Exercise: Doing Vine Live for TEDx Jakarta

Kids are exercising their Vine production on stage for TEDx Jakarta at Saturday.

Drawing the London Trip

In our UK trip, we brought iPad for kids but we kept it in the bag for days & rarely using it. Wherever we went, kids brought their sketchbook & drawing kit.



We wanted them to experience more about the trip.
We wanted them record their trip into paper.
We wanted them to capture the moment more deeply.



By drawing, we were making memories, not just taking memories.

Our Children with Their Polaroid Barbie

We're continuing our experiment with analog photography. This time we gave our children a Polaroid Barbie.








Kids were amazed. They were watching the film developed within 30 minutes. "Is it done yet?"
When it's done they yelled "It's magical! It looks like we're capturing our life in papers!"





Seems the kids enjoying the experiment & 8 exposures per pack is not enough for them. Though the result is good, they want to explore more with another activities, light and colors.
"Can we have another pack for our Polaroid?"

One pack at a time, kids :D

Arwen & Leia's Mural 2

Back in 2009, we allowed Arwen & Leia to draw on the wall, only in a specific space near their bed.



Years later, after we moved to another apartment, they seem want to do the same rebelious art activity. Though we never give permission for drawing on the wall, they keep doing it in a small space near their bed in bedroom wall. Then the space gets bigger & larger.



Though we never stop give them papers, it doesn't stop them to drag their markers to the wall. "Wall is bigger than paper," they say.

We amazed. We're no longer see toddler's doodles. We see the real art development of our children. Their skills are growing & more advanced.



Seems we have to make a new rule for them. They can keep drawing on their wall, as long as it's beautiful and well drawn :)

Our Children Create Their First Animation Project On Vine

They have been watching their dad doing some animation & stop-motion on Vine & examining on how doing a frame-by-frame animation. Suddenly they realized that they can create their own cartoon movie. So my older daughter drew 6 frames of animation & recorded it on Vine.



We created a private Vine account for her & get some selected/filtered followers to avoid online trolls or rude negative comments. Her Vine account is 'Arwen Shaula'. Let me know if you want to follow her Vine :)

What Our Kids Can Learn With Vine app

Vine app is not just a social video app. Somehow, its 6 seconds duration limitation (or feature?) is perfect for our kids doing a short movie experiment.


Short Movie

What can they do in a very short 6 seconds video? Here are some examples on how our kids telling the story with 6 seconds video. They learn about mini storyboard & basic concept on visual storytelling.


"Where is Leia drawing? At the beach!"


"So many cars! Traffic jam!"


Stop motion & Animation

We all know Vine app is not a stop motion capturing app. But with its record-and-pause ability, our kids can learn how to make stop motion in easy & fun way. And with its short duration, they don't have to wait too long to see the stop-motion result.


"Danny the warrior duck."


"Driving a car. Oh no traffic jam!"


"The boat & the pirate."


Short movie with stop-motion


"Look! USS Enterprise from Star Trek!"


Problem is, Vine's age rating is 17+. Meands that I cannot install it in their restricted iDevices like iPod & iPad. And they cannot freely browsing other videos without their parents around.

A Quick Instant Cardboard Project

Kids! We have cardboard! Let's create something from it!
Arwen starts creating her own project: guitar & headphone with microphone. And Neo wants a space rocket. He gets bored easily and cannot wait, so I have to do it quick & fast.



Fortunately, there are some awesome DIY cardboard rocket on the internet, like this one. Easy & can be done in minutes. Meanwhile, Arwen is busy with her project, helped by Leia. Seems they are preparing a music concert.



All done! The rocket now is flying chasing Neo, while Arwen & Leia doing their music concert.





WHOOOSSHHH!! Not bad for a quick instant cardboard project!</p>

From A Galaxy Far, Far Away

 

Another fun floor photography project: Star Wars. Our kids, especially Leia, are beginning to enjoy their parents' favorite saga of all time.

 

And no, we're not going to buy any Star Wars' costumes, props, masks etc. Get the cardboard, papers, markers, glue & the scissors, kids! We're making our own Star Wars props!



We're using kids' bedroom as the floor stage. After watching the movie, we're simulating the scene with cardboard props. We decide to paint the prop later in Photoshop to save time, because the project needs to be done within a day :D

Here are the results:



Leia as Princess Leia herself, Neo as R2D2 & Arwen as C3PO. Leia is using mouth maskers as hair buns, Neo is wearing cardboard costume with a painted plastic bowl on his head & Arwen is wearing cardboard with simple face painting. Backdrop: IKEA fabric design by P. Amsell/B Wesslander 2008.



Princess Leia riding speeder in Endor forest. Speeder was made from cardboard, vacuum cleaner attachment as maneuver control & baloon pump as repulsorlift engine. Backdrop: IKEA fabric design by Helen Trast 2007.

UPDATE:
Our artwork is displayed in a Star Wars event in Bandung SWDBDG June 23rd 2012.


Shared by @gomzgomien - original link.

Playing With Old Nintendo Game Boy

Our findings from Kuwait flea market: Nintendo Game Boy with accessories: Camera & Printer. Though it's has only black & white display, no touch screen, silly sound & bigger than the iPod touch, these old gadgets get our kids attention.

The Camera cartridge has features like picture game, stamp game & basic photo effect. Compare to similar iOS apps, its features is way too basic & primitive for iPad generation kids. But, what they can find it more interesting is the Printer unit. They can make their own photo booth or thumbnail & stick it to their books.



The Printer uses ordinary thermal paper - the same receipt paper from POS or cashier machine - so for experiment, we can use those old receipt papers from our wallet or grocery pouch.

And these are the results. Since the kids are happy with these simple black & white photos, now they're begging for more papers. "We can build our own photo booth & make money from it!"

Not bad for toys from 90s.

Related stories:
Game Boy Camera
Game Boy Printer

Doodling with Kids

Not just about talent, art or creativity, the doodlings are also the ultimate way to discover the progress of our children. When we're doodling with them, we're entering their room. What they never told to us, appears in that room. The happiness, the sadness, nightmare, laugh, tears, smile, hate, everything. We believe doodling is a perfect way for sharing. Especially when our children still need to learn to communicate well with their parents.

A serial comic 

From Shaun the Sheep 

 Dora the Explorer

Shaun the Sheep 

Red nose clown 

Ballerinas 

Leia as ballerina

Sponge Bob Square Pants & Patrick 

Shopping in the mall

So, parents, let's doodle with them! It's more than just fun!
And remember, there's no good or bad doodling!