paint cut paste

when following novi’s lead and interests, it is so obvious that she is a drawing machine… and not only does she love to draw, but her drawings are all about storytelling. she creates stories as she draws and tells them to herself and to me.

one of the art therapy techniques i have used with clients (of all ages) came to mind the other day when watching novi engage me in her drawing — it’s called dialog drawing (or dialogue drawing for my friends in the uk ) the idea is that two people will have a visual conversation by taking turns drawing on one page. this can be done by one person making a mark (a line, dot, curve,) then another making a mark, and so on back and forth until a picture develops. little ones don’t always have the patience for the slow unfolding of mark-making, so it’s a good idea to take turns making one “thing” at a time. you can say, “okay, let’s take turns! you draw something on the page. then it’ll be my turn to draw something on the page, then your turn. we’ll take turns going back and forth until we feel like our picture is finished.”

today we got out a large sheet of drawing paper – i’d recommend at least a 17×20 white page for this exercise. working large is great when two (or more – get all of your kids involved!) people are using it as their canvas. we used crayons, primarily, but i made colored pencils available. markers or any other dry media would work.

we began by setting some ground rules. make up your own. if you know your kid gets upset when someone’s marks touch or add to his/her work, then make a rule that the marks can’t touch each other… our rules were loose. they were just that she’d draw one object, then i’d draw one object, etc. you can create a rule of “no talking” so that it’s a strict visual conversation, but we chatted when we made ours. our first picture began with novi drawing a self-image and a ball (which i later colored in.) on my first turn, i drew myself playing ball with her. it is important to remember to use your child’s artistic “handwriting” or visual language when doing this, so as to meet them where they are and non-verbally communicate that they are being seen and witnessed. more on these ideas here.

you can see how our first images of ourselves and a ball started an entire scene

not only is this a good exercise in patience and turn-taking, but it also helps to develop visual language, and it really allows you to give your child your very focused attention, playing an art game where the content is always fresh and new.

novi LOVED making the dialog drawing together! after our first scene, which ended up being a beach picture, she said, “let’s do another one! but this one can’t be on a beach! now, you go first!”

drawing 1: the beach scene

so we did another…

drawing 2: the park scene

we spent over an hour doing these pictures and creating a story and talking with each other about it.

i loved watching how our ideas bounced off of one another. sometimes mine came first…

…sometimes hers did.

it was a really fun and connected morning art activity for us – try it!

summer officially begins today, the summer solstice. what better way to ring in the season than to brainstorm with your little one(s) about all of the fun things you can do together in these beautiful, expansive months ahead?

when i saw this idea for summer fun cards on teach mama, i knew that novi would be really into it. she used index cards, but i thought i’d check our stash of scrap papers to make these. then i realized i had a pack of blank index cards in our stash already, so it was kismet. white cardstock is good for illustrating, though you could do this with any papers you have around (think: brown paper grocery bags, used gift wrap, etc.)

novi and i thought of all of the fun summery things we’d like to do together when the weather is warm and the days are long and there’s no preschool in session. i wrote these things on the cards in marker. then i passed them to novi to illustrate any way she’d like, with some dry media: markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

here are a few of the finished ones that novi drew. i drew on a few of the cards (not pictured below), as well… we had TONS! novi loved learning about what illustration means by doing this project.

then i used a hole punch to make holes in the cards, and we strung our cards on colorful yarn. we hung them in novi’s playroom….

…where we can be reminded of all of the potential…

that these long summer days hold.

happy summer! have a blessed solstice!

we’ve been having fun preparing for father’s day over here…

novi made some papa portrait cards for her dad and grandfathers.

here are her portraits. (yep, she essentially has 4 grandfathers. modern families.)

we also turned a really cool magnadoodle image of hers…

into a great travel coffee mug for her dad on cafepress.com! (i love this idea of using your child’s art on everyday products. sure beats logos and advertising for other companies!)

novi painted a wooden picture frame for her dad at preschool a couple of weeks ago, complete with a photo taken by her teacher.

we added the frame and the mug to a gift basket with lots of his favorite goodies.

one of novi’s traditions is to make mom’s day and dad’s day signs… last year in 2009, her sign looked like this:

mom's writing, novi's scribbles

but this year, she was able to write and illustrate her own sign – hooray!

happy father’s day to all the dads, granddads, godfathers, uncles, and all of the amazing men who love & support our children!

we are anxiously awaiting WARM WEATHER over here in the sf bay area, and all of the fun things it entails… but i just could not wait any longer to make fresh squeezed lemonade with my little lady. i must forewarn you that this is a photo-heavy entry… lemons just provide so much eye-candy (and other senses, too!)

it was super-easy and fun to do! here’s whatcha need:

• 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (we did this with 12 lemons)
• whatever tools you wanna use to squeeze lemons dry
• 1.5 cups raw sugar  (we used organic raw turbinado sugar, so ours looked more like tea)
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 gallon cold water
• one sliced lemon & fresh springs of mint leaves for garnish

let your little one take sticker off of and wash each lemon.

have fun squeezing all of the lemons to get the juice out any way you can!

enjoy all of the sensory experiences that come along with lemons!

smell

taste

and pretending to pick lemons from a tree

in a 1 gallon container or pitcher, place the sugar and hot water and stir until sugar dissolves. add the fresh lemon juice and cold water to fill the remainder of the container or pitcher.

we cut some peppermint sprigs for garnish. (note the cute plant tag!)

chill the lemonade and serve over ice (uh, but we don’t make ice in our house, so we just had to chill it longer.)

nope, it's not tea. that's the color of the raw sugar.

i had a hard time parting with the lemon rinds, so i put them in some water with cinnamon sticks and cloves and simmered it on the stove to make the house smell awesome for the day.

then novi was inspired to make lemonade art…

i think we’re all set for a lemonade stand… if the weather would ever get outta the 60s and the sun would come out around here… come on memorial day weekend, bring it!

one of my favorite activities as a child was the spirograph. luckily, they still make these things! (only ours is called mystery spin doodle.)

mandalas, which we’ve done a post about before, are a symbol of wholeness, and as an art therapist, i’ve come to adore them and their healing properties. a spirograph produces a circular image that is much like a yantra, which is the hindu form of a mandala (mandala is traditionally a buddhist term) that is comprised of intricate geometric patterns.

(this one was done by momma)

novi had i had some fun this morning trying out the spirograph with different materials. first, she tried it with colored pencils. they need to be very sharp in order to fit through the small holes in the gears. we broke a lot of pencil tips, actually…

i like the pastel look of her pencil one.

so we switched to the 3 markers that came with the kit (that have narrow and long ink tips to fit through the holes.) we were able to add in a few of the markers we had, but not many fit through the holes. novi made a couple more mandalas with markers. the smaller gears are easier for little hands to coordinate with keeping it against the edges. i had to help her hand guide the larger gears (which are the ones that produce the images closer to the center.)

novi loved the purple one and had the urge to draw a guy in the middle of it right after she began it.

this is what happens after the gears come off… lots of marker scribbling, but it still looks so cool contained within the circle.

eventually her spirographing became a drawing session, primarily done with a green marker.

but we had a great time making these lovely geometric mandalas together while it lasted…

novi got her art on today…

to wish you all…

a happy mother’s day weekend!

thank you for everything that you do.

mommas, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers, and all of the special women who make up your tribe…

enjoy your weekend!