Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Chalk Boy, artist

 

This is what you get when a 4-year-old takes your picture with his new Vtech Kidizoom Camera.

Location: Fort Point, San Francisco

This is how Chalk Boy sees Daddy, as one hairy dude!

 

Robot

Flowers

I love and appreciate how art can billow out of a boy who tries my patience at times. It makes me smile.

Original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

Coloring, drawing and cutting in MY house?

My twin boys spent their first year of preschool almost exclusively playing outside. The preschool was set in a little house which I think my boys viewed more as a giant obstacle standing in their way of getting to the outside. My boys were young (just shy of age 2) and this was the free range mommy-and-me program within a parent participation preschool which meant my boys could do whatever they pleased. I chased those boys everywhere!

The front room was always filled with fine motor activities. Puzzles, beading, and manipulatives galore. My boys would just blow past this room and head for the great outdoors. They loved climbing and hammering trees (don't ask) and learning to ride on scooters. They would almost always skip the art, even when I tried my darnedest to engage them.

When they did dapple in art, I would get this:

So much fun, yet so very messy! On cold days, my boys would still prefer to play outside. Bundled up in a sweater, I would supervise my boys' outdoor play, envious of all the other moms who got to remain inside the warm house, helping their girls children paint pottery. I rarely had any art to take home.