Petek & LC's Creative Play Space

Creature Creations Class: Weeks 5 - 8

2012-02-28T16:03:00.003-05:00

Second half of the awesome Fall 2011 class at Brooklyn Design Lab, with teacher and owner Amy. LC made real life observations with live animals in this intimate class for 2-4 year olds...and then the kids used the animals as inspiration for making art. Also, kids can create art, by themselves (which LC has been able to do for over 2 years), rather than parents or teachers manipulating the art to make it look the way they want. It's wonderful that the caregivers sit next to the preschoolers and create their own art each week, lovely quality time. LC looks forward to checking out the display each week (she is so proud to see her work in the window gallery showcase) and seeing her all-time favorite teacher.

Week 5 - LC named her snail "tomato." There were about 10 snails in a tank, which looked like their natural environment (soil, a flower pot, a rock etc.) The teacher also had a water spray on hand (non-chlorinated water, so it's not tap water) to resemble rain, because we learned that snails come out when it rains...so they can eat (lettuce leaves, in this case). LC observed "snail shell is hard!...it tickles on my hand, when moves...feels slimy," as it left a sparkly slime trail on her arm. We learned snail slime is mostly water, with a little mucus; it's like glue and a lubricant at the same time...enabling them to stick to stuff, while moving along.

Materials for the art...

To make the slime: we mixed 3 drops of food coloring (LC chose the color blue) with 3 tablespoons of water, which was added to the mixture of glue (3 tablespoons) + corn starch (7 tablespoons). Then LC used a flat wooden stick to spread or dribble slime onto a black board.

Week 6 - Crabs from Thailand. Art materials: clothes pins ("pinching", like a crab) and thin, wood sticks...to make a sculpture. Brushing on glue at connection points, to hold it all together.

I couldn't resist creating one of my own in class:

Week 7 - Pill bug AKA potato bug AKA rollie-pollie. They have like 14 legs - eek! And they roll up into spheres as a defense mechanism. Art: white styrofoam spheres + 1 big styrofoam cube (the kids learned those terms, "spheres" and "cube") + wood sticks, to make a sculpture...then some glue brushed on, at connection points, to hold it together.

Week 8 (last class) - Millipedes pooping on the table, that was the scene. One nanny had to go outside to get some air, ha. LC was one of the few who was brave enough to touch a millipede and she announced that it had a hard shell. They roll up when they need to feel safe, they have a ton of little legs. I had to take a deep breath and help one reverse direction, so it didn't fall off the table...yes, I touched one. (Honestly, I enjoyed touching snakes a lot more last Halloween at the zoo :-) I am proud of LC for not being afraid of one animal during this semester and wanting to be a little scientist/artist. Materials for the below art - colorful, little pieces of wire (like little legs) + modeling clay = sculpture.

And I made one of my own in class:

Good Ole No. 2 Pencil

2012-02-24T14:54:00.003-05:00

LC is really getting into drawing with a simple, yellow no. 2 pencil.

She described the below drawing: "Somebody on a swing, but don't know how draw swing, so somebody with wings ."

LC's drawing looks like a gesture sketch! I did gesture sketches in a Life Drawing class at Parsons School of Design a decade ago. We were given only 1 minute to draw a live model's pose. The male model would keep changing his pose every minute. We had a series of action poses to get down on a large sheet of paper, but you had to boil them down to the essentials...in terms of gestures. Exciting and fun!

LC's coffee table pencil art:

Table Art

2012-02-21T13:58:00.006-05:00

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! LC has been going through a ton of jumbo-sized drawing pads the last 2 years. She draws on a daily basis. It dawned on me a couple of weeks before winter hit...that we have an old wood coffee table and it would be perfect to buy an Alex easel paper roll (18" wide x 75' length) and roll out the paper on the table, snip snip...and tape the edges of the paper down. The roll costs $6 at a local toy shop (retails for $10) and lasts 3 weeks...because we use both sides. It's more comfortable than standing at the easel and easier to draw when the paper is flat on a table. Take a look at some of her creations:

etch-a-sketch, where are you?

2012-02-18T22:17:00.004-05:00

The best portable, classic, non-battery toy...an etch-a-sketch. Endless entertainment on the train for LC! She insists I take a photo of her special drawings at home, before she shakes it to clear it. When it's lost, LC walks around the home saying "etch-a-sketch, where are you???" I have to find it before she wakes up tomorrow.

beginning of her little town

2012-02-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

To you, this may look like freshly painted paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, paper cups, styrofoam cups and q-tips. To LC, this is the beginning of her little town. Tunnels for cars, tree trunks, flower pots with flowers growing.

Of course, we must have a wood holding pen for the animals in the town (LC's horse, cow, pig and dogs). Preferably, brightly colored:

She is already excited about gathering boxes for our buildings (cereal boxes, utensil containers etc.), wrapping them with brown or white paper...and drawing windows.

LC's photos: comforter, ceiling, shadows

2012-02-15T19:34:00.003-05:00

LC shoots her comforter at home, a ceiling somewhere and shadows on the sidewalk:

LC turns the camera on herself...her face, her vision

2012-02-14T22:41:00.009-05:00

LC kicked off this February with self-portraits. She is comfortable using her Vtech Kidizoom digital camera and decided to take photos of herself. She enjoys reviewing them later on the camera. I haven't changed the batteries in 5 months, yay.

Happy Valentine's Day 2012!

2012-02-14T08:36:00.001-05:00

LC made this Valentine's Day card for me, she said "For mommy. It's called Sunflowers. It's the most beautiful flowers in the world. It's in the garden."

Taking a break...enjoy the chilly weather!

2012-01-10T20:27:00.001-05:00

Taking a break from this blog. Puppet shows, new play spaces and restaurants, sing-alongs, playgrounds, libraries, live shows, museums etc. Oh, also karate class and gymnastics class (both were a blast this week, teacher said LC has such a good attitude), LC introduced herself to a new 5 year old friend, S, who showed LC the correct positions on the mat and ran around with her. LC's art class starts soon. She does want to take soccer again, like she did last spring, but we'll see....she also wants dance, music and theater. She is excited about participating in everything. But she has to narrow down her interests a bit :)

We have some travel on the horizon...mini trips in February...March maybe, too...an adventure trip in April for sure. I haven't confirmed for summer, though we have been invited places. Planning for all that...and that's just free time we're talking about, I've got lots of work to do, as well. SO...I'm taking a little break from this blog, though I have lots of fun creative stuff to post. I am documenting it all and will select the best of LC's art to share soon enough. I will be back here probably mid-February to try to post once a week. Cheers! Enjoy a nice cup of coffee (below photo of the best latte I ever had!! I have to return to Tribeca for another taste)...mmmm...it doesn't feel so cold now.

LC Bracelet for New Year's

2011-12-30T22:36:00.004-05:00

Today we did a LOT of fun stuff on the Upper West Side. Let me share one of our activities. LC made a beautiful bracelet to wear on New Year's Eve/Day. She chose the beads (including a sparky L and C) and charms and then strung them onto the lace string...and a staff member helped secure the clasp.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! 2011 was AWESOME for all of us here...our family is so happy. We wish for more of the same for 2012. This weekend is going to be a lot of fun for the little one :-)

best Christmas ever

2011-12-27T00:33:00.004-05:00

Christmas Day began nicely with LC watching me hang up the Christmas tree she made (well, I cut out the shape and she decorated the tree). When she saw the light reflecting from the chandelier onto the little gemstone stickers...she said "it light up like a real Christmas tree there!"

LC planned the entire day. She had her choice of any activity in NYC (that was open on Xmas Day!)...and she chose the Mary Poppins film at Lincoln Center (only $6 per ticket). We shared a nice tub of popcorn (about $4)...then we walked to the Heckscher playground in Central Park (that's actually my childhood playground and this was LC's first time there, she insisted we go and I managed not to get lost)...we shared a hot dog ($2), then along with a bunch of tourists, in 40 degree weather, LC had a blast in the gigantic sandbox, nice swings...and we climbed real, huge rocks (free and priceless entertainment).

When we got home, I made dinner, we had Christmas cookies, we played board games, read books together and made lots of drawings. LC also had a special Christmas wish that I granted...we couldn't turn on computers, cameras, her portable DVD player, (we have no TV anyway) or use phones all day. That's right, monkey wanted 100% undivided attention from the time we woke up (8am) until the time we slept, which happened to be 8:30pm, because we were so wiped out from our day of fun and it didn't involve spending a lot of money or exchanging presents and LC told me "this was best Christmas ever!"

birdhouse + dinosaur collage

2011-12-20T23:53:00.005-05:00

Happy holidays! Been crazy busy this month, but not too stressful this holiday season...because we decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year. (Just like I'm opting out of a 4th birthday celebration for LC and instead we will have a travel adventure outside of NY.) We feel blessed that we are making some amazing memories together and accumulating stuff is not important to us.

This last week and a half, LC and I hit so many fun places. I can't really write about it here, since I'm writing about it for work. But let me share her outside-of-home artwork that is now proudly displayed at home:

LC thoroughly enjoyed painting the wood birdhouse in the above pic and I made the little snowman (with an orange crayon nose). For the below picture frame, LC glued bits of paper down on a board to make a collage and then a Triceratops cutout was placed on top; she decorated the frame with foam animal stickers and palm trees.

bad guy, baby tree, flower, ode to ice cream & mama

2011-12-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

LC: "I made a bad guy. The bad guys live in Badland. And the superhero lives in Goodland."

Mommy, baby and orange ice cream:

LC: "It's a baby tree. Tree name Clendacanda tree."

LC: "I made it because you are the sweetest mommy. Mommy and baby, they dancing."

A colorful burst of creative energy:

LC's first drawing of a flower! Exciting for us.

LC: "I made a sad mommy. Him a sad mommy, because he lost her book. It went down that way."

LC: "That's sticks on his hat. That not hair. I'm happy mommy like it. Him smiling because he going to get that chocolate ice cream. And he has green eyes like you. And a green nose."

LC is the absolute sweetest distraction, while I'm trying to get some work done. For example, she was drawing on the chalkboard and saying such cute things: "Cone and Plie, they are mommy and baby. Love your family. Taking a little break on the beach. Silly chalk!"

She also came up to me recently and convinced me to attend her "lego school," where LC teaches the fine art of building the perfect tower with the small lego pieces. She was a very good teacher.

She has become a fan of Rigatoni pasta...and tonight after dinner, she told me "thank you mother for a lovely pasta meal." That's a direct quote, ha. So polite, for a 3 year old!

Her favorite phrase now is "don't worry about it", she picked it up from me, but it sounds so cute when a 3 year old says she will take care of something...so her mommy doesn't have to worry about it. Very considerate and helpful.

