Homeschool Art History

Emmy woke up grouchy this morning. Unfortunately (in this instance), Emmy's moods tend to be very contagious. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

We definitely had to increase the cool of our homeschooling today.

It started with pulling out my Michelangelo book for a brief life history of the man. It was his birthday on Monday, did you know that? He was born 536 years ago. 

You should have heard them trying to say Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. 

You should have heard me trying to say it. 

Can you believe this guy gave 5 years to the painting of this ceiling? I struggle with a painting after 5 days. 

Not to compare myself with the guy or anything.

After the lecture portion of the lesson, there was only one thing left to do. It was hands-on time!

What better thing to paint than the underside of the kitchen table? Who actually sees under there besides Claire? No one, that's who. 

Did you know that Michelangelo painted with a brush in each hand? Apparently Jonah does too. He dove right in.

Emmy was a little more meticulous. 

I was going to make a scaffold for them to lie down on while they painted - but upon further investigation it turns out Michelangelo didn't actually lie down on his scaffold, he just looked up while he painted. For five years. 

I wonder who his chiropractor was.

And lest you think highly of me unjustly, I must give the credit to this brilliant homeschool activity to my dear Mommy. My siblings and I got to do this to our kitchen table when we were little too. 

Then we also painted the top. And I'm pretty sure the legs eventually received their fair share of paint too, am I right Mom? Being raised by a hippie was the BEST.

Hi Claire. Sorry, you're too little. 

"What Mommy? I'm too little, you say? I'll show you too little..."

Hey! Give me that back! Sheesh Claire, aren't you supposed to be loading the dishwasher?

ahem.

Jonah decided that painting the floor was much easier on the neck.

And after snapping that photo I looked down to this:

Which was really cute and not too harmful so I took a photo. Then she did this...

and I'm pretty sure my camera got dropped. And I'm pretty sure her tongue is still blue.

And here we have Jonah's masterpiece:

He calls it "I'm hungry."

Not really, that's just all I could get him to say.

And Emmy's:

"This is you, Mom! Because I know you've always wanted blue hair."

How did she know that?

"This one is Daddy, except for I forgot to paint his eyes."

I can see some resemblance there, can't you?

"Mommy? Why are you in my favorite spot?"

Clean up was another matter all together.

I love washable paint. In fact, I Lurve it.

Putting Emmy (and the rest of us) back into a good mood was totally worth the mess.