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.

Discovery (or when someone says something you've only ever felt and can't articulate)

So Many things to get written and I find writing quite hard, so I'm going to go stream of consciousness and see if I remember it all.

I'll make a list so I don't forget:

1- we've started homeschooling Rudy.
2- It's new and overwhelming
3- It's also been so much more enjoyable than I ever imagined it would
4- I've come to realize how extremely selfish I have been
5- I'm living life from a completely different point of view
6- Rudy is so happy, calm and relaxed since this HS business began.
7- I discovered, stumbled upon, this website Camp Creek Blog, and it has put words and actions to something I've only felt and couldn't quite access in my brain.
8- I'm going to publish this now and come back to write more, so check back.
9- I know I say that a lot so you may not believe me, but 2014 is also the year of better habits, and keeping a record (sketch book, HS notes, blogging, not just Instagram!) of our days is at the top of my list along with cleaning more!
10- Be right back.

So I'm back. I promised, didn't I?

My kids are playing a crazy game at the other end of the house. I've had so much coffee I feel like my eye balls might pop out, and I feel another list coming on:

1- The blog I mentioned above is blowing my mind. Not in the "why did I never think of this before kind of way", but in the "this is speaking so profoundly into my life I don't know where to start", kind of a way.
2- I have a friend who will never agree with something off the bat. She always questions, always doubts, and questions some more. I'm the complete opposite. I go gung-ho at something if I like the sound of it. I have learned to ask more questions and doubt a little more, from my friend. I don't want to be as extreme as she is, but I do want to have a healthy dose of skepticism, so that I can form my own opinion and know what I want. I'm not good at claiming what I believe and want, but I'm getting better.
3- So, taking this confidence into my thinking around the ideas espoused in the above blog, I hope to come away with a teaching / life-with-kids approach that I really believe in, and where I am not just along for the ride.
5- Messy Lab Studio grew out of wanting children to have a space to get messy, to explore ideas and to celebrate messy spaces, messy work and messy exploration. I didn't realize that Project Based Learning is what I have been looking for all this time! I haven't been brave enough, and I've been so wrapped up in my own studio work (selfishly) that I haven't cared to examine how my kids are learning, and how Messy Lab Studio mixed in with that. Lori Pickert and her wonderful blog have begun to make the connection for me. I am eternally grateful.

4-Here are some of my favorite quotes from the blog that directly relate to ideas I have been kicking around for a while. I never knew why I was so dissatisfied with the approaches I'd read about, or the projects I'd tried to do with my kids. I was heading in the right direction, but hadn't got far enough along the path. I'd been too much in the way...I'm trying to move over and let the kids run forward into deeper learning and discovery.

This first one is a zinger. I may make it my mantra for 2014.

A streamlined learning experience smooths off all the rough edges and the rough edges are generally where most of the learning happens. - Lori Pickert

If you see a table full of kids working with identical-looking projects in front of them, then you are looking at something that is not authentically self-directed or self-motivated. It is just a “cool,” “fun” project that an adult dreamed up for some kids to do, that an adult planned, that an adult organized, and that an adult carefully translated into directions the kids could follow. Look at all the work being accomplished *by the adult*. That is so much closer to what we expect to see in a classroom and too far away from real learner-centered education. - Lori Pickert

If kids cycle from one follow-directions project to the next, with everything on a time schedule (“We have to finish our rockets this week because next week we start remote-control planes!”), then what you’re looking at is not innovative, not learner-centered, and not offering deep understanding or long-term engagement. It’s the same old hash repackaged as something new. - Lori Pickert

Kids should be collaborating, supporting, learning how to offer and ask for help and how to say a polite “no, thank you.” They should be copying one another, getting excited by each other’s ideas, and extending one another’s ideas. They should be challenged by what another child does with their idea and want to go back and incorporate that child’s extensions into their own original plan.

If that is not happening, again, what is the point?

Real learning requires multiple iterations, feedback, collaboration, and sharing.

-Lori Pickert

True self-directed learning is not assigned. It is not done within a structure provided by someone else. It proceeds at its own natural, organic pace.