Dancing Queen & Cupcake Love

2011-12-10T19:05:00.000-05:00

Been a very busy week for us, but lots of fun. We went to a cupcake decorating party (creative and delicious!), two live shows (LC ran up to the stage to dance with the performers on the UWS and she contributed to a story in Midtown), a studio arts workshop, a brunch, her first arcade experience, an awesome playground slide, lots of toy shops etc. A Director of a cool preschool program told us she would like LC to start in the spring, which is rare for kids to start midyear...I have to give it some thought. A lot more stuff coming up the rest of December and all of January for us. LC is making new friends, we're considering moving to a new place and I am transitioning back into the work world. So, I will try to update this creative blog weekly with some of LC's art.

collaboration - my pencil drawings + LC's crayons

2011-11-28T23:59:00.005-05:00

This ended up being a collaborative work. My witch drawing fascinated LC and she wanted to color it. LC colored in the witch's face and part of her hair and body and I colored in the rest...then LC added a pink cloud. I thought she was done, but no...she then did something amazing...LC told me she had an idea...she wanted to add a "tree with branches and leaves and apples." She drew that all by herself, enhancing my original illustration.

Then, LC wanted to go through the rest of my 14" x 17" sketch pad. She asked if she could color in some other pages. I joined in, now and then. She enjoyed coloring in my illustrations with me more than she seems to like coloring books that we pick up. I guess she felt like we were a team, making art together.

We did this for about an hour. She made me promise that we would do it again the next day.

first letters of words fascinating LC

2011-11-27T16:40:00.002-05:00

Just because we ditched the formal, daily, 30 min home lessons and structured lesson plans we started a couple of weeks ago...doesn't mean that LC gave up on learning how to read/write/do math. I decided that a 3 1/2 year old needs to play, explore, discover...and learn in a self-initiated manner. I like that she follows her own interests, asks questions...without any pressure from me (or anyone else).

This morning (as we were getting ready to go grocery shopping):

LC: "Brush start letter b?"

Me: "Yes."

(Sees the stuffed sea lion...)

LC: "Sea lion start letter c?"

Me: "That's a hard one...sea lion starts with the s-s-s-s-s sound, like snake."

LC: "S !"

Me: "That's right."

LC: "Pen starts with letter p. P-p-p-p-p sound."

Me: "Yes. Good job figuring that out."

LC: "Wand start letter w. Wand say w-w-w-w. That how you spell wand."

Me: "I can't believe you figured that out all by yourself."

LC: "Strange start letter s. S-s-s-s-s sound."

Me: "That was a hard one! How did you do that?...great job."

LC: "I figured out hard one. Yay. Airplane start letter a. That how you spell airplane."

Me: "WOW, I can't believe it. That's amazing."

LC: "Boots start letter b. You figured that out, mommy think that amazing. Picture start letter p. Mommy surprised I know spell. Box start letter b. B-b-b-b-b sound. Bag start letter b."

Me: "You're doing great, figuring all this out."

LC: "Tissue start letter t."

Me: "WOW..."

LC: "Jelly start letter j."

Me: "That's a hard one, good job!"

(Looking at all the objects in her environment...now spotting the outlet...)

LC: "Power...p-p-p-p...P!"

Me: "Nice job."

LC: "Paper start letter p. Duck start letter d. Diamond start letter d. Flamingo start with letter f."

Me: "All of those are right...you are trying so hard...and I'm glad you like letters so much."

We attended a workshop last weekend. We had a great time socializing with the wonderful kids, caring parents and awesome teacher...we made art, learned some sign language, listened to live music- cello and French horn duet - and did some yoga together etc. LC told the teacher that she wanted to be an architect (while she was building a cool structure). Then, the teacher pointed up at a large ball (painted to resemble the earth) and asked the kids what it was...and LC said "that is a planet...the planet earth." When the teacher was about to start reading a book about an astronaut and the planets in our solar system...LC said "astronaut start with the letter a." Other parents, with kids a couple of months younger than LC, told us they were impressed by LC's knowledge and surprised that she is so bright since she isn't even attending school yet.

I heard her in the bathroom yesterday singing the alphabet song that she learned last year. It feels infinitely better to just let her take it at her own pace, witnessing her self-motivated discoveries and being there to help guide her along whenever she asks for help. She is one of the happiest kids on the block and I'd like to keep it that way.

collage mania - adding whatever is on hand

2011-11-23T15:15:00.000-05:00

LC...LOVES...to...PAINT!

She sat at the kitchen table and I gave her the materials. She went through quite a lot of drawing pads the last few months, so I decided to take off the brown cardboard backing from a couple of those old pads. So, she had a nice hard surface to work with...and I gave her the remaining Crayola Washable Kids' Paint (non-toxic, no mixing with water necessary, bright colors, and awesome washability). When she finished the painting, I gave her a new set of Crayola Washable Glitter Glue tubes. LC (explaining her painting): "A place where they have horses. Black horses and white horses and brown horses."

She is wearing the clear Alex Artist Apron with Long Sleeves, which will fit her until she is 6 years old. It doesn't look super comfy, but she hasn't complained yet...probably because she is used to wearing bibs for meals. Clean-up was just a quick wipe of the vinyl apron, the pink vinyl tablecloth and a little soap and water on her hands. Threw out a couple of styrofoam plates, rinsed the brush and put away the art supplies...and left the paintings on a shelf to dry. Yes, when we go to art workshops/classes, LC can go at it and get as messy as she wants in the studio rooms. At our home, we like to minimize mess and make clean-up fast and easy...but I would never deprive her of the pleasure of making art with her little hands.

She finished a second painting and told me she wanted glue. I took out the Elmer's Washable School Glue. She needed suggestions for a collage. I love mixed media collage art paintings, there are no rules...have fun using your imagination. I really should get some old magazines and create little tear sheets of all sorts of pictures and cut up some old fabric and wallpaper, too...and collect old buttons, stamps, metal pieces...put it all in a basket...so she can have a bunch of cool patterns, textures, images & colors to spice up a collage. She can take this further in the future and use various media (not just paint), opaque or transparent, and also layer the work a bit.

I said "how about feathers?" She liked that idea. Then, she wanted "sparkly stuff." So, I gave her a scrunched up bit of silver paper and a few sparkly shapes that she glued onto the painting. Then, she asked for "more stuff" so I gave her a yellow pipe cleaner. Then I looked in my closet and ripped off the moon & stars section of a Stayfree Maxi Pads bag (bet you didn't expect that). LC still wanted "more stuff" for the collage. So, I gave her a handful of wooden beads, then a handful of pennies. She found this fascinating and had fun sticking them to the surface and wanted more pennies. That's all I had, though. Lastly, I gave her a couple of Mickey Mouse band-aids and told her "OK, I think this is all I have for the collage, don't you think this is done now?" She nodded. There you have it. Pics below, after her artwork dried overnight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

crayons & craft paper, a boat, a cake, the word sat

2011-11-21T21:23:00.002-05:00

Isn't this such a lovely drawing? LC: "I making an old city."

Such simple materials, too. The wrapping paper we buy from the discount store is rolled around a large sheet of brown craft paper that normally gets thrown out...so, I thought hmmmm....let's not throw it out...let me just tape that to the living room floor and invite LC to grab her crayons and draw.

We went to a very nice 3rd birthday outing for one of LC's friends and a Melissa & Doug watercolor paint set was given to us in the party favor bag...LC didn't waste any time making a painting at home.

Contruction paper, crayons. LC: "A fly in the jungle...a fly came from the jungle."

Crayola Model Magic. LC: "I made a boat!"

LC: "I made a cake!"

Here's LC doing a happy dance. Why?

She sounded out and read her first word. (10 lessons down for us, 90 to go.)

Added note (11/26/11): Though we were progressing well through the lessons...her joyfulness was being extinguished by the structured approach...I decided to abandon the book. I much prefer how a 3 year old (and 4 year old) learns about the world naturally...self-initiating...exploration...asking questions etc. It's not about bragging rights to me...it's about LC remaining happy and building on knowledge as she follows her interests. She loves books. She loves letters and numbers. She still comes up to me, wide-eyed, to tell me how this word and that word start with the same letter and end with this sound etc. But I'm not going to pressure her to learn how to read, write, spell and do math & take (ugh) tests based on some arbitrary timeline. A 3 year old should PLAY, no matter how bright the 3 year old may be...no need to school them when they should be playing...and I shouldn't feel pressured to do so by those we meet in NYC. Let's create. Let's play. Be happy.

I can't get enough of LC's crayon drawings...and neither can she :-)

Forest Baby

2011-11-11T10:59:00.003-05:00

LC: "This is a baby. He is waiting for his mother to come. He is in the forest. This is a tree."

I didn't get a clear answer when I asked what this is...but I like the picture a lot. LC said something about gummy dancing.

Lesson #1, only 99 to go...only 20 minutes a day

2011-11-07T11:45:00.003-05:00

Lesson #1 today. I'm following the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It's intended for preschool children. "Bright three-and-a-half-year-olds, average four and five year-olds", who haven't learned how to read and write yet. What I love most about Siegfried Engelmann's book is that the lessons require the simplest of materials: "this book and some paper (or a chalkboard) - no flash cards, lesson plans, special books, or machines." With the "love, care, and joy only a parent and child can share!"

Here's what I wrote on the chalkboard, as we practiced making the sounds of the letters: (But she mastered this months ago, for just about all the letters in the alphabet.)

I wrote the letters on paper, she practiced tracing over them a few times and then she wrote the letters herself: (I do need to research methods to teach proper pencil grip).

I do things in a methodical manner and this book suits me well. It follows the DISTAR program. I believe in teaching phonics, not memorization of words, so that when a child encounters a word she has never seen before...she can crack the code. I like that this book not only teaches phonics, but that it also teaches the skills necessary to blend sounds together...building on previously learned concepts. I believe in doing that for math, as well...so a child learns self-contained modules and can put them together like building blocks to master more difficult concepts.

I've tried to put this off for as long as I could...but LC has been attempting to read, write, tell time and do math for many months. Might as well teach her in a more structured manner, right?...so there aren't gaps in the knowledge.

There's so much pressure for kids to focus on academics too early in life (and then constantly be tested)...without being allowed to play and use their imagination...I believe that "play is the work of kids." Her pediatrician agreed with me...and suggested I wait until she turns 4 years old. I have been following her interests and guiding her creatively, with hands-on experiences...answering her questions, but never initiating lessons. By 2 1/2, she mastered what most kids master by 4. She is now 3 1/2 years old.

I finally gave up and we started lesson #1 today....why?

Well...the daily conversations last week went like this:

"Lemon starts with the letter L, mommy?"
"Yes."
"I figure it out! Haaa....Baby start with the letter B?"
"Yes."
"Gate start with the letter G?"
"Yes."
"Why cat and kite sound same beginning, but different letter starts it?"
"I don't know."
"Flower starts with letter F?"
"Yes."
"Books start letter B?"
"Yes, very good."
"And Bug starts letter B, too?"
"Yes."
"And Bee say buh-buh-buh! A lot of things start letter B!"
"Uh-huh."
"Puzzle start with letter B, too?"
"No...puzzle is puh-puh-puh...like pet and Petek, so that is...what letter, LC?"
"Puzzle start letter P!"
"Yes."
"Fire start with letter, F, too..."
"Yes. Are you ready to learn how to read, LC?"
"Uh-huh!!!! Ball start letter B, mommy?"
"Yes."
"Giraffe start letter G?"
"Yes...I really have to finish reading this list, so I can send it for work, OK? I will read to you soon and it's time to get ready for bed. We need to wake up early tomorrow."
She runs back into the room...
"Tomato start letter T, mommy?"
"Yes, good job figuring that out."
Starts dancing the happy dance.
She comes back into the room.
"Hand has letter A in it?..like AND starts A?"
"Yes, LC."
She looks thrilled, like she just broke the Da Vinci code.

