I LOVE arts and crafts. I could spend all day cutting, coloring, painting, gluing, making collages, and so on and so on. Unfortunately (for me), my little guy has not inherited my enthusiasm for crafts. Oh, he'll humor me and dab a glob of glue on something and he'll paint for several minutes, but without my encouragement, he'd rather do anything else.
I really believe there are tremendous benefits in cultivating a child's creative side. There's so much one can learn and express through art. So, I've been trying to find some new ways to make art interesting to James and one idea was to create an art basket.
This basket contains all sorts of things with which James can make Valentines.I must point out that this idea is not my own - it comes from the lovely Nicole, of Tired, Need Sleep, who creates art boxes for her son. She also created a wonderful blog carnival called, The Art Box. She's since discontinued the carnival, but be sure to check her old posts - lots of creative fun!
I'm hoping by giving James free reign with a wide variety of art materials, he'll find his "inner art lover" and I'll find myself swept up in days of blissful artsy-ness. :D (Well, it doesn't hurt to dream, right?) And if all goes well with this basket, I may just create a monthly art basket going forward.
~Thank you for your comments!~
13 comments:
Great idea! Looks like fun! Holly
what a great idea. I have to say my boys are thankfully very creative and arty, but during my childminding day i find it easier to offer more structured art. This is a great way to offer free choice without having to pull the whole cupboard out!! looks very inviting too!
Thanks for the tips xx
oo how fun! I would love to come create valentines with you!! :-) The basket looks great!
OOooo I am going HAVE to do this for my daughters AND I have those baskets ... found them at dollar tree ... I know the'll love a Valentine's art basket!
Funny, I put together one of these on Tuesday too. Then last night saw Nicole's post on hers and now here's your take! I'll be posting mine too, some day. Same theme, but that's not unusual this time of year ;)
We have two eating areas in our house and I turned the one off the kitchen into an art room. I have an old cupboard that is stocked full of cardstock, glue, tape, markers, paint, etc. On the table are coloring books, empty containers, cardboard tubes, magazines...anything I think they could craft with. It is a messy room, but my kids probably spend about 40 % of their time in there, creating. I love it!!
Looks great, Mari-Ann. :) I hope James discovers his inner artist too - it is so much fun. I hope you share with us all the wonderful Valentine he creates with his art basket!
That basket would totally inspire me to do something crafty! I hope J feels the same. We have art shelves, as opposed to an art basket or art box, and I usually keep the supplies there pretty open and add some extra special things like heart stickers and stamps at Valentine's day for example.
I am curious whether James will discover his inner artist with this or not. Anna was enthusiastic... for a week, and then the novelty wore off. Oh, she loves to do "functional art" - something that she can use for pretend play, but she is not at all interesting in experessing herself in painting or drawing, she is just fine with talking non-stop :)
We have the same thing! Ours is on a big giant art tray, but almost all the same materials. I think open ended art activities is where it's at :)
Thank you for all of your wonderful ideas. I know you said that James really enjoyed the solar system learning. Why not create an art basket that has dark paper and yellow paper in it. He can create his own sun, moon and stars (or use star stickers). Maybe he can use yarn to make the planets, or use pastels to draw them, or even just cut out and paste onto a paper. It might work to get him more interested in arts and crafts. Good luck!
I like a previous commenters idea for a space related art basket. I hope that this basket helps inspire his craftiness! I have had an art basket for my son for quite some time, although I haven't done a lot of changing it around. Thank you for the idea!
you know I think its a boy thing :)
the art basket is great and he will explore and create if and when the desire hits! :)
great job love the basket right now my 4 year old is in love with her Zen Garden I got at dollar tree
http://lettersnumbersandbooksohmy.blogspot.com/2011/02/under-5-fun-zen-garden-love-dollar-tree.html
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