In Gratitude: Creativity

A November Discipline of Gratitude: Day 2

Creativity

 

Oh, my days with my little men are filled with creativity and art.  The younger boys both love to draw and paint and craft and bake and generally make anything!  Their older brother has never been very interested in open ended art, which I found surprising.  After all, when I pictured parenting it was always with a big dose of art in our days.  But, these little men, they are giving me my fill of artful days!  (And every now and then older brother just can't resist all the creative energy and joins in, much to our delight!)

 

I've been really enjoying the book The Artful Parent, which I received as a gift.  It is a wonderful resource if you are artful and just want an organized collection of ideas.  And, if you are wanting to add more art and creativity into your days and aren't sure how, I think it would be very helpful.  The first half of the book talks about art with kids, lists lots of supplies and their uses, and is generally inspiring.  The second half is full of fun and simple projects to do.  It is definitely inspiring some projects around here.

Rowan is writing 'ancient scripture' that he then placed on the milk jugs he arranged.

Rowan is coloring an Audubon's Birds of America Coloring Book, the boys enjoy looking at the bird book and trying to color the birds accurately.  Jonah is working on an Human Anatomy Coloring Book (I've found that directive art is the way to engage him, which I steered away from in the early years, going with the free drawing and no coloring book philosophy.)  He loves this coloring book, which is really a color by number where you learn very specific anatomy of the human body - very scientific.

I'm pretty sure the younger boys would paint all day if I could supervise (and it takes a lot of supervision with mr. not-quite-two!)