LC's Top 20 Books (2011)

2011-11-01T21:55:00.002-04:00

LC's Favorite Books (2011):

Me and My Place in Space (by Joan Sweeney)
Where The Wild Things Are (by Maurice Sendak)
Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC (by June Sobel)
The Cat in the Hat (by Dr. Seuss)
Green Eggs and Ham (by Dr. Seuss)
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (by Dr. Seuss)
Llama, Llama Red Pajama (by Anna Dewdney)
Llama Llama Misses Mama (by Anna Dewdney)
Mister Seahorse (by Eric Carle)
Telling Time with Diego (by Lara Bergen)
My First Mother Goose (by Tomie dePaola)
Mr. Happy (by Roger Hargreaves)
Mr. Grumpy (by Roger Hargreaves)
Dinosaur Roar! (by Paul Stickland)
But Not The Hippopotamus (by Sandra Boynton)
Opposites (by Sandra Boynton)
The Going To Bed Book (by Sandra Boynton)
How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends? (by Jane Yolen)
The Feelings Book (by Todd Parr)
Little Monster's Alphabet Book (by Mercer Mayer)

peel-to-reveal crayon sticks delight LC

2011-10-27T13:40:00.000-04:00

We are so excited that it's almost Halloween! We are going to have a ton of fun this weekend and on Monday.

LC broke out the new set of Melissa & Doug jumbo triangular crayons this week. She calls this drawing "Black Fish":

I might buy LC a magnetic, wooden figure dress-up set for Christmas, because now she is enjoying dressing up the Melissa & Doug stickers.

LC loves drawing happy faces:

For years, we chose not to watch a lot of TV, since it's such a passive activity and wastes so much time. Then, the TV broke down and it has been 3 months now that we have survived without a TV. Life is great! We enjoy so many activities, inside and outside the home.

Winding down before bedtime yesterday, LC and I decided to sit across from each other in the living room and draw for an hour straight. I brought out a new set of crayon pencils that do not require a sharpener...they are "peel-to-reveal" crayon sticks. You just pull the string and unwrap some of the paper to sharpen the crayon. They are the shape and size of jumbo pencils, which will help LC learn proper pencil grip. I bought these at a cool toy store in Park Slope called Toy Space. I can't find this set online yet at places like Amazon. But a place called Paper Source has them: http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Color-Appeel:-Peel-Off-Crayons/3325.020/511002.html

"Color Appeel" is touted as being "ridiculously awesome" and LC agrees. They will last a long time. We barely made a dent in the crayon sticks after an hour (and LC presses hard). LC presented me with (5) 11"x14" drawings and here are the top 3:

I managed to complete one random 14"x17" drawing (and it helped clear my mind at the end of a long day):

White

2011-10-20T22:35:00.001-04:00

LC was absolutely delighted by the intimate stage performance of White at The New Victory Theater in Manhattan. The 40 minute live show was amusing, sweet, bright and magical. She sat in the front row, on a mat (I set next to her on a bench) and she laughed and intently watched the show. A perfect hit for the intended age range of 2-5 years old...as well as the parents lucky enough to join the kids for this show. After the show, LC interacted with the two performers.

LC posing with Cotton:

LC sitting next to Wrinkle:

stringing beads...to make some jewelry

2011-10-19T23:20:00.000-04:00

LC had a blast making jewelry, at home. She felt very proud choosing the wood beads, charms and strings for each necklace or bracelet that she made... & stringing the beads together...all by herself. Yes, it helps improve fine motor skills...and it's something she can do solo for an hour straight (after I make the knot for her, so the beads don't fall off)....but it also gives her great joy to make gifts.

The necklace she made for herself (doggy charm + pink & purple beads + purple string):

The necklace she made for her friend V's upcoming birthday (cat charm + blue, green, orange, purple beads + blue string):

She wore it so I could take a picture...then she helped wrap it in some silver paper...and she found a little purple ribbon.

Then, she wanted to make something for me...so I asked for a bracelet with the cute red & black creature and only red beads...(I wanted a color combo that would work with something from my wardrobe, so I could actually wear this outside...proudly telling folks my 3 year old daughter made this for me!)

She is excited that we have enough beads leftover for like 8 more necklaces...she is telling me that she would like to make some jewelry for Christmas gifts. She said "I love making jewelries. Thank you getting these forever. I want to get these again next time, mommy."

Letter Z, a witch, inspired drawings, 12 books

2011-10-18T17:40:00.000-04:00

LC wanted me to buy her a composition book. She turned to a page and then wrote the letter Z, all by herself...without tracing or copying from anything.

LC (describing pic below): "I drawing a girl walking to see fishes and named L."

Then, she described another picture she drew (I forgot to take a photo of it)..."This is a picture people getting pretzels." But here's another picture (shown below) with the full description given by LC: "I made a superhero and that superhero is going save squirrel stuck in tree. Squirrel going fall in water. SuperL is going to save squirrel. SuperL has cape on."

LC drew this picture and she said "I know what color I make...blue and red line make purple! That's water in a lake":

Then, she wrote this on the back of the picture (shown below)... and she said "'Thank you for making this beautiful picture'...I write that on picture I made." (She hears me say that to her when she hands me a drawing. She sees me writing on the back - but I'm usually writing the date and a description...so it's funny she "wrote" those thank you words on the back of the drawing.)

LC described her drawing (shown below) "I draw a man and he has a hat on him. And he has a flower on him. And he is in a party with lots of pink and purple decorations. And he saying hurray because he is going to have a party."

Here's a painting, on canvas, that hangs on my dining room wall:

LC loves that painting. And she came up to me with a recent drawing of hers (shown below)...and said: "This is the painting on the wall".

LC took a break from her draw-a-thon at home...to return to another favorite activity...building with her legos.

Then she told me she had a "few books" she wanted me to read to her. I fell for that trick...she gathered a dozen books for a midday reading. She likes to clean up...so she returned all the books to the shelves afterwards. I have her books, puzzles and board games accessible now...not just her toys...and she has learned to keep things organized, so we don't lose anything.

LC (describing her drawing, shown below): "This biggest planet...Jupiter. It has rings. I drew an astronaut, too."

It was fitting, since we went to a couple of pre-Halloween 2011 celebrations together...that LC drew "a witch!!" (it does look like a witch form... flying through the air...the colors capturing the mood - a forest, sunshine etc.):

As a side note...I didn't realize that $6 mini snow globe we bought at the NY Aquarium store glows...LC found the tiny switch and it looks magical in the dark...when shaken, with the glitter floating.

Tricks & Treats at the NY A-scarium

2011-10-15T21:55:00.000-04:00

Another early Halloween celebration for us...this time LC dressed up as a robot and we visited the NY Aquarium, which was transformed into the A-scarium. Two weeks ago LC dressed up as an ice cream cone for the "Boo at the Zoo" at the Bronx Zoo (4 posts down).

LC was so excited to see a magician, for the first time. She kept trying to go on stage whenever he requested help. She wanted to see his show twice. Here she is posing with Mike Maioni, AKA The Silly Magician:

LC (and I...and just about all the kids and grown-ups) were mesmerized and entertained by Lu Ann Adams, an incredible storyteller. Here's LC posing with her:

LC loves music...and a very talented pair of musicians provided LC with the opportunity to be an enthusiastic 3 year old dancing robot for almost half an hour straight, no fear of the audience watching her. (She would have gone on stage, if I didn't instruct her to dance in front of the stage, not on the stage please!) Here she is posing with lead singer Alastair Moock, kneeling next to LC (it appeared that one of his sweet, twin, 5 year old daughters, dressed in pink, danced next to LC for a bit) and standing above LC (the guy who saw us in the cafe earlier and asked LC if she was a "space robot") Anand Nayak. By the way, LC replied "no, I a regular robot."

A lunch break. You can see that I clipped old, Christmas, silver, curly wrapping decorations onto LC's hair, last minute, to try to make the robot costume a little bit girly.

It was the aquarium we visited, after all, so we did get a chance to see lots of fish, sharks, sea turtles, seahorses, electric eels, sting ray, sea lions etc.

When we got home, LC was thrilled to play with the mini treasures she chose at the aquarium store: a fish ink stamper & bubble wand, a frog glitter snow globe, a stuffed seahorse...plus, she still had the fish sticker on her hand (compliments of the storyteller), the pretend giant one dollar magic bill (compliments of the magician) and the rubber octopus & eel and the ghost spinning top (treats given out by the aquarium).

The Art of Bookmaking

2011-10-07T23:59:00.001-04:00

LC on the subway platform, spotting the train...we were heading to the Children's Museum of Manhattan for The Art of Bookmaking Festival.

They had 4 tables to visit at the CMOM event. LC was immediately drawn to the Eric Carle table featuring one of her favorite books The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

The blank paper was folded up accordion style, at this table. Similar to Eric Carle's picture books...such as The Grouchy Ladybug, which LC also liked a lot. Carle has a unique illustration style...hand-painting, cutting and layering, using a collage technique. So, they had scissors, glue, lots of different solid papers...various patterns, colors...as well as some shredded paper. LC was drawn to the shiny paper and instructed me to cut out 3 animals, with no guide: "a pink horse" (good luck with that shape), "a blue pig" (close enough) and a copper "caterpillar" with gold feet (nailed that). LC glued the animals to the white paper. Then, LC decided to glue "mud" for the pig, "grass" and "flowers" for the horse and a "pink bush" for the caterpillar.

Then, we headed over to the next table...where we found the picture book Anansi the Spider.

At this table they had a lot of stamps, each with a unique symbol. A nice variety of symbols...and 3 large pads of ink - purple, blue and red. LC was stamping away on the little sheets of colorful paper, having a blast...and she drew with some markers too (each sheet had 3 holes punched into it...so one could put the pages together...weave a colorful string through the holes and tie it up, to bind the book).

LC was thrilled to see The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss sitting on the next table.

This project was above her head, it was for older kids...it was intended to be a "flip book", they said...but not a book that appears to be animated when you flip the pages. They meant more like one of the books she has at home...where you have illustrations on each page, a similar size of body...and all the pages are cut into 3 sections...so you can flip the top (head), middle (torso) and/or bottom (legs) portion of the page...to create a different creature. They felt the kids could sketch some of the Dr. Seuss characters they printed out as examples...or create their own creatures. I suppose it would be best if the pages were precut into 3 sections first, before one begins to draw...just to keep the drawing even...in terms of three portions to flip and match up with other pages properly. But none of this concerned LC, she just happily drew lines and circles with the crayons and told me "I make my own flipbook with circles."

The last table featured a book called Go Away, Big Green Monster!

I think they were supposed to make monsters out of the black paper and decorate them with shapes cut out of the colorful foam, using safety scissors, add some raised gem and star stickers, happy faces...and glue on flowers and sparkly things...and write their names with letter foam. None of that mattered to LC...once she saw the stickers nothing else was in the room...she is very serious about her stickers...please do not disturb LC.

She was still working on it, when it was time to leave (staff had to take a lunch break, so they asked everyone to leave...we went to explore the rest of the museum). Thankfully, we found a bench afterwards to sit on, so she could stick a few remaining stickers on her yellow foam. They had no chairs in the bookmaking session...1 1/2 hours we were standing up, hunched over the tables.

