Ever since the kids were able to hold a pencil or paintbrush, I've made a point of finding snippets of time for them to explore their creativity. Although not valued by everyone, I hold it in very high regard. The people who who change the world and invent super stuff are creative types. Inventors. Thinkers. Explorers.
My little people may only be making little cute colourful stuff right now but one day, who knows..... maybe they will put something brand new out into the world? Maybe they will create for pleasure, balance, calm, peace. All good things.
Now that my studio is mostly functional, the kids are getting more creative time than ever before. The girls bedrooms have little art desks in them so they colour, cut, create almost everyday. But studio time allows them to explore a little further. And there's space for all of us, which is fabulous.
Recently I taught Georgia how to hand stitch and she has been really enjoying it. She's not finished yet but here below, is her progress so far. Although she LOVES to paint & draw big time, she is not one for getting her hands messy. She's very neat! So she is especially suited to stitching I think.
This year, I put together a basket filled with pom pom making supplies so the kids can pick them up whenever they are in the mood to make one or progress another along, with minimal help from me. That is except Chelsea who is a total firecracker at winding on her wool. It seems like she needs me to knot on another piece of wool every 2 minutes. She is amazing. There are many things she struggles with, but she's super methodical at other things and she's terrific at pom pom making!
Little Buddy loves being in the studio. He likes to just hang out, swish his little chubby hands through the beads, push & pull plasticine & modelling clay and he loves painting. At only 2 years of age, we've only done a little painting together, he's done many more at playgroup but he loves it so much so I'll have to spend more one on one time teaching him how to do it slowly and carefully at home.
Here he is with a little plasticine tree that he made. Very Dr Suess inspired I think.
And here's a little blosson tree I made while he was making. He helped put some of the little blossoms on too. Gee aren't I clever? LOL
My dear Charlotte has lots of energy so finds concentrating on long projects that require patience, challenging. When she saw Georgie stitching away though, she was very enthusiastic about working on a stitching project of her own. This is her progress so far. Its a little girl.
Today, Charlotte had some one on one time with me in the studio. She has 3 canvases on the go right now. So she was continuing painting work on two of them. It is great relaxation for her & always prompts great conversation. Just adding a layer or two to a couple of canvases was the perfect amount of time without her getting frustrated or bored.
A little later, the other girls wanted to join in so they jumped into some beading. Amelia is our primary little beading enthusiast. She has made twice as many necklaces as anyone else. She especially loves wearing them to kindy. So cute.
Once all the kids had had enough & skipped off to some other activity [they are performing magic tricks with boxes & building a puppet theatre right currently = scissors, colours & scrap paper everywhere], Buddy came in for a little visit. Inspired by a painting he had done earlier in the morning, he requested to do more painting.
I was preparing some canvas backgrounds with papers, napkins & gel medium so I let him prime them up for me & I just quickly smoothed them over before the next layer. Its not always so easy to let the kids help me in my own work, but I discovered today he of course can't get too crazy with gel medium - it dries clear!! So I will make sure I do this type of project if the kids are present so they can "help" if they want.
You can follow my little kiddies in their creative art endeavors on my instagram feed. I am 'messyMissKate' and the tag is #studiokids. Feel free to tag your own little ones on instagram with #studiokids. I would love to see what your small people get up to too!
