Fine Arts Monday: Peter and the Wolf and Peter Paul Ruben

Well, a Mom cannot complain when the kids are late to lunch because they are busy listening to Classic music. We absolutely loved listening to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf at Kiddie Records. For anyone not familiar with Kiddie Records there are so many gems just like this one. The Peter and the Wolf recording is really fantastic the narrator does a wonderful job and the music is just delightful.

We also watched the older Disney version of Peter and the Wolf, of course this shows the duck being eaten and a menacing wolf. Just to be forewarned some kids might find it too scary. For those with Netflix there is also an Oscar winning animated short as well on streaming that is also good. It, of course, bears the same warning that it might be too scary for some kids, it is considerably darker than the Disney version.

At another date I plan to use this lesson plan to study Peter and the Wolf more in-depth. It includes Prokofiev's original story(the Kiddie Record version seems to stay true to this while the two films diverge at different points) to accompany the music along with the individual instrument sounds for the characters. I think we would like to act out a version as well. We burned a copy for the van and the kids had fun trying to listen and hear which character was 'talking.'

We also did some painting and Art Appreciation on Monday as well. We studied the painter Peter Paul Ruben this week. It is always interested to read about the lives of artists and it was touching to see many of his paintings to be of his family.

We spent a good while on his Wikipedia page studying in detail many of his various paintings. We have just started this year with in-depth Picture Study and he is still in awe of how realistic some of the Masterpieces have been. I can see his wheels turning when examining the various pieces and he really seems to enjoy trying to figure out what emotions the artist is trying to convey and also looking over the painting seeing what little details he can find. It is enjoyable to me as well to look with him as often he finds something I didn't see or has a different point of view I wouldn't consider. As my education included very little in the way of Art I am quite enjoying learning right along with him. Hopefully his enthusiasm continues as it has been.

As we had some new acrylic paints I thought they could try their hands at creating another masterpiece. Fun was had by all and thankfully acrylic washes off! I told the kids that they had to give their painting a name. Luke thought very, very hard on this and decided on The Cloud that Never Stops Raining. Lily decided to call hers Michael Angel, I couldn't help but laugh! After she had painted a good long while she told me she had forgot the Angel's head and needed some more paint. Well, I still don't know where the head is supposed to be- or the body for that matter- perhaps she has a calling as an abstract artist!