Part of me would love to be an art teacher. Not because I love teaching art, but because I love watching kids create art. Especially when they’re young and confident about their abilities and haven’t started to doubt and criticize themselves.
Every year, I have kids over to make Mother’s Day presents. I started this several years ago when I realized that homeschool moms miss out on the mom’s day presents that preschoolers and lower elementary kids make at school.
The Logistics:
This has become an annual event, with kids from preschool through high school attending. I usually do something pretty inexpensive and foot the cost myself. I figure $40 to make three dozen moms happy is a pretty good deal.
I call it drive-through mom’s day presents. Moms wait in their cars or visit with each other in the street while their kids come into my garage or basement for 15 minutes and make a gift. I use signup genius and schedule 3 – 4 kids every 15 minutes for 2 – 3 hours. Not all the kids are in and out within the allotted time, but it works pretty well.
The Fun:
Every time we do this, I come away with all sorts of tales. Here’s my favorite story from this year’s project.
I sat down next to a five and a half year old boy who’s pretty new to our homeschool group. I’m never comfortable with the ‘tell me about your drawing’ approach, so I asked who he was drawing.
“That’s my mom,” he said, “and that’s a flower and a tree.” He pointed to the yellow and green blobs standing the same height as his mom. He continued drawing, adding someone about half the height of his mom pulling what was possibly a toy truck.
“Is that you?”
“No, that’s my dad. And that’s the lawnmower.” Clearly, I needed instruction, so he continued to narrate as he drew quick and sure. “And this is a pile of cut grass. And over here…” he drew a square and filled it in with green, “this grass still needs to be cut.” He moved up to the sky and began drawing a box. “And this is the microwave.” Then he added in the control buttons for it, obviously pleased with his composition.
“Wow.” I said, marveling at his confidence. I never would have thought of putting a microwave in the sky. And, if I had, I would worry that I wasn’t getting the perspective right. I also might wonder how it would change the dynamics of my marriage if my husband only came up to my waist.
Maybe you’re not into art. But if you have a chance, watch a young child create. Admire their mindset. And then realize, if you had that mindset, you’d see nothing wrong at all with your creation and you’d proceed to finish it all off with a glorious pink sky.