Arts and Crafts

I try. I really do. I am not an arts and crafts kind of person, but I think it is great for kids to experience everything artistic they can, to stimulate their creativity. So, I try.

We began with crayons a long time ago. All they wanted to do was eat them. I thought they would be mesmerized by the magic of color appearing on a white paper, but no, it was all about the eating. Once we moved out of such an oral phase, I reintroduced the crayons and still, no magic.

Over the last year or so, I have tried various materials to get them interested in creating works of art. Alas, there is just no interest there. Sure, they'll color on a piece of paper for a couple of minutes or draw some lines with chalk, but there is certainly no passion for the work.

We tried finger painting - I covered the kids, I covered the floor, I covered the walls, but I realized as they both got up after 30 seconds, using me for leverage, that I forgot to cover myself. 20 minutes of prep, a load of laundry for me, and 30 seconds of art time. Not so great.

So it was up to me to get more creative. I bought books with great ideas. I brought out huge colorful pipe cleaners, which for some inexplicable reason made the boys very angry. I hung contact paper on the walls and spent hours collecting and cutting collage materials that they could stick to the paper. The collage materials ended up being thrown all over the floor and Ethan wrapped himself up in the contact paper.

Well, who's to say what's art?

Recently I experimented with scissors and glue. Lucas continues to care less for any of these endeavors, but Ethan is at least giving them a chance - for about a minute - and then proceeds to conduct some kind of science experiment with the craft items. I captured a clip of Ethan blowing tissue paper across the table, amusing himself to no end. Works for me - I'd take that laughter over a masterpiece any day!