point in time he is giving you the best he is able to. As he grows and matures he will most likely start improving things on his own. I think at 7 1/2 boys especially aren't super aware of all the details of how something is supposed to look. As he matures and becomes more aware he will probably improve. The only thing I might do if his language will allow it is ask him to repeat in his own words what the instructions are telling him to do. That way you would know if he fully understood the directions. If he doesn't seem to understand then I might show him what I thought the instructions meant.

[Nealewill]

The only thing I might do if his language will allow it is ask him to repeat in his own words what the instructions are telling him to do. That way you would know if he fully understood the directions. If he doesn't seem to understand then I might show him what I thought the instructions meant.

Thank you - I think I will definitely try this next time.

[mom23]

The only thing I might do if his language will allow it is ask him to repeat in his own words what the instructions are telling him to do. That way you would know if he fully understood the directions. If he doesn't seem to understand then I might show him what I thought the instructions meant.

Thank you - I think I will definitely try this next time.

Yes, and then, building on this idea, you might be able to ask questions to help him process the directions a bit further. For example, "It says to paint waves. Where do you think we'd find the waves: on the water, or on the boat?" I have a couple of school-aged boys...no LD's that I'm aware of, but they are boys. I've been known to ask things like, "What color would the sun be?" or "Should the car be driving on the road or in the sky?" One of my boys began to get too carried away with the silliness of that line of questioning and I moved it to something more like, "Where does the car drive?" Anyway, you probably get the idea. In these discussions I realized that one of my boys was intentionally doing things wrong, because he wanted a purple sun, or the car looked funny in the sky. At that point, we could have discussions about the importance of following directions, or doing our very best to make our project neat and his art abilities skyrocketed! He honestly just thought it didn't matter.

[Nealewill]

I love your suggestion also Becky - thank you so much.

[my3sons]

Take heart - my oldest ds used to color EVERYTHING with black crayon scribbles! He is now in high school and with HOD's help through the past preschool through now years, he is a good artist - not a naturally gifted artist - but an artist that can complete nice art projects. I used a marker board a LOT. I sketched what he was to do. I also had him repeat directions back to me - not in a demeaning way - but just in an 'I get what I have to do now' way. I had him point to where on the paper he would draw 'x,' where he'd paint 'y,' etc. It really helped! I remember in Draw and Write - he drew an elephant. It had every single step of the drawing directions it needed to... it was just 1 inch by 1 inch. Perspective was hard for him. I'd just do a LOT of modeling and cheerfully working beside him. You'll see improvement! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Nealewill]

This is encouraging. I have seen your posts about your week and your son does do a pretty good job.