Musings on School Projects

I was in line at Michael's Craft Store today behind a mother with her 9 year old daughter. The mom and the checkout woman were commiserating about how expensive it was to by the supplies for all the school projects that are required. “Maybe I'm old-fashioned.” the checker exclaimed, “but I don't know why they don't just have the students do reports anymore. They have to do projects for Science, History, English.” I joined in on the discussion, secretly relieved that those days were behind me.

Several projects of my own children came to mind. In fifth grade, my younger daughter had to do a diorama for a novel they were reading. Being her self sufficient self, she helped herself to our spice cupboard. Into the bottom of the box, she glued down what she thought was parsley to represent grass. Unfortunately, what she thought was a basically odorless green herb was in actuality, a spice blend call It's A Dilly, whose predominant scent was garlic. Her teacher kindly said that she enjoyed it's “aroma”, claiming that garlic bread was her favorite food.

That project did not have the honor of joining the myriad of others still stored in our basement. Even though my older daughter is now approaching 26, I can't bring myself to throw out her beautiful foam core rendition of the Blitzkrieg. I also have so many fond memories of our trip to St. Augustine, FL, that I still gaze lovingly at my younger daughter's triptych of the city she created when studying Florida history in 3rd grade. (She's a senior in college now.) However, one of the memorable projects did not survive the test of time.

In seventh grade, my son had to recreate an American monument. By the time he got around to picking one, all the easy monuments were already taken. He had the monumental task (excuse the pun) of sculpting Mt. Rushmore. Or should I say, “we” had the monumental task since it became a family project, spearheaded mostly by my artistically gifted daughter. We used sculpti clay to form the heads, but in order to be more economical, we made clay out of flour, water and salt to side the mountain. It did come out to be rather impressive, even though Teddy Roosevelt bore a striking resemblance to John Lennon. So after all that work, how could one possibly throw it out once it returned home? It was placed on a high shelf in the basement until one day when I decided it was time to retire it to the trash. As I reached up above my head to retrieve it, I was showered with mouse droppings. Apparently the flour based clay provided a very large and yummy meal for the creature which is now referred to as, “the mouse that ate Mt. Rushmore.”

This posting will not be sharing any fun art ideas or instructions, but I will reveal a secret to parents who have these years approaching. Unless a school project is for an actual art class, do not have any compunction about pulling in whichever person in the family has an artistic bent to assist the one who does not. And when that day does come, or if you are in the middle of it right now, know that there is someone out there who feels your pain.

Dannie's Dandelions

“Some people see weeds, others see wishes.”
- Unknown

A number of the moms enrolled with their children in my toddler programs were thrilled to have a place where their child could create without messing up their own house. Let's face it, art is messy. Two of my three children were constantly “creating” works of art while growing up, so I'm well acquainted with what young art can do to a kitchen.

Now that my husband and I are empty nesters, the messes are a distant memory (kind of like labor), but so many of those art projects are now very cherished possessions of mine.

The template for this blog is off of a blogger.com site. When it popped up full screen on my computer I joyfully gasped. It looked just like art work I would do for one of the picture books I would write for my students. And the dandelions mimicked those on a porcelain travel mug my friend Dannie bought for herself at a local gift shop when visiting me from Florida. The above quote was on the mug.

The excitement I felt when I first saw the template in its full glory reminded me of the glee I would see on the faces of the toddlers I worked with when they realized they had created something really cool. In one particular class that was themed, “All About Me”, I had the kids lay down on a large piece of white paper. The parent drew around their child who served as a life sized stencil. Then with glue sticks, the children glued on the appropriate pre-cut eyes, mouth and nose onto their own outline. After the features were securely attached, the children colored in their hair and clothes with crayons. A little adorable blond headed, blue eyed 2 ½ year old named Lucas came running up to me, face all aglow pointing back at his new creation exclaiming, “That's me! That's me!'

Another project I did in this class was to introduce the toddlers to the mixing of primary colors. I gave each child a large piece of white paper, a squirt of blue, yellow and red paint on a coated paper plate and a small chunky piece of sponge. The parents assisted the children with putting the paint on the child's hand with the sponge and then the child pressed the painted hand onto the paper creating a personalized hand-print. After producing her first hand-print, one little girl looked up at me with a smile that lit up the whole room.

As they continued with this printing process, they could see how the yellow and blue mixed to make green, the red and yellow to make orange, the blue and red to make purple and that all the colors together made brown.

The final result was a poster sized, colorful, personal keepsake that they could hang on their bedroom wall. And I imagine, one day when that little girl is away at college, her mom or dad will come across that original work of art and will probably get a little teary eyed, remembering the joy, not the mess.

Fun Art vs Fine Art

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
- Pablo Picasso

I have been teaching arts enrichment classes to children ages 2/12 - 10 for the past 7 years.  The object of these classes has been to bring out the joy of creativity in young children. I used the concept of fun art vs fine art when working with the children. 

Fine art is considered a disciplined approach to art that does require a certain amount of talent to master.  In my Fun Art classes, the child does not need any special talent to participate, only an openness and a desire to bring forth something unique and beautiful.


In this time of cut backs in educational art budgets,  I am looking to share fun art ideas with parents, homeschoolers, pre-school teachers, librarians and anyone else who wants to join me in  nurturing creativity in young children.