The Artful Parent

Paper shapes with the toddler art group

The toddler art group was held at Iver's house yesterday. It was just the two babes again, so feels a little funny calling it a "group", but one family was sick, another was out of town, and a couple more haven't started coming yet.

Iver's mama, Angie, made construction paper shapes before the meeting for Daphne and Iver to play with. Not two-dimensional circles and squares (which is what I had pictured), but 3-D spirals, accordians, tunnels, and tents! How cool! It would never have occurred to me to make something like this just for 10-12 month old kiddos to mouth and explore. Maybe for older kids to glue onto paper as a collage, but not for the these two simply to experience. But what a great idea! Of course they loved them.

I'm planning to copy Angie's idea and cut and fold some shapes to play with at home!

We also got out some playdough for the babes. I usually make my own, but this time tried some yummy-smelling modeling dough from Clementine Art. They were excited by the playdough, and poked at it, but that was the extent of the interaction. We'll try again when they're a little older.

 

Big mazes on the chalkboard

Those do-it-yourself mazes I mentioned the other day? We've been making a lot of them lately. Mostly large ones on the chalkboard. I draw one for Maia (like above) then scootch back into the kitchen to work on dinner while she draws one for me (such as the one below).

And so it goes, back and forth, while dinner gets made slowly, which is about how it usually gets made. Slowly, with a babe on my hip, and a five year old who always, always wants my undivided attention. She only gets it in snippets these days, which just seems to make her want it more.

P.S. Did you notice the little red bucket hanging next to the chalkboard? I hung that to hold our chalk. It's the perfect height for Maia, but mostly just a big tease for Daphne, who loves chalk. Unfortunately she loves to eat it as much as draw with it. She can't resist nibbling at it in between making marks on the chalkboard. I may need to move the bucket up a bit.

P.P.S. The top maze obviously wasn't drawn while cooking dinner as Maia is wearing her PJs. Perhaps that was a before-bed maze or a first-thing-in-the-morning maze. They're all blurring together at this point.

 

 

 

Artful ideas around the web

Here are some fun, artful ideas from around the web (and a cute photo of Daphne at the chalkboard because I couldn't resist):

Simple wooden rainbows at maya*made

Collaging with pretty, pretty papers at No Monsters in My Bed. I love Darcy's photos! 

Super-sized string paintings at Let the Children Play

"Little Blue and Little Yellow"-inspired painting at Color Color Color

Interesting botanical paint at Paint Cut Paste

 

What Am I? An artful book for Daphne

We have a new board book that Daphne is in love with. It's called What Am I? by La Coccinella. There are two circular holes through each of the pages, with the circles getting progressively smaller as you go through the book. As you can see in the photos, these circles are the eyes for each of the animals in the book. Daphne is captivated by the holes!

Daphne will usually only listen to about half of each rhyme before turning the page (using the holes, of course) but I imagine her attention span will improve with time. Here's the text from the page shown above:

I live on the beach
and hide in the sand.
I have two big claws
that I use as my hands.

What am I? A CRAB!

I

The more interactive the book, the better, in Daphne's opinion. Her other favorite book right now is the classic Pat the Bunny, a gift from my grandmother. She loves to pat the bunny, play peek-a-boo, and "feel Daddy's scratchy beard."

What are (or were) your toddler's favorite books?

DIY mazes and dot-to-dots

Sometimes Maia and I hang out at the kitchen table and draw dot-to-dots for each other. I don't remember how this started exactly, but we've been doing it every once in a while for a couple of years now. She makes them for me to trace and I make them for her to trace. The one above is Maia's. When she was younger she would would just make random dots all over the page for me to connect up. Now she lines them up to form a more coherent shape or design.

Here's a super simple one I made for Maia. I generally keep mine fairly abstract although I've been known to do a unicorn on request.

Sometimes Maia makes dot-to-dots for herself to trace.

This one started out as a dot-to-dot and turned into a maze, which I think is pretty cool. (We also draw straight-up mazes for each other sometimes.)

Fun times at our table with simple paper and markers!

