a child's designated art space?

What are your art spaces like for your children? Do you clean everything away? Keep it out? Do your children ask for art supplies often? I've been thinking about this a lot as I set up our homeschooling environment. How many supplies can I keep out before it become chaos, and how much is not enough?

Here's a great question I got on my Facebook page, from a friend:

I was wondering if you would share your thoughts about creating art spaces for kids. S loves art and draws every day. But we are swimming in materials and space is an issue. Do you have any ideas about creating a space that works for the whole family? And what materials do you suggest? Honestly, he loves to free draw. So I always make sure he has paper, crayons, markers and pencils. Can I get rid of the bins and baskets of other materials without depriving him? It gets so chaotic so quickly. Thanks

And here is my answer:
It's a great question. I think there are a few factors that can contribute to how you handle an art area in your home. 
1- How much mess can you take? 2-What kind of supplies do you have? 3-Do you like to create with your children, or leave them to it?

1- I am a very messy person and I enjoy mess - up to a point, and then I'm done! However, I've been finding that my personal philosophy and style embraces a working/in process space. I don't like my living space to be static and feel like a hotel. That's just me. We have supplies everywhere and I try to keep them organized, but our house can feel like one big studio some times! For others this might drive them nuts (and I get it, I really do), they might need to have a specific, designated space for such activities, but I would encourage that person to challenge themselves to leave the materials out for little hands to easily access. When they are packed away and over-organized a child is much less likely to run with an idea and go crazy making (and learning tremendous amounts through that making time).

I came across this wonderful quote from Lori Pickert of Project Based Homeschooling, "A streamlined learning experience smooths off all the rough edges and the rough edges are generally where most of the learning happens". I think this applies to how your home and art making area is set up. The more access children have to getting into the muck and mess of an idea, the more they learn. 

2) I am a huge proponent of throwing out the crayons and buying kids really fantastic art supplies. Get oil pastels instead of crayons, the color is so much more rich and the texture offers so much more to explore. Buy high quality markers (that don't wash off walls!), get bottles of tempera paint and water color paint, good brushes, not the crappy kinds you get at toy stores. Having good art supplies will show your children how much you love what they are doing and will encourage them to do more because it will be so satisfying and the process and results will be so dynamic.

3) If you have a designated space that's not too confining and you have an organizing system that you can live with then you are good to go, but it sounds like it's driving you a little nuts. Do you sit down and make things with him too? Does he prefer to work by himself? I ask these things because I have found that when I have sat down and joined in, or done my own work alongside my kids, the mess bothers me less. I'm in the process with them and seeing it from their perspective which is "WOW! I have so many cool things to work with. Gimme more!" This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but if you can embrace a little of the mess and mayhem of an art space the payoff is huge. I'm so excited that S is such an artist. I'd love to see some of his work! Thanks for your question. I am working out all these things as I go along. I'd love to hear more about your solutions / process / journey.

Freak Flag Fridays

Yes, it's Saturday and I'm writing my Freak Flag Friday post now. I've been looking forward to writing this post all week, but as you know life can be messy and throw you a curve ball.

On Tuesday my husband got a bad concussion when he slipped and fell on the ice while out running. He couldn't remember how he got home (about 20 minutes of lost time)! He's not been himself since and the doc assures us this is normal. The CT scan looks fine, but it's really odd to have someone you know not seem like themselves. He looks like a lost little boy most of the time even though he's trooping off to work.

Our brains are at once so delicate and resilient.


On Monday I was excited about Friday, but then Friday arrived and I was so discombobulated by the week that I couldn't get the post done. So here I am on Saturday night writing while my husband is asleep and the kids are watching a movie.

Next Friday I'll explain how Freak Flag Friday came about - I promise.

I hope you have a good weekend.

going with the flow with salt dough

Another title for this post might be 'How to go with the flow when your preschooler wants to do something completely different than the activity you planned to do with her'.

I didn't tell her what I had in mind as I do like to go with the kids creative ideas, but today I did have what I thought would be a fun idea brewing.

I wanted to make salt dough people and creatures and then make a diorama for them.

She wanted to feel the ooey mixture of salt flour and water on her hands.

                           

I wanted to add one color to each ball of dough that would then get made into a specific shape.

She wanted to splatter color all over the big mound of flour and salt.

I wanted to be careful not to get food coloring all over our hands.

