Many times over the last 2-3 years I have looked into various painting classes for Nadia. More and more new art studios have been popping up around us. I had looked into classes at three different studios in the past, and then recently I learned of another studio that opened just this year only fifteen minutes from us. One studio is run by a woman who had been a public school art teacher in Baltimore. The typical price is $20 per class, and that price includes supplies. Most of the classes are either 90 minutes or 2 hours long. The price had always been what stopped me in the past. The reason I decided to give this one a try was because I noticed she offered an art class for homeschoolers one Wednesday morning a month. She advertised the class in this way,
"children will learn art history, color wheel, different types of art media, and much more." Nadia and Ian were the only two kids in the class today. They each created a 16x20" canvas of a monkey.
I took Oliver to our church's playland during the class. I came back at 11:35 because I wanted to see the end of their class, but they were already done painting. They were sitting on a couch looking at picture books when I arrived. The class was supposed to go until noon, but it seems they didn't need that much time. From talking to the kids it didn't sound like there was any other instruction that went on aside from how to mix colors. The kids enjoyed the class and are proud of their paintings. Nadia said she did his 100% on her own, and she said the teacher helped Ian with his a little bit. She said Ian finished his before she did. The canvases are now displayed on their bedroom walls. It really is a nice addition to the decor of their rooms although the theme of monkeys actually matches Oliver's decor not theirs, but it's nice displaying their art work on the wall like that. I need to do more of that throughout the house!
I still think it's rather pricey. It was $40 for the two of them to have this one class. In contrast I will pay $40 for two of them to be in a 90 minute gym class for 6 weeks in April and May. She is offering art camps this summer, but they are also $10/hour ($250/week for a 5 day camp that meets 5 hours a day). Thankfully the painting and drawing camp I signed them up for at the children's museum is much cheaper ($117 for TWO kids to be in a 5 day camp that meets 3 hours a day), which comes to $3,90 per hour. I do not plan to make it a regular habit to take them to an art class every month, but it would be fun to take them to an art studio to paint a canvas maybe once or twice a year.
After the art class I took them directly to the mall for a Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was nothing to write home about. I don't ever plan to take them to an event like that again. The mall had advertised there would be games, food, crafts, etc. They were allowed to pick one craft - either color a hat or put some stickers on a tiny foam teapot. Then they were each given a juice box and a tiny cupcake. The paper plate and napkin were Alice in Wonderland themed. That was it. There weren't any games. It wasn't worth the drive. I think it was a gimmick to get people to pay $$ to have their picture taken with the Easter bunny. The kids asked, but I declined.
For dinner tonight we tried a recipe for our study of Iraq called potato and beef kebba. The kids and I all ate it pretty easily with ketchup. I'm not saying I want to make it again, but no one had any trouble eating it. That's a success considering it was a struggle to eat most of the African recipes. Paul asked me to skip choir rehearsal so he could stay later at work today. Since I will be in Maryland on Sunday I agreed although I was a little disappointed because I love the arrangement of "Were you there" that the choir is singing this Sunday and was looking forward to rehearsing it tonight. However not going to choir coupled with the time change meant that I was able to run four miles after taking the kids to AWANA. Yay for it not getting dark so early at night! It was the first time I was able to run this week. I ran a little faster and cut a minute off my mile compared to my pace last week.
I still think it's rather pricey. It was $40 for the two of them to have this one class. In contrast I will pay $40 for two of them to be in a 90 minute gym class for 6 weeks in April and May. She is offering art camps this summer, but they are also $10/hour ($250/week for a 5 day camp that meets 5 hours a day). Thankfully the painting and drawing camp I signed them up for at the children's museum is much cheaper ($117 for TWO kids to be in a 5 day camp that meets 3 hours a day), which comes to $3,90 per hour. I do not plan to make it a regular habit to take them to an art class every month, but it would be fun to take them to an art studio to paint a canvas maybe once or twice a year. 
After the art class I took them directly to the mall for a Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was nothing to write home about. I don't ever plan to take them to an event like that again. The mall had advertised there would be games, food, crafts, etc. They were allowed to pick one craft - either color a hat or put some stickers on a tiny foam teapot. Then they were each given a juice box and a tiny cupcake. The paper plate and napkin were Alice in Wonderland themed. That was it. There weren't any games. It wasn't worth the drive. I think it was a gimmick to get people to pay $$ to have their picture taken with the Easter bunny. The kids asked, but I declined. 
For dinner tonight we tried a recipe for our study of Iraq called potato and beef kebba. The kids and I all ate it pretty easily with ketchup. I'm not saying I want to make it again, but no one had any trouble eating it. That's a success considering it was a struggle to eat most of the African recipes. Paul asked me to skip choir rehearsal so he could stay later at work today. Since I will be in Maryland on Sunday I agreed although I was a little disappointed because I love the arrangement of "Were you there" that the choir is singing this Sunday and was looking forward to rehearsing it tonight. However not going to choir coupled with the time change meant that I was able to run four miles after taking the kids to AWANA. Yay for it not getting dark so early at night! It was the first time I was able to run this week. I ran a little faster and cut a minute off my mile compared to my pace last week.
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