Sponsor welcome :: clementine art

  

I'd like to welcome my new blog sponsor, clementine art! Clementine art produces all-natural art supplies that are environmentally friendly and certified non-toxic. As their website says, "Clementine is art you can feel good about.”

Many of you know Diana Mercer, founder and director of clementine art, from when I interviewed her on The Artful Parent in July. You can read the interview to learn more about her eco-art products and her years of teaching children’s art. She has clearly made it her mission to provide safe and fun art supplies for children!

Here is a list of the art products she has created. Click on the links to read ingredients lists or to buy them.

·         Modeling dough

·         Tempera paints

·         Markers

·         Creamy soy crayons

·         Crayon rocks

·         Natural glue

And, lucky you, Diana is offering a 25% discount for Artful Parent readers! Just use the discount code CAFRIEND when you purchase art supplies from clementine art.

Toddler art group :: a first painting experience

We introduced paint to two babes during the (small) toddler art group meeting today. Iver, above, is only 10 months old, but definitely seemed to enjoy exploring the paint.

We set Iver and Daphne (stripped to their diapers) on top of two sheets of easel paper taped to the floor and handed them each a shallow dish of paint. Although we directed their paint-covered fingers to the paper at the beginning, they seemed to get it quickly enough and painted on their own after that.

The paints are natural clementine art paints which I thought would be especially good for little ones who taste everything and get paint all over their bodies. Although I was pleasantly surprised when they each put the paint in their mouths only once. Our chalk and crayons get tasted repeatedly (by Daphne anyway).

And here's Daphne's first painting! I may need to frame it, just because, along with her first drawing.

P.S. We're looking for one or two more children (ages 10 to 18 months) to join our group. If you're in the Asheville area and are interested in meeting weekly to explore art with your toddler, send me an e-mail (jevanthul@yahoo.com).

We're hooked on glitter glue!

I bought Maia this set of glitter glue for her birthday and she's been using it almost nonstop since. We had previously tried a couple different brands of glitter glue pens (I don't remember what kind) that were really hard to squeeze. I mean really hard. So I tossed them, and have been leery of glitter glue since. But someone recommended Discount School Supply's glitter glue, so I decided to give it another try since Maia loves glue and loves glitter. I'm so glad I did! 

 

These obviously aren't the pen kind, and maybe that's the key. These are regular old glue squeeze bottles with lovely, sparkly glitter glue inside.

Maia often gets her glitter glue out after school and draws pictures while we sit at the table together and talk about her day.

In fact, she seems to love these so much that I would've sworn she would say glitter glue when I asked her about her favorite art material. Her answer? Crayons. Who knew? (Although I wonder if her answer would be different on a different day.)

Here's one of her glitter glue pictures once the glue has dried. The glue doesn't stay quite as puffy after it dries, but is definitely still raised. I'm planning to suggest a crayon rubbing of one of these soon. Wouldn't that be neat? And I've read about making prints from a dried glue drawing -- probably from one of MaryAnn's books. So many possibilities...

So, is your family into glitter glue?

Flying a kite

We had quite a weekend! Saturday was our annual trip to the state fair to overdose on kiddie rides, brahman bulls, and (hot! fresh!) mini donuts. As usual, the weather was sunny and hot and we walked around a lot. Last year Daphne was born the day after our state fair excursion. It was all that walking, I'm telling you.

To balance out the excesses of the state fair, we headed into the mountains yesterday for a day surrounded by nature. This was actually an overdue hike up a windy bald called Max Patch to fly Maia's kite. We hiked, ate our picnic lunch, enjoyed the peace and quiet, and, of course, flew the kite. Heaven.

 

How was your weekend?

What's your favorite art material?

I'm taking care of a sick baby once again, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet today. Will you share your favorite children's art material? And if you can't keep it to one, that's fine. I know I can't! But if I had to say TWO favorite art materials, I'd probably say oil pastels and liquid watercolors. So, now, you're turn. What are your favorites?

Also, has anyone used these bingo bottles? They look like they might be great for toddler art, but I'm just wondering if they worth the price?