Little Artists at Work (and Other Christmas Tidbits)

One of the verbs that guides the way I strive to mother my children is this:  notice.  Barbara Curtis and her wonderful book Small Beginnings are to be thanked for this.  :)  

Being a stay-at-home mom--and what's more, a homeschooling mom--means that I get a lot of time with my children, which occasionally makes me want to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers so nobody can find me, but which is usually perceived by me to be a GREAT blessing!  :)  All of that time together means I get a lot of time to watch them, to study them, to notice how they're growing and what they love and how they've changed since a year ago and what really lights them up.  So here's one thing I've noticed recently...

These boys--especially the older ones--particularly Josiah--have grown so much in the area of taking initiative.  They'll come up with an idea for something and then run with it, not always waiting around for me to coach them how to do something or for me to get out the supplies or what have you.  

For example, I had gotten some Berenstain Bears books from the library primarily for Tobin and Shav to enjoy; but a few nights ago, Josiah happened to pick one up and read it in the sometimes interminable is-supper-ready-yet? gap between late afternoon activities and dinnertime.  The book was about a spelling bee, and all of a sudden Josiah got into spelling.  He wanted me to have fourth-grade spelling and vocabulary lists for him so he could study them and be quizzed on them.  He's paid more attention to spelling in the last few days than he ever did before, and it wasn't because I told him he had to.  I delight in seeing him take initiative like this!

Another example (and the main point of this post): the morning after we put up our Christmas tree, Josiah went to work.  He wanted to draw the tree, and he couldn't wait any longer.  He got out paper and colored pencils and drew not only the tree, but the living room scene, complete with window, curtains, tree stand, and some presents.  In real life, our curtains are a light yellow/tan, not blue, but we'll just chalk his interpretation up to artistic license, shall we?  :)

After he had drawn the scene, he wanted to add a little POP to it, so he used glitter glue to accent each bulb on the string of lights (and he even used some on the bows on a couple of the presents, although it's harder to see that).

Seeing Josiah at work made David get inspired, so he grabbed a sheet of notebook paper and started drawing our Christmas tree, too.  The w-i-d-e trunk makes me smile, and I see here that David drew a cross at the top of the tree, which is different than our real tree.  When Jeff saw David beginning to draw the branches on the right side, he helped him get them a little bigger to make more sense proportionally (you can sort of see David's original branches on the right, and then the larger ones Jeff helped him with).  But the rest of this is all David's work, from his own initiative and his own head.

Next to get into the act was Tobin; and although this piece is clearly the work of a child and not a prodigy, I loved seeing how he imitated the way David was drawing the branches.

The next day, David decided to follow Josiah's example and draw the living room scene, not just the tree.

I was especially impressed by all the details he included: two candles in the window with cords leading to the outlet, the tree skirt, the little fence around the tree, etc.

Knowing that Tobin wanted to do some "art" but that he loses patience with his inability to replicate what he sees, I set him up that day with a paint-with-water book.

He was happy.  :)

Meanwhile, the only boy not creating art was Shav.  He stayed in motion, racing circles around us on his tricycle.  :)

What I appreciate the most is that I didn't have to say, "OK, boys, for art this week, let's all draw the Christmas tree!"  They came up with the ideas and the implementation by themselves, and all I had to do was sit back and applaud their efforts.  I'm so glad to see their self-motivation.  :)

In other Christmas news, we've enjoyed having our Christmas books out again.  When I pack away our decorations at the end of the season, I also put away the books, knowing that we'll enjoy them more when they're fresh to us the next year.  Over my lunch a few days ago, I read this (I almost always eat lunch after the boys are having afternoon naps/quiet time, so it's my usual pattern to grab something to read while I eat):

The words and illustrations in this sweet book combine to make it truly a delightful treasure to read.

In even more Christmas news...  One of the decorations our boys love the most are our nutcrackers.  I think we have six of them, and they're nothing fancy (most were purchased at the dollar store); but the boys have so much fun marching them around, talking with them, and acting out various scenes.  I've discovered one thing about nutcrackers this year:  they try hard to always look dignified and stately...

...but "dignified and stately" is a hard look to pull off when someone's dropped you and knocked your hat off.

Suddenly, those white tufts of "hair" sticking out from your head look ridiculous, rather than grand!  Needless to say, we've had to use glue several times to keep all our nutcrackers together!  :)

And the last Christmas tidbit for today...  so MANY times, I have an idea in my head of how I want a picture to look; but when I snap the shutter and view the image, it's nothing like what I imagined.  However, for once, I planned and took a photo that turned out EXACTLY like I wanted.  In my eyes, it's perfect--meaning, it lives up to the vision I had in my head.  Wanna see?

When I see it, I think...cozy...warm...colorful...festive...sentimental...old-fashioned...special.  When I see it, I feel...

...love.