Boys and Art and Books

    Boys

    Oh my sweet boys. They are 12, 10, 9, and 6. Yes, my hands were full when they were little. But they napped back then. Now they're awake for 13 hours a day. And the brutality! I texted my sister a few days ago that it would be nice to go one day without having someone come up from the basement bleeding. "But, Mom! We were just playing the monster game! I didn't MEAN to scratch his face!" 

    These are the drawings my 6-year-old produces and scatters around the house. I appreciate his effort but the quantity of these is overwhelming and the content...slightly alarming? 

Art

    I'm all for letting my boys express themselves in their art, but occasionally I try to direct their focus a bit. We took a field trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO a couple of months ago. We don't go very often because I'm not a lunatic, but our visits are always a pleasure. We stood in front of Monet's Water Lilies for 10 minutes as the lights dimmed and then slowly brightened as though day was dawning. Granted, during our visit we got reprimanded several times for stepping over a tape line or accidentally touching a wall. An hour of fine art was a fantastic way to spend a cold winter afternoon.

    As we wind down our school year, I am starting to dream of reclaiming our front living room as a sitting room and a quiet place for me during the day. (Anyone in KC need desks, chairs, and storage drawers? I know a gal...) As much as I'll be glad to have the room put back together, I am also starting to feel sentimental about our homeschool time coming to an end. I thought it would be nice to have the boys create some artwork for my walls as a subtle nod to our homeschool year. Using water, bleeding tissue paper, and four very distinct artistic styles/attention spans, they created these for me! I'm excited to have my boys sign their canvases, and then I'll frame them for my wall.

Books

    You all have no idea how hard it is for me to pretend to understand and/or care about: Legos, Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc. It's a constant onslaught of information I never wanted to know, but eventually they won't come to me to share every little thing they built, created, or learned. So I politely nod as I listen and try not to let my eyes glaze over.

    What my boys and I do have in common is our love of reading. I'm stupidly proud of the fact that my boys will ask for a break from school work and then go to the living room and do this:

    Our library hauls are pretty impressive, and I still can't figure out a good storage situation for our books.  To my credit, we (knock on wood) haven't lost a library book in 12 years! Maintaining my library account and researching books for the boys is a full time job that I love with all my heart.

  

    My 9-year-old read an I Survived book about the Nazis a couple of weeks ago. We had grandparents visiting us the day he finished it, and as we were serving dinner, he walked up to me and bluntly asked, "How did Hitler die?" So, that wasn't great timing, but I'm just happy they're reading, loving it, and soaking up hundreds of stories. I wish I had thought to keep track of the books these boys have read over the years.

    Thank you for your love and support!

Annie