Tadpoling

Boo has been tadpoling a whole lot recently. No, not fishing for nascent froggies, but rendering what is known as a 'tadpole' in whatever drawing media she can get hold of. Tadpole drawings are the first emergent representations of figures seen in childrens' drawings and the interesting thing is that all children everywhere go through the same representational stages towards figuration. They require no tuition, it is simply a natural development inherent to the growing awareness of self in the small child. It felt like I was waiting forever for Boo's first tadpole, but I recorded back in October 2010 when she was 3... and here it is..

I thought that once the tadpole emerged there would be no looking back but she was back to scribbling and other mark-making much of the time. However, ground work was being laid, figures were sometimes just vertical lines, there was repeated use of circles, parallel lines, crosses, 'ladder' shapes, wee small circles moving towards their combination as the tadpole.

 It is almost as if the tadpole emerges as a true sense of self emerges, and I don't believe these expressions can truly be called 'art' in the formal sense, they are almost an assertion of the 'I' of the child. Boo was late to use 'I' in reference to herself, so it's perhaps not surprising that her tadpoles took a while in coming. But here they are now, and here they will stay, gradually becoming more detailed as fingers emerge, the tadpoles become clothed, they start to stand on drawn surfaces, and some of the them are beginning to perform actions (mostly dancing!) I have to say I love the age of the tadpole and look forward to when Boo is ready for a bit of observational drawing.

A Den of One's Own

A den, a hideaway, a grotto, a shady secret spot.  Isn't that what every child needs?

Baby's First Painting

Baby Boo Two is almost one and I thought it was about time for his first painting.

We made some 'paint' using cornflour, using a great recipe I found here on a great early learning blog called Imagination Tree. There is a great section on different types of play on here too if you get a chance to take a look at it.

I've made cornflour goop before but the addition of hot water takes you into a whole new dimension of cornflour goodness. It takes on a thick gloopiness that is just perfect for baby fingers.

Yumm!

So how did he get on? Well first he ate a bit, then gagged. Edible, yes, but tasty, no.

Boo was beside him demonstrating the correct method...

I put a bit of the paint on the paper to see if he would push it around a bit.

He happily did so for a minute or two.

Then he played with the paintbrush a little.

And that was it, he wanted out.

I think maybe having him in his highchair confused him (what is this blue stuff you're expecting me to eat?!)

Next time I think he'll be on the floor on a mat, wearing just his diaper, just like Meg's baby on Sew Liberated demonstrates.

Felty Fun

This week we have been enjoying some fabulous felty fun with these screenprinted animals which we picked up at Collage Collage.  They were drawn by artist Sarah Holtom who also runs workshops there.

I'd love to make some of these myself!

Let 'em draw on the windows

My latest fave art material for kids is window crayons. Boo got a pack of these, made by Crayola, in her stocking this year and has been enjoying finding a whole new 'blank canvas' for herself on the window panes. The timing seems apt as well as I finally decided to put our seasonal window trees to bed after enjoying 5 seasons with them. They apply really well, the colours are vibrant and they screw up so there seems to be plenty for many drawing sessions, as well as keeping little hands clean.

Here's Boo drawing a little red person, and then a little green person.

She informed me that this was herself and Boo Two which gave me a little warm feeling as its the first time she's drawn herself with her sibling. I haven't used other makes of window crayons so i can't compare how they perform with any others, though I know Lyra make some and I would love to try those also.

Only drawback we found was that, once applied, little hot hands could smudge the drawings and, when you have this little tyke around getting into everything, it was quite tricky to keep from just about everything in the vicinity being covered in smudgy crayon. But we love em.

Bunny's Burrow

Boo goes to a Waldorf preschool, doesn't watch tv, and has very limited access to other media, one result of this being that she doesn't fall prey to kiddy consumerism. This fact, along with the vivid imaginative life she lives with her 'guys' (soft toys), leads to her requesting gifts that are interesting... and usually challenging for me in that I have to make them. One year she asked for a new outfit for bear, simple enough. This year, she requested a 'bunny burrow' for her beloved bunny. Okay, no problem. Errrm, what exactly does a bunny burrow look like and how would one go about making one? Well, here is what I came up with...

Bunny's burrow is fashioned from a large piece of felted sweater, rolled into a tube and sewn into a cylinder open at one end. As this was rather floppy, I used some pipe cleaner circles to reinforce the cylinder at 3 points, and sewed pretty ribbon over them to keep them in place. Finally, I knitted bunny some cosy wool bedding. Doesn't he look cosy? Upon opening her gift, Boo looked initally unsure, then asked 'is this a bunny burrow?'. When I assured her that, yes, this was indeed a bunny burrow she seemed to accept it completely (I don't think she had really visualised beforehand what a bunny burrow may indeed look like) and bunny was swifly installed in his burrow. Phew.