The Little Artist

I babysat for a couple hours today for the little artist. She's liked crayons and glue sticks and arts and crafts for some time, but I noticed recently she has really flourished. Not yet four, she can write her name and also "MOM", and she draws suns and family members which of course are basic stick figures with a head, arms, legs, eyes, and a mouth. It's rather interesting how she makes the mouth. I guess it's because she is trying to make them smile, so she draws a line but then a line up on each side of it to resemble a smile.

Today we found envelopes, card stock, some stickers, cards to cut with scissors, crayons, glue sticks, tape, and a good imagination. She created cards for her mom and dad, her brother, and one for her dog. LOL I am sure the dog will appreciate that he wasn't left out. She made a couple of decorations for uncle Matt as well.

I watch as she cuts with the "big people" scissors as the kids ones I have don't work very well. She actually does quite well with scissors. I marvel at how far she has come in the past few months, how quickly kids grow, at the creativity and imagination. She likes pink and purple a lot and I notice she chooses those color crayons a lot. The look on her face as she's cutting, putting glue on the back of something she has cut out, and writing her name with a crayon tells me that she is very serious about what she is creating. She is giving it her all!

Once she is finished she admires her work and puts them on a shelf near the door so she doesn't forget to take them home with her when Daddy arrives to pick her up. At home she has gift bags scattered around the house with her papers and letters and pictures she has made for various people. I never leave from their house empty handed. My refrigerator proudly displays her projects and art.

I think the next time I am out shopping I need to pick up a few more art supplies and surprise her when she comes to visit. It will be interesting to see once again what she creates. Having the various art supplies is a great way to help her become creative, to make decisions and see the outcome of her choices, to express herself, to learn motor skills such as gluing, cutting with scissors, cutting the tape off the roll, and also helps her to learn all the various colors and how blending different ones together will give you an entirely new color. It gives her the chance to think outside of the box and in her mind and on her paper, a bear can fly and a flower smile, a boy can have his arms where his ears should be and have no ears at all, but still function just fine...all while smiling hugely!