LC was spending so much time on her sticker art...I decided to get in touch with the little kid inside of me...and I played around with the black paper, shiny shape cutouts, alphabet letters and glue.

We did many things afterwards...but she very much enjoyed one workshop in particular...they had mural wall painting, using hands and fingers. They focused on mixing the colors red and yellow to create orange.

I told a staff member the significance of palm trees...and she drew a palm tree for LC, which was nice.

Thanks to the smocks and the washable paint...LC could get as messy as she wanted and then we cleaned up easily at the sink and enjoyed the rest of our day.

building maze, fish, Alex, bricks, car, regular green

2011-10-07T21:45:00.000-04:00

LC decided to take her love of mazes and attempt to create her own. She calls this drawing "Building Maze":

LC said "I made a fish":

LC (describing the drawing, shown below): "A woman in a town. Her name is Alex. In a commercial I see Alex. Alex want to go in a party."

LC taking a sticker break. Creating a birthday card for her friend V's 3rd birthday coming up in a few weeks.

I have to get her a new box of crayons...little bits of a few crayons left at home now...huge drawing frenzy. LC calls this drawing "bricks":

LC (describing the drawing shown below): "Car is named Petek Car....the car have 3 windows...the car is on the street...now I going to draw a horn on the car and inside the car is mommy and baby."

LC: "Is this light green or dark green?"

Me: "That's just regular green."

30 minutes later...

LC: "Where is the regular green crayon?"

Maze Craze

2011-10-06T22:24:00.000-04:00

LC is starting off with some easy mazes, on paper...and loving it. She is even trying to draw her own mazes, it's so cute. (I introduced her to mazes a few months ago by drawing a few on the chalkboard.) I like that she is practicing her pencil skills, as well as having fun with these easy mazes, specifically created for 2-4 year olds...by Kumon. She wanted to finish the whole book, but I convinced her to pace herself...and we'll put the workbook back on the shelf...and play again with mazes next week.

She also had her first try at cutting a straight line with a pair of safety scissors. I told her not to worry, it will take lots of practice...we'll try a little every week, whenever she wants to do it. Once she masters the line, there are other shapes to cut out in the workbook.

She is a child who is very curious...and loves to explore..she has lots of interests and when she learns something new, she glows with pride.

Boo at the Bronx Zoo

2011-10-04T11:00:00.003-04:00

October 1 seems early to start our Halloween celebration...but we had an amazing time at the Bronx Zoo with LC's best friend and her mom. Boo at the Zoo, which takes place every weekend in October. LC was dressed as an ice cream cone (her choice of costume). I rarely post on this blog about our weekly outdoor adventures...but this was a great opportunity to pretend and use our imaginations and experience some spooky thrills, without any nightmares.

I will never forget the thrill of riding a camel for the first time. The girls were calm, like this is a perfectly normal form of transit in NYC. V's mom K took this motion shot of the girls and I on the camel:

The costume parade was a lot of fun, LC loves marching in parades.

The bug carousel gave LC the opportunity to ride on a praying mantis.

It was nice to roast marshmallows and enjoy a delicious s'more.

The spooky hay ride was LC's favorite part of the day.

Purple Snowman, Ladybug, Ghost

2011-10-03T13:41:00.002-04:00

LC: "Snowman name is Petek":

LC: "A ladybug":

LC: "A ghost named Party":

This first week of October...lots of purple crayon love.

little house with a door and brown crayon chosen

2011-09-27T15:30:00.001-04:00

Spectacular beginning to fall 2011...love the art class and the studio workshop for this semester - great teachers, bright kids and friendly parents (I'll try to take some pics and post them in December)...and lots of fun activities are planned with LC's best friend, V, all over NYC. Enjoying the wonderful weather...LC and I walk 2 miles a day, easily. Can't wait for lots of leaves to change color and fall to the ground, so we can gather some for home-based art (LC spotted a few yellow and red ones on the trees already...waiting to spot orange and purple, too.)

Here are a few remaining pics for September, taken at our home. LC said "this is a little house with a door on it!":

Brown crayon takes center stage:

She likes to arrange the animal magnets on her magnetic board. She can't wait for us to get a pet.

I'm Going to be Sparkly

2011-09-18T20:04:00.003-04:00

LC getting over a cold...relaxing on the couch this evening, breaks out into song...here's her songwriting magic:

"I'm going to be sparkly, sparkly, sparkly...
I'm going to be sparkly, sparkly, sparkly...all day long.
I'm going to be sparkly - not too big, not too small.
I'm going to be sparkly, sparkly, sparkly...all day long."

my sweet little treat for Halloween

2011-09-14T23:25:00.001-04:00

We were at the playground for at least 2 hours today...LC had a fun game of chase with 4 boys her age. She stated "I chase you now! We playing chase." They ran for cover behind their care-takers. Developmentally, she has moved on easily to cooperative play...but some 3 year olds seem to be in parallel play mode, still. When we got home...she tried on a Halloween costume. We're already looking forward to the ton of fun we will have this Halloween...with all the events scheduled for kids leading up to the big day. LC doesn't really know Halloween is about candy for most kids. Last year, after we marched in a parade...I let her take one piece of candy, as a treat. It's more about dressing up in a costume, joining other kids to celebrate and some slightly spooky fun etc. LC really wants to be an ice cream cone this year:

Creature of Collaboration

2011-09-13T21:41:00.003-04:00

We took turns with the chalk...LC drew the eyes, nose, mouth, legs, feet, arms...I added a head, hair, ears, body, toes, hands and a belly button. LC was quite satisfied with our chalk creature. As with everything else, LC wants to name it Petek.

it was a great summer & we're gearing up for fall 2011

2011-09-11T15:30:00.000-04:00

We had such a nice play date recently, with LC's best friend, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We attended Puppetonia...a mix of puppets, dancing and music...an "interactive, entertaining and educational puppet show" for young kids.

We had an awesome summer...lots of good trips...we went to farms, boat rides, amusement parks, museums, playgrounds, pony rides, restaurants, live shows, beaches, movie theaters, aquariums, zoos...and many visits with friends and family, too. It's almost fall now and we're going back to a routine of classes (starting with yoga, art, music/dance), museum workshops, nature walks, various playgrounds...and some exciting live performances coming up, too...in my favorite neighborhoods in NYC! LC is making a lot of new friends, wherever we go...and we chilax at home to gear up for our fun adventures out in the world.

happy face, stroller, mama having fun at the beach

2011-09-08T14:09:00.005-04:00

Last days of summer (it's getting hot & humid again, still very rainy)...LC is getting lots of enjoyment out of her crayons and chalk. Here she is with her chalkboard, making a happy face.

LC said "this is a stroller":

LC said "I made mama have fun at the beach":

using office supplies, in lieu of stickers

2011-09-04T19:11:00.002-04:00

Fear not if you run out of stickers, at home...you can substitute with reinforcements, file folder labels and photo corner self-adhesives...certainly was a hit with LC this weekend. Happy Labor Day!

"I want triangles!" she announced...and luckily I had some black and clear photo corners left.

She was very pleased with the box of labels.

"Look LC, white circle stickers," I announced. LC said "I love these stickers! I pretending I making a map."

self-portrait, brown doggy or penguin pet, 9, pool zoo

2011-08-19T13:18:00.000-04:00

LC has been drawing a lot with her crayons lately...I love the variety of colors and shapes.

LC ran up to me and pointed to the center of the page (shown below)...and she said "I made a 9!!!!" It looks a bit more like the letter g...but I can see it as a number 9, good for you scrunchie! To me, it also looks like there's a little mouse on the top right...and a face on the middle left of the page. She chose to use a forest green colored crayon, below. She chooses all the crayon colors and paper colors for her drawings (above pic, yellow construction paper...though usually she goes for her off-white drawing paper pad).

This was a self-portrait, with a happy face...she calls this "me...baby!"

We see stray cats a lot when we step outside...so yet another "cat" drawing below...(though she told me she wants a "brown doggy" as a pet, because I used to have one....or "a penguin", she said!)

I found LC adding a bunch of little fish stickers to her large lego building plate.

You can do a lot of different things with Wikki Stix. I got them as party favors for her 3rd birthday party. I brought them out recently...and she wanted to make alphabet letters...she especially wanted to make an "O" over and over again...so I added other letters to the page and asked her to add O's... to create words like "zoo" and "pool" etc. The big plus, Wikki Stix are reusable, we peel 'em off...stick 'em back onto the sheet and then use them again another time.

Imagination...and beginning of August creations

2011-08-06T18:45:00.002-04:00

We kicked off August 2011 with an off-broadway, glow-in-the-dark 50 min puppet show called ImaginOcean. LC loved it.

We picked up a pair of eyes at the theater...that she can put on her fingers and play pretend with...she calls them her "Oobi" eyes, like the TV show.

I don't recall if I posted this already mid-June...but I had jotted it down, because it was so cute...I love her imagination!

LC: "I want to be a bubble, I want to be a cat, I want to be a camel, I want to be a mommy, I want to be a horsey and a dog and a plate and milk...I want to be a picture, I want to be a banana. Last one is...I want to be a cherry."

Back to the beginning of August...here are some of her new drawings.

She calls this chalk drawing "mommy and baby":

LC surprised me when she wrote an uppercase L...she has been wanting to write the first letter of her name for a while...and I told her our reading/writing/math lessons won't begin until she is at least 3 1/2 or 4 years old...I'd like to teach her, because she shows a real interest in letters and numbers, but there's no reason to rush...let her enjoy her preschool years. She managed to do this on her own, though, and ran up to me and said "I made an L!!! L about LC."

The above pic is a closeup of the letter L from the drawing shown below. This is her original drawing, that she wanted to sign with her name on top, so she was thrilled she managed to write the first letter of her name:

I asked LC what this picture is...and she said "TREES!":

In terms of the below drawing, LC said "crayon red, like mommy shirt red...I put red on the paper and making mommy...I love making mommy so much...I so so happy!!!!!"

And a couple of other crayon drawings she made the last week that I liked:

We don't have any classes or workshops scheduled for the summer, so all these drawings were created at home, of course.

making faces, pencil markings, plank creations

2011-07-27T18:55:00.001-04:00

It's so special to create something out of nothing...watching it materialize...using your own hands. LC is just as delighted as I am using simple materials. We had a blast in July.

LC's art goal, at home, was to master drawing a smile...she said "mommy show me how make happy face". I love seeing the faces she creates (sometimes she adds hair, little legs, feet and arms):

We went to CMOM (Children's Museum of Manhattan) on July 6, LC loves that place and they happened to have a free workshop that we missed...but the table was still covered with lots of paper cutouts of facial features and glue was available...so they invited LC to enjoy it all (I think the actual workshop was to teach the five senses)...I thought this was a great way to allow little ones to create faces, all by themselves.

LC had some fun creating new colors, at home...mixing Crayola crayons together, on paper (she was doing this with paints earlier in the summer)...she told me "blue and yellow make green!":

And LC's grasp is improving on the very simple tool...the pencil:

the Alex Creamy Crayons are still going on strong...same box, many months.

