Monday, February 13, 2012

Art Box

In my undying effort to keep us organized, and to encourage James to color and draw (he's not a fan of either), I created this art box for him.

I found a tackle box at the local hardware store, filled it up with artsy goodness, and because I was on a roll I decided to decorate it with some stickers (my inner 8 year old LOVED this part!). :)

The verdict? I love it. I can't tell you how much I would've enjoyed this as a kid! But James? He couldn't care less about it. *sigh* But, I thought I'd share it with all of you anyway since I know there are other children who ARE into the art scene. It's a fun way to keep everything contained and it makes a great gift, too!

~Thank you for your comments!~

15 comments:

tracey (aka rainbowmummy) said...

What a great idea!

My Egg never used to like drawing. Now he's always doing it :)

Silly question, but *can* James draw? I often wondered if the reason Egg didn't draw was because he couldn't. How frustrating it must be not to be able to. One thing we did was simple step by step pictures like this.

Another thing we did was simply what your doing, supplies always available.

Hopefully James will find a love for drawing like my Egg did.

Perhaps film him doing it, the "reward" or "incentive" being that he can watch the film or show the film to Dad?

Oh! Another idea is to have a mailbox and encourage the whole family to write letters to each other, obviously including pictures, perhaps even drawing a postcard, or really post things, to a friend or family member perhaps?


ps Sorry once again for the lack of comments, things aren't great down my way :( xx

RockerMom said...

Oooh, I think that Robbie would love this. He draws and colors for several hours each day. (He's on a colored pencil kick right now.) It's the only time he's still while he's awake.. unless Play-Doh is involved. I'll have to see if we can find a tackle box to suit our needs. Thanks for sharing!!!

Unknown said...

I am so doing this! My son received a tool box last month for his birthday. Unfortunately he is not into tools so much. I was just thinking today what am I going to do with this big box. My son LOVES art and all things creative so this will be perfect! Thank you!!!!

Amy said...

What a great idea. I have a little artist (sorry ;) and he would love this. We have one tackle box already that is filled with Legos..that works great too btw! Thanks for sharing.

Abby said...

What a great idea, thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

ohh I love it too! I think Sammy's reaction would be very similar as well!

Yelena said...

I can relate to both you (wanting to keep stuff organized) and your son (my son also isn't thrilled about coloring and art). What helped me was to put crayons, markers and paper out in the open, on his desk (markers and such are in little buckets on a lazy susan and paper scraps are in a little basket) easily accessible. Also, I learned that when it comes to encouraging my child to draw/color, limiting his choices really worked. So I left only 3-5 markers, 3-5 crayons, etc for him making sure to choose his favorite colors. And for some reason my son is more willing to work on various scraps of paper than on regular 8 1/2 by 11 sheets. Go figure, but giving him that option worked for him as well.

Unknown said...

I made something similar for my 8 year old little man last year and within 2 days everything had been taken out and the box was filled with all his 'little people' including soldiers, dinosaurs and lego men! I still haven't found all the art supplies..... lol xxx

lyle said...

I did the same thing-- only the art tools were dumped and replaced by legos and cars by my little guy(36 mo). The only way I can get him to "draw" are scribble races (draw fast, draw slow, STOP, ....) and using really big paper (I can't remember where I read that idea). Otherwise, he just dictates what he would like me to draw. I sigh with you.

bedelia said...

My son didn't like coloring until I let him paint with watercolors. Now, he loves art. I think he also saw a "Mr. Rogers" with an artist around this time because he kept telling me he wanted to be an artist when he got bigger. He likes to use markers and then use water to paint over it.

Natasha Mairs - Serenity You said...

Love this idea. At the moment my son's pencil's and things are all over they place in about 6 or 7 different pencil cases
so this would be perfect

Natasha xx

Amy said...

I have struggled with getting my daughter to color. However she enjoys painting on occasion, but since crayons and pencils are easier to clean up I really wanted her to use them (and I may have went over board and purchased way too many crayons at the beginning of the school year). Anyway, I found that just putting the crayons and pencils in her art basket wasn't enough to attract her attention. When I included scissors (she loves cutting) and stickers (also a favorite) she used it more. Then, I added tape, and the sticky putty to adhere things to the wall. Thanks for sharing...I love your ideas!

salserita92 said...

ha! my son could care les about arts and crafts too. i will give this a shot anyway.
thank you for sharing!

NabihaW said...

My daughter's 2.5 yrs old and every attempt at getting her draw, color, paint or do anything artsy has failed...she loves her puzzles and her books and her play kitchen...but art? nope.. she just does a bit ( and I know its just to get me off her back) then hands over the crayon or paintbrush or whatever it is and makes me finish it so that she can get on with her puzzles or games...I thought I've been doing something wrong to not 'spark' that creativity in her...thanks for your post! I'm so reassured!

Bri Sin said...

I am actually on the lookout for the perfect mini tool or tackle box to create a portable version of this!

Ya know, James seems like a very analytical guy and as he enjoys workbooks and worksheets, perhaps he would like art presented in a step by step manner from a workbook. Just to get him started. Kumon has a workbook that can be found here, My First Book of Drawing:

http://www.amazon.com/First-Book-Drawing-Kumon-Workbooks/dp/1934968021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330582411&sr=8-1

and there is the DRAW, WRITE NOW books:

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Write-Book-Critters-Storybook-Draw-Write-Now/dp/0963930710/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330582697&sr=1-1

Sorry that I can't remember all my HTML embedding codes. :(

It's worth a shot!

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