Mogs and I have begun to make art together. She has only recently taken an interest in playing with her pens, crayons and paints; whereas she had previously enjoyed chewing on the implements until her mouth was brightly colored. Now she will get out her art basket first thing every morning. I do my best to give her plenty of space to work and to not fret about the ensuing mess.
This is the same art basket I played with as a kid. My mom bought it in Carmel, CA in the 1970’s and used it as a purse until I got a hold of it. It’s so groovy, huh? I tried to pick that penny off the top many times when I was little. I only now noticed that it from 1908.
We were able to collaborate on a few projects in preparation for Tony’s birthday a few weeks back. Since her dad loves to cook, we created this apron for him. She added the hand-print, while I did the general sewing and embroidering of the snail. He was actually wearing this outfit this morning!)
There are some really cool resources out there for ideas of how to create art together as a family. I’ve enjoyed the ideas from creative moms blogging on: soulemama, angrychicken, and my awesomely talented sister-in-law at sixlittlehands. The mom who writes soulemama is putting out a book next spring called The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections which you can order.
