We took most of June completely off from homeschool, aside from a museum field trip (we went to the Perot in Dallas!) we have had a lazy, lovely summer vacation. Last week, I gently eased us back into an atmosphere of learning and structure with a Mama-made Summer 2024 Art Camp Palooza. Monday-Thursday I led the girls through guided art projects. By the end of the week, my girls each had an air-dry clay flower dish they had sculpted and painted, a pointillism cactus painting, a watercolor and acrylic bluebonnet painting, a silhouetted city scape, a paper mosaic, a splatter painting, an abstract name drawing, and then a painting of their choice. We talked about Jackson Pollock and being an innovator. We even had a friend over to do the splatter painting with us. It was a great week.

One of the highlights that I didn’t expect was a sweet episode of Bob Ross that we found on youtube. The story goes that Bob did a meet and greet where he met a man who said he loves to watch the show, but he sadly can’t paint because he is color blind. To show the man that everyone can paint, Bob does an entire painting in greyscale. The episode is called Shades of Grey, and it was inspiring and lovely.

To end the week off with a bang, we made thumbprint cookies and set up all the art on the kitchen island. When Matthew got home from work, we had an art gallery set up to showcase all of the girl’s hard work. Art can sometimes be last on our list during the school day, falling behind reading, math, history, and science, so it was a treat to pack in a full week of just creative enrichment.