My daughter's interest in painting is growing as ever. Especially now that we discovered gouache. I liked it because it was easier to mix the pigments, quick drying yet easy to reactivate should you change your mind about the shade, also, if you accidentally poured too much, it's not gonna go to waste because it could just literally sit there in your paint palette until you need that color again. My daughter loves it because of its quick drying property. She loves art but her patience needs a lot of work.
For this quarter's nature study, our focus is the fishes in the Philippines. If you're from the Philippines or is interested in teaching young kids about some of the Philippine marine life, you might want to check out A First Look at the Philippine Fishes published by Tahanan books. They actually have books for flowers, fruits, birds, and trees as well. We've gone through the birds and flowers, now, we are going through fishes. The books also show general information about the topic. Did you know that fishes have swim bladders which acts as a floatation device that helps them either float or sink when they want to? Amazing, right?
This week, we learned about the flying fish. I planned on buying one from the fish market but unfortunately, there's no flying fish available on our Nature Study day. A few months ago, when I cooked tilapia for lunch, before I actually cooked it, I had her study its parts first. She touched it, smelled it, and really observed it up close. It is something to look at fish in books but it's quite different when kids actually see it in front of them and study it closely.
We just contented ourselves with the image in the book for the flying fish. The book has really amazing illustrations and does show the features of the fish so that kids would take notice. I was not in the mood to paint when we did our nature study so I just watched and guided her while she does her own painting.
She started by stretching her paper. To stretch the paper, you need to just wet the paper with water and wait for it to dry. It's too hot so the paper just dried quickly. She usually foregoes the background but for this one, I advised her to paint the entire page a shade of light blue. Thanks again to the dry hot weather we've been having, the light blue layer dried quickly again.
Next, she drew the outline of the flying fish. Because of the book from Kamo, she was able to do this very well. It's not perfect, but I can see she did it as beautiful as she possibly can. Her next job was to fill in the colors in the drawing. This is where she usually is challenged. She had to exert extra effort so she could take this to the finish line. And she did. With flying colors.
It's so much easier to teach a kid when they are interested and they ask questions. She's comfortable making remarks and comments, and as long as she's making them in a respectful way, our conversation continues. She felt so tired from chasing the shadings and doing the lines using her paintbrush but she powered through. And I can see she's very happy with the result.
To cap it off, she wrote down the name of the fish she drew, added in the scientific name as well. We're going to add in the scientific names from here on forward. She doesn't need to memorize it but it's good copywork practice so we're rolling with it. Then, she wrote her observations, some questions - which we discussed afterwards - then she related it to something that the fish reminds her of. For this one, she thinks the fin looked like a bird's wings so that's what she wrote down.
As soon as she put down her paintbrush, she stepped away because it was really too much for her. The painting ate away her energy and her patience. And that is totally understandable. She cried because she feels bad for feeling that way and so I told her that it's a normal thing and it's good that she was able to express how she felt. So this is not just some painting lessons, it's nature study, arts, and a little bit of stress management session.
