The Art Box – Mar. 1, 2010

This was our art box for the past two weeks with an occasional sneaking in of something extra.  We started off with a muffin tin filled with collage items (I got this wonderful idea from A Mom Learning More Everyday in this post) – pom poms, tissue paper scraps, foam stickers, googley eyes, and a tiny amount of left over red glitter.  Also, in the box, various papers, a styrofoam tray, tempera paint, watercolor paints, craft sticks, stencils, glue, and oil pastels.

M started off with, what else, the stencils.  Sigh.  Stencils do not seem open-ended-artsy to me for a 3 year old, although neither does a paint with water book, and goodness knows I’ve let him do plenty of those in return for a half hour of peace.  M really loves stencils and lately it’s the first thing he goes for or asks for if there aren’t any in the box.  Several of you brilliant mommies out there reminded me that he is probably so interested in them because he wants to master the technique and he’s learning how it all works.  Thank you for that; it never occurred to me, and now I see it in a completely different light and I’m ok with stenciled trucks and animals papering our walls.  For now.

Here is the art work M has produced in the past couple of weeks, (minus an awesome textured painting that daddy stole and took to work before I was able to take a picture of it)…

 

A late valentine especially for me. :)  Apparently once red glitter is used for making valentines it isn’t possible to think of anything else to make with it.

 

This is M’s take on crayon resist painting.  Draw a line all around your paper then carefully paint right over it.  He said he was making mazes. :)

 

He was really interested in the craft sticks this time and I actually had to get more for him.  He started off by deciding to make a square, and then when he saw that two together make a longer line, he decided to make a rectangle (you can’t imagine how proud I was at this moment).  Then he decorated it:

Then he painted some and made a house:

 

Here’s a rainbow made with watercolors.  There is a stream in there too and some little animals. :)

 

We bought a giant coloring book with simple farm animal pictures in it.  To our great surprise there was a page of giant stickers in the front of the book.  So we taped up a giant piece of paper (2’ x 3’!) and he made a farm animal sticker collage:

        

Link up your kids’ fun art projects below…

and have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Feb. 28, 2010

We took it very easy with school this past week.  I just brought out some random things that were easy for me to put together for M.  He is very into elaborate pretend play now and I’m trying to give him plenty of time for that.  If he’s involved in something like that during the only time I have free for a little school, well then no school.  I’m totally ok with that, although I have to work hard not to compare myself with other mommies out there.

So, in no particular order this week, here’s what we did (no action shots)…

A corkboard and push pins to outline the little pictures with.  I had several of these left over from the last time this activity was out.  He really enjoys this one!

 

Our newest puzzle from our toy lending libary:

 

Pegboard game with shapes, also from the toy library:

 

A new puzzle from mama (I’ve got scads of these stashed around the house; he just loves a new puzzle challenge).

 

The good old Lite Brite, which is always fun.  He likes to pull the shades in his room, close the door and get it as dark as possible when he plays with this:

 

Our foam puzzles – numbers and ABCs.  He still likes to hammer these guys in with his little wooden hammer!

 

The first thing he goes for every week is his letter cutting/collage page.  He did S this week:

 

The sand tray and his soft pipecleaner letters. 

 

And, he checks his little sprouts every single morning.  It’s looking like we are going to have lots of shamrocks and forget-me-nots.  We’ve been counting them and he’s so good about taking care of them.  I really need to thin them out, but they are like his babies, so I’m not sure exactly how to go about doing that. :)

 

I know we’ve done a lot more than this, but if I don’t take a picture of it I just can’t remember anything.   Actually, that’s true about a lot of things, not just tot school! :)

Go here to see other tot-schooling mamas.

Have a beautiful day! )