When I bought Dado Planks for LC, as a Christmas present 7 months ago, she didn't quite know how to use them to build anything. She liked to count them, though...and sort them by color! Now, she loves to build with them and uses her imagination to create "castles", "towers" etc.

Other than asking mommy to join her 30-60 min to play ThinkFun Zingo every day (TOTY 2009 Best Toy of the Year - Toy Industry Association), a fantastic first board game for preschoolers and so fun for adults, by the way...well...these Dado Planks are also a real winner in our home (2010 Fat Brain Toys Winner, well-deserved)...we can sit down for 30-60 min every day to make a new creation. Here are 2 recent ones...a "castle":

and our giant tilting (who knows how it's not falling over) "tower", let me give you 3 views of that:

LC has always had intense focus and an impressive attention span (building with legos, reading books, drawing/painting, solving puzzles, playing music, singing & dancing etc.), but now...that attention span combined with her blossoming imagination...it's just endless possibilities of play. I am most excited about storytelling...listening to LC's new stories...and creating puppet shows together. It's also wonderful for her to run up to me with something she created on her own, as she tells me the pretend story behind it...and I feel like I'm sharing an adventure with her. A large cardboard box became a "boat" that she wanted to ride with her stuffed dinosaurs in June. In July, she assembled a few lego bricks (in a nice color scheme) and said "this is a plane, mommy" and she was flying it around the room:

So cool. Though the weather most certainly is not...we are enveloped in a heat & humidity dome.

Blue Pom-Pom

2011-07-27T17:30:00.004-04:00

I was happy to find a yarn craft that a 3 year old could help me with...this only required a ball of yarn, a pair of safety scissors and 2 circles cut out of cardboard. LC chose the color of yarn (would you say it's cyan?). I didn't do such a great job cutting the cardboard evenly, it was too thick and the safety scissors could barely do the job) but it didn't matter to LC. She enjoyed winding the yarn around the cardboard circles. After I cut around the edges of the yarn and tied a piece of yarn around the middle and removed the cardboard etc....LC enjoyed fluffing it up.

My Mother Goose

2011-07-21T18:15:00.004-04:00

Taking a break from my summer break...to post this. Copying drawings from a book...source book was on my right side...pad was to my left. Here's the result: (click on any image to see the larger pic, then click back)

I'm melting...it's a heat wave...what do you do when it feels like 101 degrees outside, with no end in sight?...and you don't want to step out of air-conditioning today...hmmm...torn between grabbing the new knitting needles or old art supplies...the latter won out (because LC interrupting me dozens of times will not affect the outcome of a drawing so much)...

I grabbed a pad of Strathmore smooth newsprint paper from my shelf (it's an inexpensive surface for practicing drawing techniques)...one of my Faber-Castell 9000 HB pencils ("over a century of history as an important working tool of writers, artists and engineers")....and one of LC's favorite children's books (My First Mother Goose)...that's all I needed.

LC is most certainly fascinated by the process of mama copying illustrations...it's like magic to her. I enjoy freehand drawing, with no grid, no measurements or special tools...it's not about perfection...it's more about learning the techniques of skilled illustrators...and getting inside his/her head...figuring out why the artist included specific details, what is unique in terms of their style...and how you can incorporate your own style to change it up a bit...and getting some ideas for a totally new creation later.

It's a starting point...and it gets the creative juices flowing and forces you to practice drawing some things (expressions on people's faces, clothing, gestures, animals, nature, objects) you may not be comfortable drawing yet. To challenge myself, I set a limit of 15 minutes per page. I also enjoyed LC looking at the book and then at the sheet of paper...and announcing the images that were materializing and what was still missing.

June art workshops

2011-06-26T13:50:00.003-04:00

LC attended a few June art workshops at ArtHouse School and had a lot of fun. Lizzy is such a wonderful art teacher...she has a calm demeanor and connects easily with children and their parents. She came up with very interesting projects and was able to guide the young children, working with their unique personalities. Some photos of LC's workshop artwork, below:

Lizzy had this great idea of giving the kids rice (that had food coloring on it), separated into cups (yellow rice, blue/green rice, red/pink rice), a sheet of white paper and a container of glue. The kids loved the project! First, LC drew with the Elmer's pourable glue, then she sprinkled the colorful rice onto the paper. We shook the paper and the rice that wasn't stuck on glue fell off...and there you go, picture above of the final work.

Another fun project...a small collage, using glue sticks and various pre-cut papers, thin foam and also feathers. This gave LC an opportunity to feel different textures and explore layering of the materials. LC always loves working with different colors.

A photo of LC's work in progress below...of another fun project. Lizzy gave us drawings of gumball machines. The children had fun mixing primary colored paints on a plate...to form new colors...then brushing the colors onto circle stickers and placing the stickers on the drawings, like gumballs inside the machine. Lizzy gave a nice demonstration and lesson about mixing colors.

Lizzy gave the kids coffee filters...and markers...LC had a lot of fun picking the colors and making the marks on the white filters...then we sprayed water on the drawings...so the colors blended and looked more like watercolor.

We scrunched up the filters, like flowers, and LC chose a purple pipe cleaner to hold the filters together...and she wanted to wear it in her hair, after it dried.

1st Q-TIP paintings!

2011-06-26T13:44:00.003-04:00

I came up with a new art project for LC, at home, q-tip paintings! She enjoyed that a lot.

And she also used a big brush for some pictures...

June home art: crayons, stickers and chalk

2011-06-26T13:36:00.003-04:00

LC was occupied making art at home, while it was hot & humid outside. Alex Creamy Crayons (1st 2 pics below), car stickers, Crayola crayons and orange chalk (it's "a cat!").

LC's June sidewalk photos

2011-06-26T13:23:00.007-04:00

LC focused on photos of sidewalks...including cracks in the sidewalk:

That last photo was a picture of my arm & my tote bag.

lc characters & mama - draft1

2011-06-26T13:13:00.004-04:00

I wanted to start thinking of an LC character, perhaps for a children's book. I drew some faces, this is the 1st draft:

Also, I drew a picture of a potential "mama" character...but LC didn't like it...because the character looked unhappy. LC likes smiles...so she took a yellow crayon to the pic and said "this is sunshine on mama face, so mama now smile," ha. Thanks, baby.

last day, hanging sculptures class

2011-06-01T16:25:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of the hanging sculptures class for preschoolers. A fun 8 weeks, with a short commute to the school. Now LC's many wonderful sculptures are hanging all over our home. Amy (mom, artist, owner of the school) was an amazing teacher, she really connected with the young students and made the moms feel inspired to create their own artwork.

A couple of photos of LC outside the school today, right before we entered:

LC's artwork is hanging up in the school window!...it's the one on the upper right, 3 watercolor papers, held together with string, one on top of the other - smallish paper with purple on it, then big rectangle with blue and then medium-sized with pink paint (you'll see a closeup of it, at home, further down in this post).

This is the sculpture made last week...the teacher gave us a choice of many sticks, various sizes and shapes...nice to have a sculpture made from nature...LC chose two small twigs. Sadly, the "plant" portion LC liked, that made it look like a tree...the bit of green...didn't make it all the way home...fell off in my bag...so I stuck some of it in the white paper (as you see below)...originally, it was on top, hanging off a "branch", naturally. LC tore up pieces of white rice paper and scrunched them up into balls (like cherry blossoms)...then told me where she wanted them to be glued...and then she took strips of the white paper, with glue on it, and wrapped them around the two twigs.

Here it is hanging up...next to the "pirate ship" corrugated cardboard & toothpick sculpture LC made a few weeks ago. LC was pleased to see it hanging there this afternoon...she said "tree next to pirate ship, yay". And both of those pieces are near the beloved "ant" crayon drawing LC made at home weeks ago...that I put in a picture frame and hung up...to remind her to be brave when we step out onto the porch.

Here is the sculpture that was hanging up in the school window...LC made it a couple of weeks ago...white watercolor paper, drawing made with various oil pastel stick colors...then paint was applied with a small brush, over the drawing. LC did this entirely by herself....except I tied the paper together with strings. LC chose pink and blue paint out of the various paints offered and they were given in separate dishes...but she mixed the colors and that is why there is purple paint on some of the papers. Red+blue (they are primary colors)=purple....since pink is a shade of red (red+white=pink)...we get purple when pink and blue are combined.

LC created a different design on each side of the paper...so there are many possible combinations...and if I hang this up near an open window...the papers will flip back and forth....and it can look like this...

or like this...

or like this...(well, you get the idea).

This is what was made today, on the last day of class...(as an aside, I just love that we were given this awesome silver ball chain to keep at our homes...it has 6 clips...so up to 6 individual parts can be clipped onto it...and there's a hoop all the way on top to hang it up...and a little weight on the bottom of the chain to keep it steady and held down). I can just swap out artwork later that she makes at home and put up new pieces so easily.

There are two sides for each sheet, with various designs...but you can't see the backs in this photo. We were given red, gray, black and white sheets of paper...and asked to tear them up, with our hands, however we like...any size or shape. I helped LC with this part of the assignment, trying to create some interesting shapes....in addition to the bits she tore up (for example, LC liked the gray "fish" I created...not as easy as you might imagine without scissors, ha, and the black heart, and the "U" shaped gray piece... but the rest were hers, front and back.) LC then chose the base paper colors (she chose black, red and red)...and she looked at the stack of many torn papers...and she selected the ones she wanted to glue on each piece of paper. She applied the glue with a brush, as I held down the paper for her, and then she layered & positioned it all...however she liked....pressing down...creating this paper sculpture:

crazy in love with my little monkey

2011-05-31T19:14:00.003-04:00

I am crazy in love with my little monkey, my first born. A friend of mine told me something today that made me so happy..."I really get the sense she will always stand by you. She might rebel at home when she's a teenager, but I think the kind of bond you two are forging is pretty iron-clad."

Tomorrow is our last art class of the season. LC is a little sad about that...so I booked her for (4) 1 hour art workshops in June, to ease the transition...no classes, just a summer of totally awesome fun. I'm not sure if I can continue the blog throughout the whole summer, it depends on access...so check back if you don't see posts in a while. Also, part of my relaxation plan for this summer is not to document everything that happens, shocking...I know.

Lego Family - By LC

2011-05-31T09:13:00.003-04:00

LC was very excited to show me something...she connected legos in a way that she said showed a "family hug"...and then she explained who was hugging...(left to right, YOUR view of the picture below, from tallest lego column to green lego column) "new daddy, baby, D, mama".

Memorial Day weekend home base art

2011-05-29T20:47:00.002-04:00

Just because it's a busy holiday weekend and we had plans to socialize, socialize, socialize, here and there and everywhere... doesn't mean that LC & I didn't make time for some art at home. Today LC told me she had "so much fun creamy crayons!" I found an old box of Alex Creamy Crayons yesterday...and LC made her drawings...and then I gave her a paintbrush and water...and she blended the drawings, so they took on a watercolor effect.

LC's loves it when I participate...so I made these 2 primitive drawings for her...she was very happy:

At grandma's home...LC had fun with crayons...LC made "a caterpillar":

LC took a photo of the Strawberry Shortcake figure that came with the remote-controlled car I bought for her birthday. (The figure smells like strawberries...which began LC's fascination with the fruit.)

