A Spring to Remember

It's definitely been a Spring to Remember. I was actually at school helping with Tyler's painting project when our governor announced that school was going to shut down for the next 6 weeks. I sat there chatting with Tyler's teacher about how unbelievable this all felt. For someone like me that stays home, sure this could work. I might go crazy, but we can make it work. But what about all the people that don't have that option? What was going to happen? How was the last year going to wrap up with graduation for my senior? What was going to happen with his upcoming military plans? So many unknowns are scary, but now here we are, two and a half months later and things are still pretty unknown. 

Of course, some things regarding school have worked themselves out. Parents became "distance learning teachers". Our kids became proficient in typing and using computers and Kindles and Ipads for things they never had before.  Our in-class sessions were cancelled for the rest of the school year and Zoom became our new normal way to communicate with our classes and for Girl Scout meetings. 


Sometimes we liked school at home. Sometimes we didn't. 


We did our school work on mom and dad's bed. And sometimes at the park. 


Sometimes we cooked and baked. Tyler and Summer learned to crochet. We did tons of puzzles. And we did Honors Pottery right in the bedroom.  Sometimes we lounged and watched too much tv/video games.


Girl Scouts sold cookies virtually. And did projects via zoom, like art, bird feeders, learning about CyberSecurity, and Earth Day. We have virtual camp- in, made s'mores, shadow puppets on the wall, and did I mention sell cookies?

My senior finished his senior year through zoom calls and google hangouts. He turned 18 and swore into the United States Navy without us there to watch.

He graduated high school virtually, with his picture on a tv screen, without his friends by his side.  To say that this isn't how we saw the year wrapping up is quite the understatement. But thankfully, this chill kid of mine has taken it pretty well and of course, he is bummed. This isn't how he envisioned the year either. 

None of expected to spend our days entirely at home. Husband working from the kitchen table, cords plugged in in different directions. Doing schoolwork on the couch or the bed. Finding new ways to be creative, never leaving the backyard. But here we are, Killin' it! 

3rd Grade Art A Spring Path

It's been a little while since I have stopped by to say hi. You'd think right now I'd have all the time in the world to work on my blog when in reality, life is pretty busy.  So I wanted to finally share this project, 3rd Grade Art - A Spring Path, that I helped Tyler's class with.


It's bittersweet because this actually ended up being the last project I got to do with Tyler's class. I am really grateful that his teacher let me come into the class and do some paintings with them. We did some fun paintings this year and I hope the kids enjoyed it! And as always, DecoArt made it all possible as they supplied ALL of the paint I needed to do these projects with 23 kids!

I found this 3rd grade art A Spring Path on Pinterest.  StepByStepPainting.net provides an easy breakdown to help kids (and adults!) make a beautiful picture. I did change up the colors a little bit so I didn't have quite so many shades, as that gets more complicated than we need it to be with 23 kids!

And as you can see from my picture below I still used quite a few colors. But the kids do great at following directions and then also making it there own.

I started with sketching out a small part for the sun, adding the bright background and creating the path. After I added one layer for the path I went over it with another shade of grey to add some dimension. Then I added green for grass. It isn't very easy to tell, but there is a second green that I added as well so it gives it a pop of color in the grass.


Next, I added the black for the trees. Once the trees were mostly dry I wanted to add some extra color. I decided to add brown into them to create some bark on the trees.


Last, I used three different pinks to create the leaves. I added leaves all over trees and then mixed some of the colors for fun to make additional colored flowers.


As you can see below the kids made it their own by added some birds and a tree stump.


I think they all did a great job!


This was some fun 3rd grade art! A Spring Path was a great way to end of year!

It really was a fun day and a fun project to work on with a group of 3rd graders! They are super fun and creative!

If you like these, check out a few of our other projects from the year! Winter's Night, Tree Ornaments, Fall Leaves