It is self-motivated. It grows out of a desire to learn something, create something, and/or solve a problem — but the motivation is personal.

The learner is absolutely necessary — he connects a collection of ideas, plans, questions, and actions to create something unique. If you can lift your child out and shove any kid in there, then it isn’t personal, which means you can do better. - Lori Pickert

Children can do authentic project work with the support of adults who want to mentor rather than lead. It requires adults to put the individual before the structure rather than plugging kids into a preplanned framework. - Lori Pickert

What do YOU think?

Margot Mondays - Advent calendar part I

Monday is the one full day of the week that I have with Margot. She is in preschool the rest of the week and so it's a precious day. However, like many of you, I also have work to get done, groceries to buy, dishes to do, laundry to wash, and email to check. Many Mondays are spent doing far too much busy work. I have missed connecting with my kids through art making (one of the original ideas behind this blog)  and so I thought - let's make Monday all about Margot. 

I know it's Tuesday and I'm a little late getting this Margot Monday kicked off, but to be honest I didn't think of Margot Monday until the wee hours of Tuesday morning! So here we are, and I want to show you what we did yesterday. 

Margot loves art projects just as much as I do, and so we came up with a fly by the seat of your pants Advent calendar idea. This week we used stamps, ink, and glue to make envelopes for each day of December and Margot painted clothes pegs to hang them up with. Next week we will do the really fun part of dumpster diving (or walking to our local grocery store and asking) for a palette to break up and use for the back of the calendar.

Come back next Monday (or probably Tuesday) for the next installment.

6 year old in the house

My little boy turned six this past week. After a month of family sickness (strep, flu) we were all (almost) healthy and able to celebrate with a small party and  cupcakes at school. When my parents came for the following weekend we went for a warm wander through the conservatory in Garfield Park. It was a welcome warming of the bones during a brutally cold March.

The new 6 year old took off in great joy through the green moss and winding paths shouting "we're in the jungle, we're in the jungle". I only wish we were. This March has been particularly cold and windy. I don't even remember the month of his birth in 2007 being quite so awful. I love reading blogs in Australia, like Che and Fidel, or my two sister's blogs in the UK - Playdohandpoo and spooninginthekitchen, as it reminds me of other seasons and temperatures!

My in-laws in Mississippi have seen daffodils come and go already, and we are still waiting for their green heads to break through the earth here. What signs of spring have you seen near you?

These are part of a portrait a week series on Che and Fidel.

a photo a week

Action shots. Well, these are aren't all that action-filled, but for sick kids climbing on a sofa and jumping on a trampoline constitute action. I love M's tongue sticking out. It's her cheeky sweet self.

This is a funny one of R as he's coming down from a big bounce and he has some serious trampolining concentration on his face. RIght now he's refusing to have his hair cut. I have been trying all sorts of bribery just to get a tiny trim, but he's having none of it and can smell a bribe from a mile off.

This post is linked to Che and Fidel's lovely project 52. A Portrait of my kids once a week for a year.

light, drawing, hands

We've all been sick this week and finding slow, peaceful activities has been key. We made a light table for the first time and we were all entranced. I didn't know but this same box with lights can be used for starting seedlings as it becomes slightly warm. My avid gardener of a sister in law passed on this tid bit.

R's beautiful gum ball machine drawing lying on the warm radiator in the afternoon light.

My sketch for an illustration of Woodie Guthrie's song containing the lyrics "Tom cat, Mama cat".

R's hands working those fine motor skills. He hummed and sang to himself as he worked, calm and happy.

M's sweet hands doing what she loves best right now - drawing.

BRF day boy

I was so proud of my soon to be six year old when he told me he wanted to draw each invitation to his birthday party, and draw each one he did. The front was the same on all of them. He wrote BRF DAY BOY, but inside was a special drawing designed with each friend in mind. I was planning on taking photos of all of them but he sealed them before I had a chance. I found the least sealed and snuck a couple photos! I love how he added the smily face and present to the BRF. Now I'm planning how to make the requested green ninja birthday cake.

