Special Time with Grandma

What an awesome Grandma my kids have!

When Carrie and William were younger, Judy would plan special arts and crafts days with them.

She would come all prepared with a lesson and a project.

Some of my favorites were the "My Favorite Things" poster and the string art.  I probably have pictures somewhere...

Now that Joshua and Matthew are older (Matthew will tell you in no uncertain terms that he is a "Big Boy" now), 

Judy planned their first art lesson!

Last Wednesday, when the big kids were doing their library tour for their research writing class,  Grandma came with her special basket ready to teach a lesson on...

TEXTURE!

I left the room so that I would be out of the way a little.

I did have to pop in and out, though, to see what they were doing and to take a few pictures.

Grandma talked with the boys about what texture means and introduced some texture words like 

smooth, rough, soft, hard, pointy, fluffy, spiky, sticky...

Here is Josh wearing one of his favorite 

texture objects of the day.

He has that whole Super Hero thing going on...

He wore it for most of the lesson.

How does this feel?

 And here is a corduroy dress that Carrie wore 

when she was four!

 The next time I came back into the room, 

Grandma was having them close their eyes while she put 

a taste of something into their mouths.  

They were to describe the texture of the food.

Judy got a kick out of Matthew with the Cheerios in his mouth.  

She said that he just chewed and chewed and chewed on them.

She was also impressed with how trusting they were.

They just closed their eyes and opened their mouths.

Well, Matthew would start out with his eyes closed.

Then, just as the bite was coming in for a landing, 

he would take a squinty-eyed peek.

Matthew, how does that feel?

"Smooth.  Feet (Sweet).  Cold!"

It was a bite of pudding.

Good job!

 Here, Grandma asked them to close their eyes and hold out their hands so that they could try to guess what she put in their hands.

Matthew held out his hand and opened his mouth.

Smooth little rocks...

After the lesson time at the table, Grandma took the boys outside with paper and crayons.

They were to look for things that had texture so that they could make a "Rubbings Book."

I wish that I had taken my camera out to capture all of the fun!

Josh was so concentrated on finding things to rub!

Matthew started out that way, but I think that I did his last two pages for him...under his direction.

By the end of the day, the boys understood 

and remembered the word "Texture," 

and they had a book with labeled pages of their rubbings.

Some of the things in their books were 

tree bark, the driveway, the bottom of their shoes, 

the tire of the Monkey Bike, the bridge, a swing,

the air conditioner cage, the siding on the house, and a leaf.

Did you boys have fun?!

Are you super-proud of your books?

As Grandma and the boys made their way back into the house to put their books together, Josh looked at Judy and said, 

"Please don't go home now.  

I like it when you come over and play with me!"

Have I told you what a sweet boy Joshua is?

Matthew is pretty "feet" too.

Silly and sweet.

Enjoying Grandma Love,