Photo Archive Prolific Kid Art

My son loves drawing planes. There are planes all over the place - dozens and dozens. How do I encourage the time and creativity without turning our home into a library archive of 100 versions of the same plane?

Take a picture of your kiddo WITH their piece of art.

By taking a photo of my child with his art, I can see little Mr. Plane Designer growing WITH his artwork. Then I might be able to get away with throwing away a few of the originals (I'll keep a few choice pieces)! Of course, now I'll have to come up with a way to organize all those digital photos...

My mom always wrote the date and my age on my artwork...so this is kind of like a new-fangled version of that timeless tradition (thanks, Mom!).

E., age 4, mulitimedia collage

The Invention Box

My kids love to make things. And I love to recycle! We've combined both of these loves in today's art idea: The Invention Box.

A friend of mine, who used to teach kindergarten, said this idea was one of the things her students really loved.

All you do is collect - things like paper towel tubes, old yarn, stickers, interesting plastic pots & jars, buttons, the innards from those greeting cards that play music, lids, yogurt cups, anything you can think of. For older kids, beads and glitter, glue, etc. The more random the stuff, the better!

When I stick the invention box on the table for art-time, I pre-rip pieces of masking tape so the kids can tape things together to their hearts' content. Last time, my oldest made a 'cucumber gun that also shot marshmallows'. Thankfully I hadn't put any cucumbers or marshmallows on the table. That was pure imagination. But the invention was pretty cool. It had a moving lever adjusted with a piece of string!

Try this idea - I think your kids will like it.

Playdough - Make it at Home

This is a great recipe for homemade playclay. It's good for little hands as it is nice and soft and easy to manipulate.

1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp food coloring

Mix the above over low heat. As it heats, add:

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup flour

Stir over low heat until the mixture starts to ball up, dry out, and pull away from the sides. When it's not sticky anymore, pour onto the counter and knead until smooth. (Careful, it's hot!) Keep in a sealable plastic bag or other container to keep it from drying out. No need to refrigerate.

*recipe adapted from First Art by MaryAnn F. Kohl