Explain to me...when did they start making a Crayola crayon with the color named "macaroni and cheese"? LC loves making greeting cards. And she loves alphabet letters. And she loves stickers. And she loves markers...so this activity combined all those things, a real winner. First, LC drew a dinosaur with markers. Then, she took the alphabet letter sticker sheet and I told her how to spell the names...basically, I told her to select a specific letter (there were different colors of each letter)...and she found the letter...and then I told her to put the letter right next to the letter she just stuck on the paper etc. It went slowly. She liked it a lot.

LC accidentally stuck her dinosaur stickers on another sheet of paper...so, I had to peel them off...and put Elmer's glue on them and ask her exactly where she wanted them on the greeting card. I should have just handed them to her, but I was afraid she would stick them again on different paper. I was getting sleepy. Of course, I folded the card...but this is how the front & back look:

And the inside of the card:

I have to remember to drop by to give the card to his grandparents.

Now that LC thoroughly enjoyed her first dental visit...and scored a perfect 100%...she can't stop showing her teeth...the amazing thing is in this picture, I noticed that I can count all 20 baby teeth (if you don't believe me, click on the below picture and count!)....that's a BIG smile on an itty bitty 3 year old.

white, blue, green for summer...capri pants & tops

2011-05-29T20:36:00.002-04:00

There was a major Memorial Day sale at my favorite kids clothing store...and my mom & brother offered me $75 total to get LC some new summer clothes. Though LC adores skirts, shorts and dresses...today she was in the mood for "pants and shirts". I bought 3 capri pants for her, 5 shirts, 1 cotton cardigan and 1 headband. I decided she has enough pinks and purples...so let's add white, blue and green to her wardrobe. (Yellow would have been nice, too, but they didn't have anything nice in yellow on sale.) The clothes will transition nicely into early fall, as well...and hopefully will fit her next spring/summer. I thought it was a good bargain to get 10 high quality items for that amount of money. I love keeping to a budget and still getting cute clothes for LC. She takes good care of her clothes, so they last as long as she fits into them. Take a look at what she will be wearing soon:

ladder and cup circles

2011-05-25T15:50:00.004-04:00

We had a ton of fun in art class. Amy is a wonderful teacher. LC keeps telling her "I love you...thank you, Amy". For printing by hand, we used pre-cut red felt, LC's felt was 14" x 18" and mine was about 9" x 18", as the background for the black or white (if mixed, gray) paint circles. We were given various sizes of plastic cups...and we dipped each cup into a plate of paint...then pressed the cups onto the felt. LC created this by herself:

This is mine:

Here they are hanging up at home today...I put them below the framed, "blue fish" artwork that LC created at home, with paint pens, when she was 22 months old.

Another fun project with felt was in Amy's sculpture class. We were given many black & purple strips of felt...rectangles and triangles...as well as glue & brushes. The kids could do whatever they wanted to do with it, choosing the shapes and position...to make their own hanging sculpture design. LC told me immediately "I want make ladder"...and the only thing I helped her with...was telling her where she should brush the glue (e.g. each end of the ladder rung, rather than the middle of it) and helping her put down the pieces exactly where she pointed...before she could press down on it (just so glued areas would be touching some fabric). LC had it layered the way she liked and she decided the placement of the hole punch.

Here it is hanging up...it's nice to have the sculptures hanging up in our living room and dining room...LC will pass by the art and say proudly "I made that in art class!" She is delighted when I hang up her work...the art she makes at home or in class....and she tells me "put on computer" and show this person or that person.

5 as is...and 5 tweaked for effect

2011-05-24T21:34:00.003-04:00

Here are ALL the photos LC took this evening, at home, on her Kidizoom camera. The first 5 photos were untouched by me, no digital manipulation. I like this one in particular, the doll face down under the chair...kinda sad mood, but with a bright pop of flash off the chair leg.

Top of the dining room window curtain.

My hand on the mouse, egg shaker, crayon, laptop, Sesame Street card. (I did CROP this one, last second before posting.)

Not sure what this is....but I like the colors and shapes. Probably a piece of paper and her little Sesame Street backpack on the dining room table.

Papers on the dining room table and the mouse cord.

Now for the images that I did manipulate digitally...the 5 below. First, I took 3 of LC's photos of my mouse cord...and I thought these looked cooler devoid of color and with the contrast bumped up a few notches.

Then I had some fun with 2 pictures she took of mommy. I adjusted the hue & the saturation of color in the pictures, in an extreme way...cropped them...played with contrast. Gave them a different vibe.

(I was holding my hands up to show her that if she wanted a picture of my face, like she said she did...then LC needed to hold the camera higher up and click...she thought this was funny.)

dandelion + red orange + yellow orange Crayola

2011-05-24T14:53:00.005-04:00

The interesting thing about LC's newfound love of coloring books...is that she will either cover every single bit of white space with crayon (in this case, she's loving the dandelion + yellow orange + red orange combo of Crayola, which she picked out of 64 colors in a box):
OR...she will pick like one or two items on the page and just color those items...telling me it is now a finished page and she must start on a new page. Like in this Hello Kitty coloring book.
Incidentally, I got that coloring book at a discount store nearby (a drugstore employee mentioned it would be the nearest place to find coloring books)...and wow, it was a treasure-filled store...the kind of treasure LC appreciates. Coloring books, balls and stickers galore. Most under $2. The variety of stickers I was able to get...that stick super great on paper...without breaking the bank...I couldn't believe...LC was anxious to get home fast, so she could sit at the dining room table and stick, stick, stick. We're talking dinosaurs, cars, fairies, fruits, animals and alphabet letters. I helped LC spell her name with stickers, she liked that. Then, I asked her "how do you spell your name?" and she went back to the paper and read the letters out loud. She definitely has the first letter of her name down...because recently we saw a local bus pass us by with the word "Limited" on it...and LC said "why did they name that bus with MY name?"

close-up of a mixed-up princess

2011-05-21T17:27:00.004-04:00

LC took a close-up photo of The Very Mixed-Up Princess mix & match outfit book.

happy, sad, cranky, scared

2011-05-20T20:11:00.004-04:00

Facial expressions fascinate LC...so she was happy when I gifted her with a 2 minute pencil drawing I made...I copied the simple cover of The Feelings Book.

Inside LC's pretend play world - water, flowers

2011-05-15T20:44:00.006-04:00

Overheard from the dining room...as LC was in her pretend play world in the living room...doing the voices of various characters (using a deck of Sesame Street playing cards):

"I want more water. More water!"
"Patience baby...you'll have more water."
"I drink it. Yummy, yummy, yummy delicious."

"Wait wait wait, you not flower yet...you need something makes you like a flower...that one and this one make you a flower..."

LC the songwriter, sings about Baby Bugs

2011-05-15T20:32:00.004-04:00

LC is now learning a new song every week, it seems. Or snippets of songs. She has a good memory and loves singing and playing her keyboard and drums every day. But what amazes me more...is that for weeks now, she is making up her own little songs, too, lyrics and music. I wish I recorded this one...but I didn't want to interrupt her. I was at the dining room table, on the laptop...and she was in another room...and I jotted down the words that she sang:

"flowers and bushes...trees and flowers both need rain...plants need rain, flowers need rain, bushes need rain, trees need rain...everything needs rain....you jump like a frog!!! Lloyd sing Baby Bugs! Ribbet... I got a plant home....hmmm...hmmm....."

An Ant Crawling in the Dirt

2011-05-14T17:35:00.001-04:00

LC described this crayon drawing as "an ant crawling in the dirt". It's great that she is using articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (in, on, above, below etc.) more often when she speaks. She is also stating some pronouns, like "him" and "her"...though she usually means "he/she" or "his/hers". LC just turned three years old recently, so it's exciting to hear more than two or three words when she communicates. I try to record some of her cutest sentence fragments.

Can you spot the tiny black ant?

Pirate Ship Car

2011-05-13T12:40:00.008-04:00

NOTE: I don't name LC's drawings/paintings...SHE is the one who tells me, in just a few words, what she created...and then I post that as the title of her artwork. And she hasn't had an art class where she paints/draws in quite a long time...so most of what you see on the blog was created at home...unless I specifically mention something was created in a class or workshop...as LC currently is enrolled in a sculpture class.

Today she drew Mama Face:

3 days ago, she drew Mommy Cutting Hair:

LC drew Baby So Cranky:

In sculpture class, the teacher gave out glue with a mini brush, toothpicks and pre-cut corrugated cardboard to each child. LC had a blast peeling the cardboard and then stacking the pieces together with toothpicks (yes, I assisted LC in gluing it, so it wouldn't fall apart).

LC calls her sculpture Pirate Ship Car:

Ant

2011-05-10T10:43:00.004-04:00

Working through her fear of bugs...LC's crayon drawing, made at home...Ant:

LC's photo shoot of her wildflower plant

2011-05-09T14:59:00.004-04:00

LC decided to shoot some photos of her new wildflower plant:

Wikki Stix flower and Mr. Tickle

2011-05-09T14:48:00.006-04:00

I used some leftover Wikki Stix, from LC's birthday party, to make a flower. Then, I stuck it to the wall. LC was fascinated.

LC likes the book Mr. Grumpy...and in that little book is a character called Mr. Tickle. LC drew Mr. Tickle, with crayons...then she took a photograph of her own drawing:

Then, she asked me to draw Mr. Tickle for her, she likes him a lot:

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

2011-05-08T17:00:00.002-04:00

Every year...it gets better and better!!! I can't imagine feeling happier.

Baby Bugs at Union Square

2011-05-06T14:33:00.003-04:00

I found an event in Manhattan that combined nature with music...and it was free! It's NYC Wildflower Week and LC and I had a blast at Baby Bugs. LC was super pleased to run up next to Lloyd Miller, of the Brooklyn-based educational rock band The Deedle Deedle Dees, and participate in some fun nature songs. Then we explored the Native Plant Garden and LC was thrilled that we were given a wildflower to bring home (a Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod, which will grow to 3 ft). You can click on any image in this blog to see the larger version and then click back (this web site automatically compresses images and sometimes they aren't clear at the largest size allowed for the posts):

Cherry Blueberry Pie

2011-05-05T21:20:00.002-04:00

LC's crayon drawing today...she said it is "cherry blueberry pie!!"

Yesterday, LC had fun with crayons and then she enjoyed putting happy face star stickers on the drawing.

Back of the sheet...she put a ton of little "circle word stickers", as she calls them...positive reward phrases, like "you did it!", "great job" etc. Interesting swooping shape.

LC enjoying one of her favorite books today...the Dinosaur Roar! board book that I bought back in November. Colorful, wonderful illustrations...and with simple rhymes, it teaches antonyms. She can recite almost all of the opposite words by heart now.

Up duck quack. Down duck duck.

2011-05-05T20:11:00.001-04:00

We went to a great kids concert in April. A poetry teacher asked the young kids to come up with 2 sentences, starting with "up" and "down". Parents wrote the words for the kids & they put their index cards in the teacher's hat...and he went away and composed a long poem (arranging the sentences in any order he liked...and adding some binding words) and then read it aloud. I was hoping to post a link to the whole group poem, but I couldn't get it...so...here are the 2 sentences that LC happily contributed!

Up duck quack.

