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Drawing on Walls

Last year my mom’s group went to the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, Texas. The outing was called “StrollArt at the Modern.” It was a great time with my friends appreciating modern art. For Jessie’s second Christmas her daddy and I gave her a floor pad and crayons that promote proper hand position. I thought she’d be eager to color. She didn’t show much interest. We bought a number of Aquadoodle books and water pens for a previous foster placement. The former foster daughter loved watching the colors come up with water, dry, and then start again. I … Continue reading →

Keep Conversation Natural, Not Forced

Have you ever tried to force a teenager to talk?  It’s usually not very productive, leaving both you and your teen to feel frustrated. It can also do the opposite of what you intend.  Instead of drawing you closer, it builds walls. So what’s the answer?  It is allowing conversations to happen in the natural course of events.  What happens naturally is so much sweeter than what you attempt to force. In case you are wondering what I mean by the natural course of events, let me first preface this by saying if there is something in particular going on … Continue reading →

Art Class Adventures

My three year old son loves art. He loves to paint, draw, and build. When I saw an opportunity for him to take a one hour art class this summer at the local art center, I immediately signed him up for an art class two months in advance. I put the event into my digital calendar so that I would receive a reminder a day in advance. With anything out of the ordinary, if it is not in the calendar set with a reminder, I will forget about it. The day of his art class arrived, I was reminded the … Continue reading →

To Draw

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Children just love to draw, don’t they. It’s probably one of the first ways that they can more permanently influence something outside of themselves. While the toys always get picked up, and the block towers always get knocked down, the drawing they give to Mom and Dad that hangs on the fridge remains. An artifact of something they’d done before. While looking at their art is something quite special, the act of transferring pigment or a marking to another surface is the stuff of magic. The reason many people seem to want to write a novel (or is it a … Continue reading →

The Wall

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This post isn’t really about “the wall” because it’s about our home. There are lots of walls in our home. And when I saw that there are lots of walls I say it somewhat happily. Divisions bring interest. Walls are the sort of things that keep our son’s toys mostly within the confines of what we call his room. There’s lots of room in his room, incidentally, and having a dedicated play place for the balls and blocks and puzzles and other objects he’s acquired from family members goes a long way towards keeping the rest of our home in … Continue reading →

Who Bought This Toy?

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Children are noisy. We try to teach our children the difference between outside and inside voice. The two voices is a difficult concept for the toddler. The toddler’s normal tone of voice is forever at a loud whine. When I talk to other parents of three-year-olds I find that whining loudly is pretty standard for toddlers. We have a lot of toys that make noise. I think the majority of toys for small children make noise and flash lights. Jessie has outgrown the phase of having mostly noise making toys and her toys require her to use her imagination. Jessie … Continue reading →

The Pencil Sharpener

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So, my little brother once got stabbed in the leg with a pencil. He was “accidentally” stabbed by my other little brother. I put quotes around the “accidentally” because I can’t be sure how accidental it was. I will say that both of them were shocked when this transpired. Neither of them were really hurt (though one of them began to chase the other). While no harm was intended, and not much harm was done, the event has reminded me that pencils can, indeed, be dangerous. The point? If pencils are dangerous, then the even sharper instruments used to sharpen … Continue reading →

A Dr Seuss Bedroom

One of the highlights of my daughter’s room is the large mural that stretches over her entire wall. It’s a forest and a stream, and in the mural I hid characters from Dr Seuss’s The Lorax. I created it when she was one, so she didn’t have much say in the matter at the time, but she likes it now. If you have a child who loves Dr Seuss characters, you can create a Seuss-themed room quite easily.Choose a story as the base of your theme. This will help you create a consistent look and add certain characters to the … Continue reading →

Gymboree Art

We’ve missed our last couple play and learn classes at Gymboree. I hate missing our Gymboree play classes. Jessie really needs the time to run, jump, climb, and slide. We have so many make-up classes banked that we could go to any Gymboree class. We decided to make up the ones we just missed in Gymboree Art. Jessie doesn’t do that much art at home. We keep taking away pens and crayons because she won’t color only on paper. We gave her Play Doh and she didn’t like the feel on her hands. Jessie is a bit hesitant with Gymboree … Continue reading →

Characteristics and Personality Traits in Children.

How much is genetic? How much the way God made them? And how much influence does a parent have on a child’s personality and character traits? These questions have always fascinated me. I started thinking about them again today after reading Lyn’s blog about, what the way a child colors says about them and their schoolwork. When our son was young we had his room filled with myriad soft toys in bright colors and orange pictures or bright cartoon characters on the lemon walls. I was determined not to go for the traditional blue. A colored mobile hung above the … Continue reading →