{"id":199,"date":"2010-10-19T13:59:21","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T12:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nowyouknowabout.com\/blog\/?p=199"},"modified":"2015-09-05T12:26:49","modified_gmt":"2015-09-05T12:26:49","slug":"199","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nowyouknowabout.com\/?p=199","title":{"rendered":"The Toilet at Emmaus"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Unknown-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Half-term coming up.<\/p>\n

A good moment for lounging around which\u00a0is important, however unpleasant and pointless it seems to us mothers intent on achieving, achieving achieving<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What about just slobbing out?\u00a0 Most schools pack a lot of stuff into a day and the prospect of not having to get up and do<\/em> anything must be wonderful to a child.<\/p>\n

BUT….how about a good and simple idea for passive learning that will work by osmosis?\u00a0 Here’s how:<\/p>\n

Think of your 5 most favourite paintings of all time, the ones you’d buy if money were no object.<\/p>\n

Find them online, download them and print them out.\u00a0 (A5 size is good)<\/p>\n

Stick them on the kitchen wall, right by the table.\u00a0 Or stick them with sellotape ON the table.<\/p>\n

At least 3 times a day, your children will have to sit down and\u00a0look at\u00a0these.\u00a0 And when they don’t notice them anymore, it means they’ve sunk in.<\/p>\n

Your job is to make each one into a memorable story.\u00a0 ‘D’you know who Vincent painted those sunflowers for?\u00a0 His mate, Gauguin.\u00a0 He was coming to stay in Vincent’s yellow house and it was like a home-made welcome present. Nice thought, eh?’<\/p>\n

My faves are:<\/p>\n

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci<\/p>\n

The Kiss by Gustav Kilmt<\/p>\n

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli (boys will like this one)<\/p>\n

The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner<\/p>\n

The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio<\/p>\n

The Toilet of Venus by Velasquez<\/p>\n

My 8-year\u00a0old \u00a0son got muddled and now calls Caravaggio’s great painting of Jesus ‘The Toilet at Emmaus’ – which sounds like a service station on an Italian motorway.<\/p>\n

I’ll keep trying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Half-term coming up. A good moment for lounging around which\u00a0is important, however unpleasant and pointless it seems to us mothers intent on achieving, achieving achieving. What about just slobbing out?\u00a0 Most schools pack a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n