Boxes are the best

I have probably taken a photograph of my children in a box every week of their lives! They love sitting in them and going to new imaginary places in rockets, planes, cars, fire trucks, elevators and carriages.

This box has had a number of incarnations and on the day that the above picture was taken it was a school. You can see they are sitting on tiny chairs, but what you can't see is the enormous pile of pens at their feet.

I almost forgot that Margot has also made this same box into a Sarcophagus, and herself into a mummy using toilet paper and washi tape!

One of the best things about playing in boxes for me, is that there can be as much or as little direction from the parent. There are endless things that they can come up with on their own, or you can get out the paints and Xacto knife and build a house with opening doors and windows.

Do your kids like to play in boxes? What is their favorite thing to do with them?

I am linking this post to 'a portrait of my kids once a week for 52 weeks' over at lovely Che and Fidel.

2.16 portrait of sibling love

These two are seriously best buds. They play, fight, love, play, sleep, laugh, cry, play, eat, sleep, read and poop together every day. It makes my heart sing to see the love between them.

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?

studio set up + stamped valentine cards

It's been a long time coming and finally I have a studio with light (It is a very gray day here in the midwest so please excuse the lack of sunshine). This sun room (next to our living room - see the corner of the couch?) was my kid's play room and I have claimed it! They now have the office for a playroom and it is so cozy and chock a block full of toys, lego and art supplies.

I love setting up a new space as I try to cull out the objects and tools that are obsolete or have just been hanging around too long. I have a much more edited version of a desk now (below) and the trick will be keeping it this way. Any suggestions welcome!

This (below) is my box o' collage goodies. It sits right next to me on the warm radiator, and when the cat is not trying to lie on top of it I can easily access it. 

So far I am loving it, although I think the rules about using this space are still a bit like this day - gray and fuzzy. We'll work on that.

We did make some valentine cards yesterday at my studio table. R + M were so excited to see how I carved a lino heart  and glued it on an old stamp handle we had hanging around in our stamp box.

We used these exquisite name stamps carved for my kids by Molly Carlson of Emerson Street Creative.
I met her at my kid's school Artisan Fair in December and we talked about what I was looking for. Low and behold a couple of weeks before Christmas she emailed me with photos of these stunning stamps that she hand carves.

You can see more of her stamps in her shop on Artfire. She also has beautiful prints of Gulf coast wild life paintings she has done (they were originally sold for a fundraiser after the oil spill).

R + M are going to write each child's name on a card and hand them out at school. It is a custom that I am still getting used having grown up in England where we did nothing for our class mates for any holiday. There are some very fun and beautifully designed packs of cards to buy these days, but I couldn't pass up a chance to use our beautiful stamps. Thanks Molly.

portrait of my kids once a week for 2013

My children are mad about dressing up. It's probably the thing I have to clean up the most around out house. There will be Princess Leia dresses, knight armor and fairy wings distributed in a wave across our dining room as they make costume changes. Here they are a cat and a fairy. I love their twinkling mischievious eyes.

Family

I don't normally post about things that happened more than a month ago, but I stumbled upon these photos this morning and they made me laugh so hard I feel I have to share them.

These shots were taken in October 2010 by a friend of ours, David Sampson. He's faithfully documented our kids as they grow and we try to support him by sporadically going to hear his amazing band, Cains and Abels play. It's hard to go to shows now as they are so late (I feel pitifully old saying that)!

I remember that this day in October wasn't particularly cold and so we went outside. I think we gathered as many fallen leaves as we could for the kids to play in and laid out a plaid wool blanket for us to sit on. As many events  with kids go it started out organized, fun and under control. Within 10 minutes we had reached disorder, hair pulling and gleeful screaming!

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.

vacation in space

I'm joining (albeit very late) in this lovely idea of "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013" started by Che and Fidel. Her blog is so beautiful. How could it not be when she lives in Australia, is a writer and yoga teacher? 

So, here are my kiddos, R + M, doing what they do best together - - dressing up and inhabiting the characters. I think they were going on a 'vacation in space'. This photo was taken during the first week in January so I have some catching up to do!