Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
Jack and Tate love to play with art supplies.  They like to color, draw, squish play-doh, finger paint and make crafts.  I must admit I enjoy it myself, as well as watching them create masterpieces.  When the boys appear bored or not getting along very well, I pull out our bin of supplies and tell them to make me something.  I am usually guaranteed a good thirty minutes of happiness and a sweet picture.

Sunday afternoon was an eventful day of crafts.  Our big project was carving pumpkins.  We lined our patio table with newspaper and gathered all of our tools.  My husband made the first cut.  I watched the boy’s faces as the pumpkin “guts” were scooped out.  They were a little grossed out at first, but quickly wanted to get their hands in it.  Seeds were dumping out everywhere and everything was sticky.  It was a messy scene, but very aromatic.

We decided to stick with the classic jack-o-lantern face.  The boys were armed with a Sharpie marker and drew their faces on the pumpkins.  I cut out the eyes, nose and mouth and revealed their jack-o-lanterns.  They turned out great and look even better lit at night.   Our fingers are crossed that our jack-o-lanterns last until Halloween.

After we finished carving our pumpkins, the boys wanted to make more decorations.  I handed them paper and they cut out and colored their own pumpkins, Frankensteins, bats, witches and ghosts. They are displayed all over our house.   Randomly, a sweet little three-year-old voice will shout “Boo” and try to scare me.   I love seeing my kids in the holiday spirit.  It makes ME feel like a kid again

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
Boys are fun.  Boys are messy.  Boys will be boys, right?  At this point I’ve learned that boys don’t care if they’re dirty.  I am a mom who has a love for art.  I love to do projects with my kids.  Whether it’s drawing, science or construction, we come up with some creative ideas and also use the help of popular websites.

However,  I’m apprehensive when it comes to painting with toddlers.  For some reason I can’t handle the mess, and I lack the patience for clean up. Tate and I have done some painting  – mainly with watercolors on his easel.  He doesn’t like to be cleaned up after meals, so interrupting his painting session for a quick wipe of his hands or face turns into a war – therefore making more of a mess.

When I was buying Tate supplies for school, one item on the list was an old T shirt of mom or dads.  I figured that was their version of an inexpensive art smock.  I was right.  Tate has been painting up a storm at school.  He’s made some awesome abstract art and I love it.  Not only is his “smock” covered in paint, the rest of his body is, too.  He enjoys it so much he describes in detail on the way home what his painting was all about.  His work is displayed in his classroom, so I make sure to take a peek everyday. I’m so happy he gets to experience the fun of painting and getting messy.  His teacher is so good with the children.  She manages ten kids armed with a paint brush.  She explains how to hold the paint brush, how to make strokes and drawing different shapes.  Tate is able to draw a circle so most of his drawings are made up of round strokes.  He also uses toilet paper rolls, vegetables, and his own fingers as other tools.

Tate asks to paint, draw and color all the time now.  I am braving the mess and letting both Jack and Tate explore the arts. Paints are washable and come out of everything so I have no excuse, right?

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” ~ Pablo Picasso

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
The topic of Tate’s music class over the last few weeks has been staccato and legato.  Tate practices moving fast and slow, up and down with short notes or long slurring notes.  Whether we’re singing, dancing, clapping or bouncing, Tate is learning the differences of fast and slow articulation in music.

Last week’s assignment was to make “track art.”  We picked out several different size cars and trucks and applied paint to their wheels.   Then, on a piece of paper, Tate drove the cars all over in different directions and different speeds to demonstrate smaller wheels have skinnier tracks and larger wheels have wider tracks. While making his tracks, Tate sang a song and would push the car back and forth to the beat of his song.  It was hysterical listening to him sing.  It sounded more like a rap.  He raced the cars all over the paper creating quite a piece of abstract art.  It’s one of those pieces I’ll hang on to for awhile.

I thought the activity was fun and a great idea because it’s something different for him to do with paint as well as a learning experience.  Cars dipped in paint definitely held his attention.  He loves to paint and get messy.  What child doesn’t?

Today in class we looked at each child’s track art and discussed what was different about each one and what was similar.  The children had fun showing each other how special their own painting was.  Next week’s assignment is to make our own drum.  I can’t wait to see what ideas Tate will come up with.

Our local library holds a class every other week for two and three year olds called Toddler Time.  During the class, the librarian reads the children a book and afterward they all participate in a craft that is related to what the book was about.  I took advantage of this a several weeks ago and am so glad I did.  Jack absolutely loves it!

This week’s class was about dragonflies.  Jack didn’t know what that specific insect was, but he knew what a dragon was and what a fly was.  He was a little confused, but quickly learned about it.  I have to admit it was funny to see the look on his face when the librarian introduced the book.

His favorite part, of course, is the craft.  As soon as the librarian shuts the book, he stands up proudly and says “craft time.”  All of the adults get a kick out of it, which only motivates him to say it every time we go.  Jack loves to use crayons, markers, glue and his absolute favorite is the glitter glue.  We never leave there without having glitter covering every square inch of his hands, face and shirt (including mine).  Daddy always knows what day we went to the library because of all the glitter everywhere.  Let me tell you,  Daddy is so proud of Jack when he has glitter all over him…. especially pink.

I can’t help but love these fun little classes that introduce educational learning experiences to Jack – especially while we wait for an opening at a preschool.  If I dig hard enough and through word of mouth, it’s amazing what is out there.  The best part is that this class is FREE!  He meets new friends, reads books, is learning to be quiet in the library, does some artwork and leaves feeling so happy and can’t wait to show off his craft.  This leaves me feeling happy, too!