Down duck duck.

you're a good friend, mama

2011-05-04T13:18:00.001-04:00

LC: "Need paper for Elmo stickers."

Me: "What color paper?"

LC: "White."

Me: "Here you go."

LC: "Thanks, mama...you're a good friend, mama."

"I Made A Shoe"

2011-05-04T12:47:00.003-04:00

LC ran into the guest room yesterday...climbed into the Graco bugs playpen (which I got 2 years ago and it was one of the best gear purchases) and she yelled "I made a shoe!!!" I didn't understand what she meant until I walked into the room and realized I had the chalkboard/magnetic easel up against the playpen for the last 3 weeks (when I cleaned up for the birthday party), so she was standing in the playpen and drawing with the chalk...and she drew her first bona fide shoe!

views from the 3 dining room windows

2011-05-03T13:57:00.008-04:00

LC ran through the home today, while I was getting ready...taking pictures of her puzzles, her feet, mama, the carpet and the views from the 3 closed windows in the dining room:

missing the lack of humidity

2011-05-01T20:49:00.005-04:00

Now that the humidity hit this week in NYC...I am missing the cold days of winter...though it was a brutal winter...with a ton of snowstorms...here's a picture I took on December 26, 2010... looking out the icy dining room window, at night.

LC starting off May with photos of mama

2011-05-01T20:35:00.010-04:00

This evening, LC announced "take picture of mommy!" I wasn't dressed for a photo shoot (old brown tank top and olive-colored, long gym shorts), but at least she didn't surprise me this time...and I smiled. She pointed the camera down, so I got on the floor and looked up at the lens and she snapped a pic...then she got the flash to go off, yay (but too close to me) for the second pic. So strange, and wonderful, to have my 3 year old daughter taking photos of me. LC glows with pride when I say "good shot!"

green eyeshadow = spring is here

2011-05-01T19:29:00.003-04:00

OK, so it finally FEELS like spring is in the air...you know...I can be pretty sure it's OK to put away the parkas, finally. I rarely put on makeup...but when I do, it's purple or brown eyeshadow...and today my eyelids enjoyed the very rare stroke of green, for spring. LC is LOVING the blooming flowers everywhere (though not loving the bugs)...she is spotting all the different colors of the many different types of flowers, as we walk around and listen to the birds singing. I personally love seeing the vibrant colors of the tulips!

3 Song Medley

2011-04-29T10:27:00.006-04:00

Proud of LC...she woke me up yesterday by singing her entire repertoire back-to-back, for the first time, in a three-song medley..."Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Rock-A-Bye Baby" & the "ABCs". And then she did a happy dance, sorta like Snoopy's celebratory happy dance. I think she should perform at my wedding, not just throw petals on the ground.

Here she is wearing her first pair of sunglasses...she was begging me to get her a pair, so she could wear sunglasses outside like mommy does...LC has a pretty lavender sunhat that I bought her last year, which keeps the sun out of her eyes (and protects her neck & face)...but she looks adorable in these "starlet sunglasses".

Good Night, by LC

2011-04-26T14:26:00.001-04:00

Her sugar-coated voice makes it sound even cuter...but here's a bit of the original "play" LC created...with a stack of Sesame Street cards serving as the characters, while she was pretend playing earlier this week.

"Good night everybody, get some good rest."

"I can't get some rest, I am busy."

"Good night, everybody...get some very good rest...rest, rest, rest...I put this one there on pillow."

"Who is it knocking?"

"I not so sleepy."

"That's Oscar the grouchy."

"Everybody not saying good night....not so wakey...wakey wakey."

"Good morning!"

LC's indoor Easter photos

2011-04-25T18:45:00.006-04:00

shutter-happy LC clicks away on Easter at grandma's home (1st 2 pics below) and then back at our place (she squeals with delight when I download the pics to the computer and LC gets to view them on the laptop..."baby took mama's picture!...baby took elephant picture! baby took kitchen picture!", "baby took picture big bird!", "baby took picture mama foot" etc.):

bring me books to read

2011-04-22T15:22:00.002-04:00

Be careful if you ask LC to "bring me books to read" before bedtime...be more specific...e.g. "please bring 3 books to read". Or else, this is what you end up with...a giant pile she creates...and you feel obligated to read them all, no matter how tired you are. Though LC does a great job reading letters and asking what the letters spell, pointing out things in the pictures...and telling me portions of the stories she remembers. Fun.

LC still having a blast with the new digital camera

2011-04-21T20:06:00.007-04:00

LC loves her digital camera. She's asking me already when she will get one that "takes movies". Here's a recent set...
This is a picture LC took of her crayon drawing of a "snake".

Outside...she loves finding all sorts of things on the sidewalk...she loves shadows...she loves gates, signs, buildings, nature, people...

back home...LC became fascinated with the area rug in the dining room:

LC takes 1st photos outdoors

2011-04-15T13:10:00.006-04:00

We took a stroll to the store...and it's a very cloudy day...but no rain...so LC took her first photographs outdoors. She enjoyed herself very much. When we got back home, we ran inside to grab my camera just so I could take the below 3 pics of LC holding her camera on the porch, because she looks so cute taking pics!

Here are the photos LC took outside today:

circles and ovals....crayons go round and round

2011-04-15T12:39:00.005-04:00

Yesterday evening, LC asked for the big crayons and large white paper...and drew circles and ovals, while sitting on the hardwood floor, for quite a while...and then LC said "pictures for mommy to keep!" My 3 favorites shown below:

Potato Needs a Bath

2011-04-14T19:48:00.001-04:00

Awesome live performance for 2-5 year olds. Potato Needs a Bath at 42nd Street, Manhattan. Sadly, they had a "no electronics" rule that they were enforcing...so I couldn't take any pictures during the show...but trust me, LC enjoyed herself tremendously during this one-woman, 30 minute show. (Sometimes LC laughed SO hard, other parents were staring at us ;-)...a wonderful birthday bash for a potato...with various fruits & veggies attending. Sounds crazy, but even the adults were into it...Shona Reppe (pics of her below, post-show, handing out a goody bag to each child) made it believable and just so much fun. I had only a few seconds to take a couple of pics..and the only reason LC isn't smiling below is because she wanted to tear into the goody bag ASAP and decorate her party hat with the glittery fruit & veggie stickers.

sculpture art class - 1st time using wood and felt

2011-04-13T15:10:00.000-04:00

We had an awesome time in the 2nd sculpture art class, on a very rainy day. LC enjoyed the bus ride, as usual...then she worked with wood and felt cloth (separately) for the first time. Using her imagination, LC told the teacher that she was making a boat out of the felt and she decorated the boat with various pre-cut pieces of colorful cloth...

The teacher collects various shapes & sizes of leftover wood pieces from a carpenter. The children loved exploring, rolling and stacking the wood. The teacher tried to teach the preschoolers about balancing objects on top of each other, as well as leaning pieces against other pieces...and putting some inside of others etc. It was a nice small class today, only 5 kids, so the teacher interacted one-on-one quite a few times, with each student. The only assistance I provided to LC was helping her with the sequence (e.g. you should decide what you are going to stack first...then put the glue on the brush and brush the area of the object that you need to stick to another piece and then hold your hand down on the top piece, counting to 10, so it sticks better, then select the next piece etc.)

The teacher will hang up the 2 wood sculptures LC made, at the front window of the school, so folks passing by on the street can view this class's work for a week, then we will take hers home. LC was pleased to bring home last week's work...made of foam pipe insulation and pipe cleaners and she looks forward to the next class, which will be after spring break.

LC's photos: Latin store

2011-04-12T20:32:00.005-04:00

LC must have picked up this phrase from me...she was pointing the camera at something...and I asked her "OK, did you shoot it?" and she said "I almost got it! I almost got it!" Our first outing with the Kidizoom digital camera. I would love to see how it shoots outdoors (though it will take a while for LC to learn to hold it steady)...but it was raining too much today and I put away the camera...we ducked into a Latin store to grab some food...and LC decided to shoot a few pictures inside the store (pics right below). I love looking at her photos. The first set, though (see post below this one!!)....was so magical.

LC's FIRST photographs!

2011-04-11T19:07:00.006-04:00

LC now shoots photos, all by herself!! 3 years old! Using the vtech Kidizoom camera that I bought for her birthday. She shot her first set of photos today - 65 pics...I looked at them on the camera and deleted pics that were way too blurry...and I downloaded 21 to the computer. I selected the best 13...and no, I did not manipulate ANY of her photos digitally. (There is a flash on the unit, but she sometimes accidentally turns it off...and also, there is quite a lot of motion since the camera isn't always held steady)...but let me tell you, she is having a ball with it...and she is very proud...and I love the images just the way they are...nice colors, kinda abstract...fun to see things through her eyes, too...what she likes to shoot & the angles etc. Yes, she did surprise me (as you can see from my expression in the set below)...now, the tables are turned...as she hunts down mommy for a photo!

Happy 3rd Birthday

2011-04-11T14:20:00.000-04:00

LC had a wonderful birthday party. Below is the front/back of the beautiful greeting card made for LC...painted by her close friend V (2 years and 5 months old), who enjoyed herself very much at the party. The inside of the card included a picture of a doggy glued on...V and LC love puppies.

After a long day, LC took the Elmo notepad out of her party favor bag, pulled out each page...and drew on them with a crayon. Then, she handed all the pages to me and said "it's a present for you".

Beginning of April, Music & Art

2011-04-06T17:10:00.008-04:00

We started the 2 month sculpture class. 6 children max (hard to find in NYC...most classes are 9-18 kids). Great artist teacher/owner (perfect amount of guidance, a mom of 2 kids with lots of imagination & enthusiasm)...cozy classroom...right age group (2-4 years old, not younger)...the child creates her own piece of art each week and the parent/nanny creates her own. Teacher hangs up each child's work, so people can see it for a week, before we take it home...but here's MY 1st sculpture:

(Materials given to us: many pre-cut charcoal gray, foam pipe insulation pieces, various sizes... & 3 colors and various sizes of pipe cleaners, that we could bend and position as we wished.) I wasn't able to bring LC's first sculpture home yet, I'll take a picture of it next week (but FYI, LC chose to use only 1 medium-sized base of foam & a few white pipe cleaners to create it).

Also, we attended another kids concert...live performance by The Deedle Deedle Dees...and various school children were brought up on stage...this show celebrated National Poetry Month.

2011, March - 2nd Half

2011-04-02T23:15:00.002-04:00

2011, March...2nd half of the month. LC finished up her winter music class:

LC always found the same 2 scarves she loved to dance with, out of like 50 completely different scarves the teacher dumped onto a mat each week...these 2 have lots of sparkles...one brown and one black, with a subtle flower design...

We made a birthday card for my aunt MG, LC's grandaunt, and we visited aunt MG (and 2 of her sons) to wish her a Happy Birthday. I cut portions of LC's crayon drawings that day and glued them onto the purple construction paper that LC selected:

When we came home...LC used her imagination to make a "birthday cake for auntie" out of legos. This was the first time legos did not represent "towers" or "castles" to LC.

