Growing Everyday

but very difficult when you do. – Edgar Degas

Beka now has art class at school and this quote makes a lot of sense now. Before she would create, paint, and draw whatever whenever. And now she still does that sometimes, but as she is learning "art" I see her losing that creativity. A fish has to look like the fish she was taught to draw. Don’t get me wrong, the drawing techniques she is learning are great. And the fish does look cool. I just miss the focus on process.

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Jared still is all about the process, getting the crafts out and using as many products in one picture as possible. I know this is all about growing up and changing, lately it has all been happening too fast.

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Beka came up to me and asked if she could marble paint. So we proceeded to search the house for a box to use for the painting. Luckily, we found one. The kids really enjoy this art project and it is easy clean up for me.

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We spent the afternoon outside painting on the easel and making pictures with solar paper. Andrew had bought the solar paper this fall on one of his business trips. We just finally got around to using it. You place different items on the paper in the sun. Then once the paper is white in place it in water to stop the reaction. The solar paper places shadows where the items were on the paper. The kids were impressed at the shapes they made on the papers. Oh, I almost forgot…I also brought out the CD player for some music.

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Just some random pictures of Beka and Jared playing with shaving cream and oobleck.

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After the disaster of the homemade clay, I went out and bought clay of the kids to play with. They spent a long time rolling out the clay and making different shapes and creatures with it.

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A couple of days later the clay was hard enough for them to paint it.

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First, Andrew comes up with great ideas to keep the kids occupied. He has a wonderful way of helping them imagine the greatest things in the world. Beka and Jared love to play with Daddy. This all leads up to another idea that the kids absolutely loved, but didn’t quite work out.

Andrew and the kids found some clay dirt over at the construction area and brought it home to "make" clay. They took a bowl and filled it with water and the clay and mixed that all up. When I got home, there was clay everywhere; in the curtains, on the walls, on library books. But, hey, the kids had fun and that was all that matter.

A few days later I let Beka and Jared play with the clay. It wasn’t quite the right consistency or smell, but we all learned something and had a great time.

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Every so often out of the blue, the kids get the crafty idea to make kites. They do this all on their own with no help until they are done. And then it is outside to see if they fly. Mom needs to buy them some actual kites.

We do lots of art around here. Sometimes, it is a little difficult to keep crayons and markers exciting when you seem to play with them all the time. So working on something new can change plain markers and crayons into new and exciting.

After Andrew’s ofice was all set up, we had plenty of cardboard boxes leftover to draw and create on. Beka and Jared had a fun time because it was on the floor and it was a bigger "canvas" then they are used to.

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Beka and Jared really enjoy painting on the easel. When we can’t paint outside, I bring everything in and set it on top of a vinyl tablecloth. That way the clean up is really easy.

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I was very adventurous the other day. I had the children crush some old crayons with a hammer. Amazingly, Andrew slept through all the hammering. Then, we put the crushed crayons between two pieces of waxed paper. The kids then "helped" me iron the crayons until they were melted. There are no pictures on the actual ironing process. I needed both hands on the iron.

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