Skip to main content

Creative Minds

The kids and I took a creativity quiz the other day and the results were completely predictable. My artists were crowned Hands On and my "Box? What Box?" thinkers were deemed Bright Sparks.

This comes to mind because today we painted.

Photobucket
"You can only paint on these rectangles of paper and you can only use blue and green. (I'm going through a color coordinating phase.) Other than that, you may paint any way you choose."

Charlie immediately got to work and slopped some paint on his paper. He was fascinated with the way the paint swirled through the water when he rinsed his brush.
Photobucket
John and Faith painted with exuberance and speed. They were more into the process than results and happily swirled and spattered.
Photobucket
Then they ran off to play chess leaving Lauren and Claire at the table. These two continued with their pencils and brushes for another hour.
Photobucket

Photobucket
And the purpose of all this? That has to do with my results from the creativity test. As an Eyes Wide Open thinker I don't spontaneously generate fresh ideas like my Bright Sparks do and art doesn't flow from my finger tips like my Hands On kids but I know an good idea when I see one. These photos are the beginning of a new system that we are incorporating. Details to follow.

Comments

Sarah said…
Wow! These are really beautiful! I love all of the details in the last two. I need to show these to Sunshine so she can get some ideas...

sem
Anonymous said…
Wow, those are beautiful!!

Debby
Jennifer Jo said…
You've sparked my curiosity. Placemats? Artwork for a certain room?

I remember when you would get out the crayons, let the kids color for ten minutes, and then put them away before things got out of hand. It must be nice to be in a new phase. We're not there just yet.
Kate said…
J-

You are going to LOVE this idea. And for Charlie, I shooed him off after about ten minutes because that was all the attention span he had before he wanted to splash and splatter all over the table.

Kate
Wow! Tell the girls that their cards are worthy of Hallmark! Just beautiful...

I am apparently a Realist! No surprise there...

Xandra
40winkzzz said…
OK, yeah, just leave us all hanging... Hope you are not like another blogger I know who teases her readers with "more on that later" and then never delivers. (That would be me.)

It's fun to see the different things that different kids will do with the same tools and opportunities and restrictions. I love those butterflies!
I can't wait to see where you are going with this. I used to love art (and was almost an art major in college) but that was a long time ago and it drives me a little batty when I try something with the kids. I can't wait to see what comes next:-).

Popular posts from this blog

4-H Exhibits-Updated

Update: Blue ribbons all around! 4 of our projects will go onto the state fair. John's headboard exceeds size limitations and so we will lug it home tomorrow. We are relieved. That thing is heavy! ************* For the past few weeks we have been busy sewing, sawing, quilling and painting 4-H projects. The kids have been in 4-H for about a month and they started with a bang. The annual 4-H fair is tomorrow. So this morning we loaded these projects and four kids wearing slippers into the car. The fifth one had sense enough to wear flip-flops. (The other four complained as we pulled out of the driveway that their feet were sweating.) John reclining against the headboard that he built with Stuart. He wrote the 10 Commandments of Table Saw Safety to accompany this project. Claire's quilling project. Lauren modeling the apron that she sewed. Lauren and the dog painting she has been working on in art class for the past few months. Faith and her quilling project. So now...

Finding Rest: Part Two (Scroll down three posts to read this story from the beginning)

Why share such a personal story ? I share it because I have talked to enough women to know that underneath the makeup and the matching outfits and the small talk that make up our exteriors, we are a broken people. To pretend otherwise creates isolation. Thoughtful honesty creates closer relationships and greater understanding. When we share the way God works in the difficult things of life it encourages first oneself and then others. For some of us, the pieces have been patched and restored and there is wholeness where there was none before. But some of us are walking wounded, barely hanging on and wondering if there is hope. We have a choice. We can either be completely shattered by bitterness, depression and anger or we can lay the fragments before the One who can take the sharp slivers and jagged pieces and create a beautiful, productive life. Here is the conclusion to John's story. When John was ten, he was sullen and moody and difficult and so was I. But I was no longer proud....

Aviary Amphitheater (Wordless? Wednesday)

We're slow starters in the morning. The children lie on the sofas and read. Charlie sits and eats a graham cracker and a bowl of yogurt at the table before breakfast. Lauren and I take turn cooking oatmeal, or muffins, or scones... We eat somewhere between ten and eleven. Today, in the midst of all this leisure, the house became exceptionally quiet and I went to figure out why because "too quiet" is never a good thing. Except that it was today. I peeked out the living room window into the backyard and found five chairs and five children lined up on the patio. I opened the door and everybody shushed me. "Hush, Mama. We're watching the birds. Come sit with us" Six or seven hummingbirds were zipping around the feeder, frantic to fill their little gas tanks before they migrate. The children were silent, heads tipped up, eyes squinting against the morning light. I went in to get the camera. I took a few pictures of the children but could not capture the hyperacti...