This morning we went to the homeschool group's art class. It's called "Reinterpretation of a Masterpiece". The kids brought in 3 prints of great works of art, chose one, and traced a basic outline of it onto tracing paper. J chose a print from Van Gogh and W from Monet. The basic outline was done using large shapes that just suggested the actual detail in the picture. W really got into it and followed the directions wonderfully. The next part was that they made a grid right over their outline.
Then they measured their outline to be proportionate to the paper they were going to use - which depends upon what artist medium they chose. J picked acrylics, which will go on a large canvas. W picked oil pastels which can go on watercolor paper (or any good paper). The idea is to then create an identical grid on the larger paper or canvas, redraw the large shapes to scale, and fill in the picture with their own "reinterpretation".
Using only their basic outline of large shapes, they can fill it in with whatever colors they want - as long as they generally use the original print picture as their inspiration. LOL, it's a lot easier done than explained. Today they got as far as the tracing paper grid. The rest of it will be worked on at the subsequent 3 monthly art classes.

The kids played outside in the park for the remainder of the afternoon. J hung out with her 2 best friends, and W ran around playing cops and robbers and climbing trees with the older boys. I ended up buying sandwiches at the deli, which I vow never to do again since it cost so damn much. But it was a nice little picnic we had. J and her 2 friends went back to one of their houses and I picked her up after work (around 9:30pm).

I called the homeschool office this morning and was spoken to very rudely by one of the women there (MS. BROWN). She refused to give me her name at first ("Why do you want to know my name?!") and abruptly told me NO, the Metrocards aren't in yet (although all the public high schools seem to have theirs already - K has one), all the LOI response packets are delayed (but God forbid a parent is late mailing their paperwork), NO, you have to keep trying Ms. Becoat's line until she picks up (Ms. Becoat won't answer her phone and her voice mailbox is full), and NO, there IS no one in charge here (huh?). This office is a disgrace. But, hey, if being a disorganized, chaotic, embarrassing mess keeps them off everyone's back and out of our way for a while - I won't complain.