WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY

Out of the Zone, Into the Box

On a rainy Wednesday, with a girl *potty training*(more on that later), I made an executive decision that we weren't leaving the house.  Even after our birthday jubilee-sized allotment of TV and Wii, we still had many hours in the day to fill.

Enter junk art.

I am NOT an artsy-craftsy kind of person, but, like most kids, all three of mine enjoy making things.  My oldest has a good book entitled 365 Things To Do With Paper and Cardboard, because, yeah, I need that kind of help.  I see cardboard and paper as recyclables, meant for the bin rather than the craft supply box.  Crazy, since I work with children for a living, and I often do art projects to focus on fine motor skills.  But in mommy mode, I never think about these kind of things.

boy #1 finished product

boy #2 finished product

But on this particular day, I realized we would never get through the remaining hours without focus.  My kids are very creative, but they still sometimes need direction to get them going.  So out went my preferences (read:  my utter distaste for craft projects), and in came the


creativity.

My oldest chose which project we were going to make, and away we went.

The whole thing was wonderful.  The boys were the designers, and I did nothing more than a little grunt work when they couldn't cut the shapes just so.  I watched as their personalities influenced their designs, color choices, and methods.

So, ok, we made a craft, and I survived.  It worked for me, and we might even do it again someday.