I will update this post as and when required with Arjun’s artwork this academic year. He does art while I read to him or else while we listen to audiobooks. He is taking art courses from Colin Bradley Art.
Tag: Art & Craft
Studying Japan
We are studying Japan after completing North and South Korea as part of Unit 2 of our academic year. We studied Japanese history and geography from the book: Journey to the Eastern Hemisphere by April Lotempio. To understand the culture in more depth we did the following:
We listened to following talks of Shri Mataji:
- 1995-0301 Arrival and Talk, Tokyo, Japan
- 1994-0418 Public Program, Tokyo, Japan
We read following books:
- Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (Listen to Arjun’s summary of Sadako and her paper cranes)
- The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck (For creative writing section, Arjun added a paragraph to one of the pages in the book. Listen to this page from The Big Wave.)
- The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson (Listen to Arjun’s analysis of a quote from The Master Puppeteer).
- Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg
- Born in the Year of Courage by Emily Crofford
Arjun created following haiku titled “Global Warming”:
Carbon increases,
Hurricanes, fires, whirlwinds rage;
Still slaves of money.
We saw following movies:
- Tuna Girl on Netflix
- Tokyo Trial on Netflix (Arjun watched it intermittently but I enjoyed it.)
Arjun did following Japan inspired artwork:
We ate following food that we bought from Kroger:
We made the following Japanese food:
Studying China
We have spent our first unit of grade 5 studying China. We read Chinese History and Geography from the book: Journey to the Eastern Hemisphere by April Lotempio. To understand the culture in more depth we did the following:
We listened to following talks of Shri Mataji:
- Shri Mataji Beijing China 1995
- 1995-0913 Fourth World Conference On Women, Asian Games Village, Beijing, China
- Meditation Lecture in Hong Kong
- 1996-0310 Talk to Yogis, Hong Kong
- 1994-0424 Talk to Sahaja Yogis, Hong Kong
- 1992-0306 Radio Interview Hong Kong
We read following books:
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- Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin
- Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey
(Listen to Arjun’s essay on Courage with examples from above two books listed.) - Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Listen to Arjun’s character sketch of Jean Fritz)
- The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong
- Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
- Li Lun Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger
- The Analects of Confucius at World Book Website (we will continue reading this for the rest of the academic year)
- Myths and Legends of China at World Book Website
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (we will continue reading this for the rest of the academic year)
Creative Writing: Arjun wrote a story called “Facing Your Fears” set in China.
We watched following movies:
- Painted Faces on Netflix
- Monkey King on Amazon Prime
- Monkey King 2 on YouTube Movies
- Shaolin on YouTube Movies
- Genius of The Ancient World: Confucius, Episode 3 on Netflix
- Princess Weiyoung on Netflix
- The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on Netflix
- Return to The 36th Chamber on Netflix
- Disciples of The 36th Chamber on Netflix
- Guardian Brothers on Netflix
- Confucius movie on YouTube
- The Story of Laozi on YouTube
Arjun created following Chinese themed artwork:
Fortune Teller Kite Forged Sword Using Chopsticks Arjun has really become good at using chopsticks. Following food was either made by Arjun on his own such as Chinese Almond Cookies, Egg Drop Soup, Chinese Steamed Cake and so on, or we made them together:
Chinese Almond Cookies Chilli Garlic Noodles Egg Drop Soup Vegetable Stir Fry in Garlic Sauce Banana-Orange-Chinese Five Spice and Raisin Bread Chilli Garlic Potatoes Hot & Sour Soup Chinese Steamed Cake Steamed Dumpling Fried Dumpling Chilli Chicken Chinese Bhel Sweet Corn Soup Chicken and Veggie Manchurian Broccoli and Zucchini Stir Fry Fried Rice Chilli Tofu Our friend who is born and brought up in Hongkong made this Hongkong Style Noodles for us. It was absolutely delicious.
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Nirmal Arts Academy
July
Arjun did 1-week classes from Nirmal Arts Academy: Watercolor and Aboriginal Painting. He learnt a lot and really enjoyed the classes. Here are photos of his creations.
August
Arjun did another 1-week classes from Nirmal Arts Academy: Drama Therapy (performed a scene from Commedia Dell’arte – Character: Harlequin. He designed his own costume), Watercolor, Zentangle and Harmonium (he learnt raga Des, Bhoopali, Durga and he learnt bhajans: Namami Shri Ganaraja Dayaal).
How to Make Your Own Illustration from Children of the Sun
Have you ever used salt in an art project? I have, and it was very fun. Read on, and you can make your own!
After I wrote Children of the Sun, my family and I thought it would be even better if we could get bold, colorful, vivid illustrations made for the book. We wanted these to be good illustrations, not just amateur drawings, but we also hoped it could be drawn by the hand of a child. Then, we were able to find the solution—our art teacher, Mrs. Vicki Farmer, would help us—that is, my younger brother Arjun and myself—make the illustrations. Thanks to her, this book has become enriched with these illustrations.
Continue reading How to Make Your Own Illustration from Children of the Sun