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

Artistic Expression and Faith

A few days ago, I came across a post called Of Books and Faith written by Beck at Frog and Toad are Still Friends ( The best blog name EVER to my mind.) She writes about how the Christian market is saturated with mediocre books. How few fiction authors there are who really grapple with the messiness of humanity from a Christian perspective. I agree with her whole-heartedly. The Christian life does not come with the lack of conflict and the happily-ever-after resolutions that I find in many books of this genre. It's funny that I came across that post because I had been thinking similar thoughts about another form of Christian expression. Art. Christian art is often either poorly rendered or is just too pretty. It lacks creativity. It doesn't engage the mind. Remember when I made that long trek to Hobby Lobby for stencil supplies? That was where this idea started to form. I spent a few minutes flipping through posters. Flip. Glowing Jesus in a meadow. Flip. Glowing Jesus surr...

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...

The Ice Cream Parlor

The Tooth Fairy doesn’t come to our house. Not because of any deep seated anti-Tooth Fairy angst. I'm just a tradition rebel. When each child looses his first tooth, we leave the rest of the pack at home and take the newly toothless one out for ice cream. This was easily accomplished when all of the children were young and the ice cream parlor was ten minutes away. We realized this simple tradition had become more complicated when Claire’s first tooth came out in my palm. The big guys don’t need a baby sitter. The little ones do. Kid combinations are such that we can’t leave them all home alone without outside supervision. Add in the drive time to and from the nearest soft serve establishment and we’re looking at three hours. Just for a quick trip to get ice cream! What to do? “I know, Mama! We can drive to the grocery store and get ice cream and eat it in the car!” “I don’t know. The thought of eating cold ice cream in the car in a hurry in January isn’t my idea of a da...