Monday, November 16, 2009

The Art Box – Nov. 16

 blog pics 119 In the art box last week:  leftover gel paints, watercolors, feathers, glue, scraps of tissue paper, foam, and construction paper, stamps and ink pads, colored pasta, scrapbook pinking scissors, craft sticks, stickers, and glitter glue. :)
This time I left the art box out for M for most of the week.   He was excited to see it again and could hardly believe his good luck when I explained that he could come make something anytime he wanted to.  Seriously, he was very happy about this… I should’ve started this a long time ago!
He did spend a good chunk of time with it when I first put it out, but still came back to it several times during the week.  I replenished his paper supply as needed.
So, here’s what he did:
When he first saw the colored pasta he said, “And are there things buried in it, Mommy?!!”  Apparently the I spy sensory tub needs to come out again soon. :)  After I explained that he could glue the pasta onto paper and make a collage, or think of something else to make with it, he just said, “Can I have some little cars please?”  So I got a couple of cars for him, and this is what he spent the next 10 minutes doing:blog pics 120 Not really what I had in mind, but ok.
Soon he moved onto the watercolors:blog pics 122I tried to show him how to get more paint on his brush and not use so much water, but he liked his painting the way it was.
Then he found the glitter glue (again!), and this time he took the tips off and globbed it onto the paper.  :)  blog pics 133
He painted some more with the leftover gel paints from the previous week:blog pics 121 These are so pretty, and perfect for putting in his art box.  I’ll have to buy some more, or figure out how to put some of our regular tempera paints in his box without it being an out and out disaster.   Hmmm.
He stamped:blog pics 127 blog pics 128

More glitter glue exploring, this time with the tips back on:blog pics 129

There’s not a lot of great art here, mainly because he spent almost all his time, every time, doing this:blog pics 125 He was absolutely fascinated with the scrapbook “zig-zag” scissors.   Here’s how much he loved them:blog pics 003 And that’s only part of the pile!  I should probably mention here that I tested these scissors on my own fingers before putting them in his art box.  They are pretty dull and he’s very experienced with scissors.  I was around to supervise too, never far away.  We always go over safety rules when scissors are going to be used, and I have never had a problem with him.
I really think he would’ve been happy just cutting paper for hours.  However, we needed to clear the table off and so he quickly made this:blog pics 126

This was all I captured with photos.   There was a very cute sticker collage he made and hung in the window “for the birdies to look at” but it got taken down before I could get a picture, as well as a few other things. 
I have some great ideas for his next art box and I’m excited to see what he does!
Hey, does anyone want to do a little McLinky dance with me on this? :)  It’s turning out to be such a hit with M, and several of you mentioned trying something similar with your little ones… so think about it and if anyone is interested, let me know! 
I’m planning on writing these posts every Monday and they will cover what M did during the previous week.  I’m thinking if others join in we could get a lot of art supplies ideas to provide for our kids, and just have fun admiring all their masterpieces!  Of course they wouldn’t  have to be boxes… if you mix things up for your child and change out their art supplies once in a while, regardless of where they are kept, I’d love to hear about it!
Have a beautiful day! :)

12 comments:

  1. I'm really looking forward to trying this when I get a bit more settled. I'd definitely join you in a McLinky dance!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm in, sista. James is only mildly interested in crafts, but I think the "do what you want" crafting could be right up his alley!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sure - put up linky and someone will come :) I'll try to join if it works for us. It's an open-ended art at its best. I am curious if Matthew explains somehow his projects or makes stories about them?

    ReplyDelete
  4. These projects are great! I would love to do something like this for Selena, but she would just pack everything throughout the house, and not create a thing, except maybe stickers all over the house. She needs more organized projects.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm in. D loves to have complete freedom in his art work. I have to warn you though, he will make robots/Transformers 99% of the time. Last week we have playdoh Transformers, cutpaper Transformers, Lego Transformers, and noddle Transformers. I liked them better than the real thing though:)I love the art box idea. I am considering doing some form of workboxes for him to get myself more organized. Also, fantastic idea to let him use the fun craft scissors. D LOVES to cut also and he would think that is SO cool.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We would love to link up. Starting next Wed. we will be living with Gram and Gramps until Christmas and we will have more time on our hands to create. Fun Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think it's all GREAT art, since he had fun creating it. We'd link up, although not sure if I am brave enough to let M have the box unsupervised, but maybe jut put it together and let her select from it what she wants when I can watch her work. (We've had a marker on the carpet incident with being unsupervised artists recently!)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for all the rice suggestions!

    I think a linky is a fun idea, although I can't promise to be very consistent in linking up. Maybe you could call it something a little more general - like child-directed art? Not that that's the coolest name in the world, but it captures the gist of it being something the child created completely on their own...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'd try it out for sure. Actually when you first put up the post I was thinking it would make a great linky. And my kids are always randomly creating stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  10. He sure is crafting up a storm with that art box isn't he!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'll join in, but maybe not every week. It be nice to have a child-directed art linky.

    ReplyDelete
  12. love his art projects! :)

    i cant wait to see what you guys come up with for your art boxes.. im hoping to get ideas so i know what to put in mine.... hopefully someone with a child almost 3 will post so i know whats safe to leave out hehe

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment; I love reading them! If you ask a question and don't receive a personal reply, check back here for the answer. Often I reply via comment to something that might be of interest to others.

ShareThis

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...