If you give a kid some puffy paint...

Oh man, what a slacker I've been! My poor, neglected blog. I keep thinking I'll get around to catching up, posting all the millions of things I think about every day to blog about, and then I get busy, and tired, and busier, and more tired, and then I give up.

So I'm not going to try to catch up, because that will never happen. I'll just jump in where we are and try to write more often!

Today's subject: Kiddie Craft Lessons

There are two distinct ways to teach kids art: You can instruct them on exactly how to make something, giving them a specific design to follow and attempt to re-create. Or you can give them a pile of supplies and set them free. Both have their uses. Most of my craft classes fall somewhere in between.

Since we've taken up dance classes (Cora ballet, Chloe jazz, and tap for me) I thought it would be useful to have dance bags we can keep by the door so we can grab them on our way out. We haven't done much in the way of fabric and textile art, and I still recall the true love I had for puffy paints as a small girl. I gave each girl a set of supplies: two stencils, pink and purple fabric paint, silver and white puffy paint, the letters to spell "DANCE", and a canvas bag to put it all on.

Puffy paint is a funny thing. It's really hard to learn the right amount of pressure and the speed with which you lay it down. Especially if you're eight.



So it's a little (lot) gloppy. She's pretty happy with it. I did have to confiscate the puffy paint before it got too out of hand.

Littlest One is my perfectionist. She wants to know how to do it, where to put it, wants help if she feels like she can't do something quite right. From one perfectionist to another, there's a long, hard road ahead of her if she doesn't let up a little bit.



The end result looks... well, like something I'd make. But she had a fabulous time filling in the stencils. :o)

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Completely unrelated, but I realized how much I love looking back at my Chloe-isms, and now I have Cora-isms too, and I've done a terrible job of recording them. So here are a few:

When I was doing double pull-backs in my tap class (and struggling with them!) Chloe told me, "Mom, um, you kind of look like a flumpy horse." Flumpy? Thanks, honey.

Also from Chloe, while trying to choke down cream of asparagus soup: "This soup is not cooperating with my taste buds."

Me: Cora, did you just splatter soup on the table? Cora: No, I splattered soup at my sister.

Cora, after watching Chloe's dance class: "I wished I could jump over hoopa-loops, too."

Ahh how I love the funny bits my kids come up with. Wish I could record them all!