She wanted to smoosh all the colors onto the ball and see how many she could get on her hands.

I wanted to break the ball in to smaller pieces and color each of them.

She wanted to make a volcano.

I wanted to play with the volcano.

She wanted to cut the ball in to smaller pieces and bake them 'into candy'.

Before baking on parchment paper for 2 hours at 200 degrees. You can also let them air dry over night.

The stained counter top before I scrubbed it with Bon Ami. 

 It was a wonderful lesson for me to remember to listen and have patience. Do you find it true that you have agendas and lists for the day and if they get derailed it can be very frustrating? If you are a parent, have you become more or less patient when this happens (since having kids)? 

Losing track of my agenda is a daily occurrence for me and sometimes I am more patient than others.

I tend to be more patient if I've slept well, not drunk a glass of wine with dinner the night before, and had 30 minutes to myself before the kids wake up. 

What about you? What helps you to be more patient with your children / co-workers / spouse? 

left-overs

"I want to make art" is M's latest refrain. Now this isn't once a week, or even once in a blue moon, it's every day. Yes, every day I hear in a loud clear voice, usually from across the house "Mummy, I want to maaaake aaaaart".

On the particular day that I am thinking of M was sitting on my lap at the end of lunch. She saw the Mod Podge perched at the end of the table and asked to make a robot. To be honest I didn't have the energy to get out paper, scissors and odds and ends for collaging so I said "use what's on the table already". 

Sometimes it's a good idea to let go of our perceived notions of what art should look like, or how a child should do an art project. Look at what is in front of you in a new way. Tooth picks and cheese could be a tower, paper and forks could make a tent, and left overs could become an orange rind and pretzel robot.

These moments teach children to look at every day life with new eyes, to be fascinated with the world around them, to practice non-linear thinking, and in this case we also talked about what shapes she was using to create her robot.

I'd love to hear what fun and quirky things you have made with your kids that surprised even you?

Dirty Concoctions

Miss M is sitting at my side begging to make another dirty concoction right now! Its her favorite pastime at the moment, along with drawing on her face with markers a close second.

Materials needed:

Lots of small bowls
Lots of small spoons
Apron

As many or as few as the following as you wish:
flour (wheat or white)
sugar
baking powder / soda
water, milk, juice, cold coffee or tea, vinegar (if you want froth try vinegar and baking soda)
salt
oats
sprinkles
glitter

Plus any other things you find in the back of your kitchen cupboards that you think would be fun to stir into a messy oooey gooey mixture!

To change the color try spices like paprika, or cumin. Throw in a few drops of food coloring or experiment with veggie juices like beet root.

We usually start with a small amount of water and I put a little of each ingredient in bowls as we go along. She scoops the various powders and liquids in to her mug or larger bowl and stirs with delight. I also try to remember to have her smell the various ingredients, but she normally does it before I even mention it now!

Please let me know what other ingredients you stumble upon that are a hit.

oh, flour

Flour is a hard one for many people, and I understand it. It gets everywhere, it makes hard wood floors slippery and it can be breathed in inadvertently. However, it makes the best snow scene; the best race track for matchbox cars, the best dinosaur stomping ground, the best beach; the best cafe; the best hills for little figurines to smash down. Plus, it's oh so soft and lovely to run through your fingers.

What could be better than a tray of flour, two rice spoons, a VW match box van, and a tinker toy wheel. M, who's three and a half played with this for half an hour before bringing a tiny Playmobile lady and her baby in a jogger out for a spin around the 'park'.

 Here she is, face covered in a fine dusting of flour.

Let's dive right in

So hello there. Where do we start?

It's like the first page in a sketch book. I don't want to wreck it with some awful drawing.  I want to it to just be done so I can get on to the 'real' posts.

I have to say I have always been a 'rusher', hustling through things as fast and hard as I can, enjoying the intensity of the moment. Quite often when I rush it has a tendency to get messy - - whether its in the kitchen when I bake, or at the dining room table when the kids and I paint with string, or a conversation when I share too much too fast.

There is joy in this kind of messiness too because it comes with connection, connection to your senses, connection to others, and connection to yourself and something greater than yourself.

I'd say my mission statement of sorts for this blog is to encourage you in the messy, through the messy, and with the messy in life. I want to post about projects that you can do with your children that will connect you and your kids to your senses. By doing these projects together you will be very present with your children and I hope you will learn more about them and your corner of the world.