creating a space of her own

I am simply amazed at how natural the process is for children to be creative. And if we pause and take time to watch, nurture and embrace their desire to create - magic happens. What a tremendous gift this is for them and to us as parents. Dreams will be sketched here first. Stories will come to life on paper bigger than herself. The alphabet will swim in brush strokes of colors she only will bring to life.

This morning was such a day. With her pajamas still on, she was determined to create a palette of new colors by combining a few primary ones. Ava has shown a tremendous amount of interest in art [paint especially] for quite some time. When my mom took Ava for a "day out" alone, and told her she could have something to take home from the toy store, she chose a watercolor set, which she followed by giving the most genuine thank you [I am told] that made the store clerk's jaw drop and mom tear up.

So when we stumbled upon a craft table at Pottery Barn Kids yesterday, I was sold on the idea of creating a special space for Ava to do her art. So after the kids went to bed last night, we assembled the new table in our breakfast room, added a roll of butcher paper on top and cushions from an old sofa underneath. We tossed her crayons, chalks, markers, watercolors, finger paints and acrylics in the middle. Her Aunt Wagma came by today to visit and even she was drawn to the table to "create." They did her first art project at the table - with crayon shavings... Remember those?

We really enjoyed watching her curiosity grow with excitement using a sharpener for the first time and turning her crayons into chunks of glitter. We hung her "project" with stickers and color forms on the bay window behind her table so that she can be proud of her piece and remember the time spent with family creating it.

If you forgot how to... here it is:

Crayola Glitter Recipe
1. Use broken crayons or start collecting free ones from restaurants.
2. Peel off the paper and sharpen. We used an egg crate container to hold the shavings.
3. With your fingers, grind the curls to your preferred size.
4. Apply Elmer's glue to your picture and then sprinkle the shavings on top. You'll get better
results if you work in small sections at a time.
5. Turn the paper over and shake off excess shavings and re-use these to cover the remaining areas.

have fun!