Give her a box of 64 Crayola crayons...and LC can sort them by color...putting all the shades of each color together...as she did below with the browns (I used to do that, too. I loved the slight, or great, variations in color...I loved to compare color, mix colors...):

You know what I noticed...the way LC draws faces right now...the very primitive way...like hollow eyes, kinda spooky...it reminds me of Tim Burton's illustrations, ha. Below pic...LC said she drew a "happy face! Eyes, nose, mouth, hair!" Inevitably, the faces will get more realistic and not as freaky, as LC gets older...but I think she should hold onto this winning style!

Whenever LC asks me to draw a quick picture, of course I say yes. Here are a couple of simple drawings that I drew in a couple of minutes for her...she is always delighted to see the images, upon request.

We had such a fun time at the Central Park Zoo...the Tisch Children's Zoo...so, a couple of days later, I decided to a) test her memory (since it had been 2 days, but she is very good with details...as I am) and b) get her in the habit of telling stories...so I asked LC the open-ended question "What did you see at the zoo?" and she responded (and I jotted down what she said, as seen in the below pic, so that LC understands that her words are important)...she said, accurately, "Goats...ducks...bears...alpacas. Mom came see alpaca...big...black...say hi to you. See goats...feed the goats...pretend be a turtle...pretend like a bunny."

2011, March - 1st Half

2011-04-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

The first half of March 2011: LC wanted to write "words"...she said "write names...D, mama, D, mama..." etc.:

LC was introduced for the first time to Barbie. LC said "Hello, Barbie". I found the doll in one of my storage boxes in the guest room. It was actually for a photo project when I was attending School of Visual Arts, Spring 2002...part of my doll series. I found dolls in gutters, flea markets and 99 cent stores and the photos were then shot at home. I kept only one doll...this blonde Barbie...I loved the full hair...I bought it for $5 or less, at a Brooklyn flea market.

This was the photo...a blurry pic of the lovely Barbie...I wrapped her in a U.S. flag.

Up to this point, LC was not very interested in coloring books. But then, she started filling in objects that she drew on paper...and when I gave her the below page to color, she got into it.

LC said "I want to put away crayons in box myself!!!":

The little artist takes a snack break after another giant crayon drawing.

LC was very pleased with herself...for this "dance move", while the classical music CD played in the background, winding down for bedtime.

LC absolutely loves to draw happy and sad faces and wants to learn to draw other facial expressions...sometimes she adds in eyebrows, like the below:

And sometimes, she adds in a chin...like on the happy face:

2011, February - LC

2011-03-31T14:10:00.001-04:00

February, I replaced the drawing on the fridge with LC's new, expressive crayon drawing: And she continued to ask for many sheets of paper every day and sat down and drew.

She also was focused on drawing faces (she can only draw "happy" and "sad", right now, so I should find a book about emotions or facial expressions with simplified drawings...she asks me to draw others for her on paper, like "surprised", "scared", "mad", "laughing", "shy", "excited" etc.) and she draws specific body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, chin, belly button etc.) pointing out the areas on the picture afterwards and tries to be more detailed, like this picture of a man.

After she drew this picture, she said "I made a baby" and pointed out the "eyes", "nose", "mouth", "hair", "cheeks" etc.:

And she took one of the boxes I was going to flatten for recycling and decided to make a pretend "house" out of it. You know how they say the best toys aren't bought at the store.

February, I decided to test LC's patience, since she was 34 months old...and begin bringing her to live performances. Seeing "Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb" at Madison Square Garden was a magical day for LC. She hasn't stopped talking about it, still! She found a new love for Big Bird, who was near us most of the time during the performance and she chose a Big Bird doll for me to buy for her, to remember this event. She shook the hands of many of the performers, including Grover, Bert and Zoe...and she later asked for an Elmo-themed birthday party, which I am in the midst of planning now.

February, we also visited Puppetworks in Brooklyn...and we saw a beautiful performance of Alice in Wonderland, with handmade wood marionettes on strings. Awesome, LC loved it and so did I.

Afterwards, I took LC to a local spot, called Two Boots, that makes "happy face" pizza for kids. That small, creative touch made this the most fascinating pizza for LC, she even dropped the crayon on the table in the below pic (she was coloring before it arrived)...and she is not a big pizza eater (and chooses not to eat french fries, most of the time...& never drinks soda or juice, preferring healthier foods), but she finished one whole slice of this pizza, with her cup of water.

In February, LC had a play date at our home...and her friend V & her mom K came over...and K brought a wonderful book to read to the girls, Is Your Mama a Llama?

Then, K helped LC with an art activity related to the reading...matching up mama & baby animal pictures and gluing the pics to construction paper.

LC loves glue sticks.

The girls snacked on Earth's Best organic alphabet letter oatmeal cinnamon cookies, they both love singing (& locating) the letters of the alphabet.

2011, February - Mama

2011-03-29T14:15:00.000-04:00

LC said "BEAUTIFUL PICTURES, MOMMY!!!!!" She loves watching me draw, her eyes light up.... I'm very much out of practice, though. So, I took two well-known children's book writers/illustrators... and put their books in front of me...and tried to draw a bit like them for 15 minutes (though it's hard to take on someone else's style and these illustrators have won awards and published a gazillion books...so, I am not in their league)...but it was super fun and LC enjoyed watching the familiar pictures materialize on the blank sheets of paper in front of me. This one is a scene with Max being naughty...from the 1963 children's picture book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak: This one is a combination of a few pics from Sandra Boynton's board book Are You a Cow?:

I sat down with LC and I told her I want to create a little world for our own children's book...with a character I drew on people's greeting cards since high school. She was thrilled! She sat down next to me, at the dining room table, and made suggestions about colors, facial expressions, actions etc. It was so much fun to start on this process together.

When I was looking at old pictures of my childhood...I came across two pictures that reminded me of moments that were special and filled me with so much pride in elementary school. Here's a large cartoon I drew that was well-received and hung up in a very visible location at the school I attended in Hell's Kitchen:

And here I am hanging upside down on the monkey bars...in Central Park, after leaving a museum. I was honored to be one of a select group of children chosen to paint a mural for the The Electric Company Magazine. That was a magazine published from 1972-1987 for The Children's Television Workshop (in 2000, the company changed its name to Sesame Workshop) TV series "The Electric Company". They had us all dressed the same and we posed for a picture in front of our giant, painted mural of superheroes, for the magazine.

There were other moments that filled me with great pride in elementary school, and of all those moments surely this achievement should have been captured in a photograph. I won a prize in a national photography contest...I was in 4th or 5th or 6th grade...and one of my teachers liked a photo I showed her and she submitted it on my behalf for a school contest. I had asked a group of friends to jump up in the air at the same time in the schoolyard, quite a lot of boys and girls...and I captured a very cool moment (way back then, obviously, it was not a digital camera...so I didn't think the picture came out well until it was developed weeks later and printed.) Sadly, I didn't save the negatives and the photograph was lost on its way back from Washington D.C. LC certainly loves to be involved in creative projects...and on her 3rd birthday, she will be getting her first camera (a low-quality, preschooler camera that can be dropped many times on the ground and survive)...I will post some of her blurry photos on this blog. She is very excited to "take pictures toys, bugs, bandaids". And LC is super excited to balance out her days with a team athletic activity this spring season...her first sport...soccer!!! I showed her the below picture of ME when I was learning to play the game and LC said immediately "you playing soccer!"

2011, January

2011-03-27T17:55:00.001-04:00

So, about a month later...we revisited the Children's Museum of the Arts, with LC's friend V and her mom K again. Another awesome day. LC enjoyed watercolor painting: Drawing with chalk, on the chalkboard table: Playing in the ball pond:

And learning from a staff member:

The CMA staff member encouraged LC to explore a pair of super blunt scissors, for the first time, and LC used the blades to shred some paper strips.

LC loved finding this mirror at CMA, when she sat down to draw with colored pencils...the mirror was there to encourage children to draw self-portraits.

I continued to learn how to crochet.

And some of the work was successful (blue crochet circles that kinda resemble flowers) and some of it was not (my first attempt at a scarf, which ended up rather uneven):

LC was very happy to be signed up for a winter music class with Jen. Here's LC right before the 1st class started. (Our last class will be this coming week.)

Here's LC at home, a play date with her friend V, they were pretending to be a rock band.

and the girls both love "reading" picture books.

LC's crayon drawings at home were getting more interesting...with her beginning to fill in shapes with color, not just make lines & curves on a page.

I found this wonderful indoor play space in Greenpoint, which was so essential during this winter in NYC...since there were so many incredible snowfalls. Here's LC playing pretend with their kitchen set:

and enjoying their music room:

I also found a one day art workshop at the family center nearby...and LC's friend V & her mom K joined us. The kids enjoyed painting on a wall mural (teacher rolled out a large sheet of paper and taped it to the wall and made sure each child had a chance to work with each paint color):

Teacher also gave them watercolor paper, cut into little squares, and the kids drew on the paper with water-soluble oil pastels and then brushed on some water. Cool effect. Then, the parents attached the paper with colorful strings. Here's LC's work drying at the family center:

and here it is (still) hanging up in our dining room. Every single day, LC sees it and proudly says "I made that in art class!"

Tap Dancing Chicken, 12/1/10

2011-03-25T10:20:00.001-04:00

Let's end the 2010 posts with frame grabs from a personal movie clip...LC at the Children's Museum of the Arts. They had a bunch of costumes the kids could put on and play dress-up. Once LC put on the chicken costume, she was inspired. She yelled "tap dancing chicken!!!!" and ran into another room and proceeded to entertain the staff of CMA, doing a wonderful job pretending. The room was filled with such joy.

They were kind enough to then show LC the pine cones that were being decorated.

And give her a sheet of paper and colored pencil, so she could "draw pine cone!"

This was all after LC making her first bead bracelet...jumping on giant balls in their ball pond...and being invited by a staff member to have a one-on-one hands-on lesson on stop motion animation. And that is just a fraction of what she did that day, for a low admissions fee. Awesome place, I would have loved to visit when I was a child, but they weren't founded until 1988. They have always been in the SOHO neighborhood of Manhattan, but Fall 2011...they are going to move to a much bigger space and I think it's in the South Village (so I have to find a new subway/walking route to get there, without getting lost ;-).

Thanks for reading...enjoy your weekend.

2010, December

2011-03-24T12:08:00.002-04:00

At home, LC drew a person, for the first time...with face, body, hands and feet.

It's still hanging up on the fridge. She was very proud.

I managed to teach myself quickly how to crochet granny squares (it was a great activity at night, to relax)...and then sew them together to make a hat for LC. She loved it.

LC & I made a construction paper hat...I glued on the fringe she selected and a feather...after she drew on the paper with markers... (below pic, LC using paint pens, in the kitchen):

LC liked wearing the hat whenever she sat down to draw, at home. Below pic at our dining room table, drawing with jumbo triangular Melissa & Doug crayons.

At home, rocking it out with her keyboard...singing on the microphone and playing music.

Also, loves her chalkboard/dry erase marker, magnetic easel...

Still loving the legos.

We attended a class for a few weeks that was divided into various activities, to help toddlers make quick transitions in a structured class environment (dance, art, story telling, toy playtime, snack time, bubble time etc.) and follow directions given by a teacher & her assistant...LC did rather well, almost immediately. One day, it ended up being just LC and the teacher & assistant, no other kids...(due to cold/flu season)...and they let LC spend more time doing art, than usual...and I was waiting outside in the hallway...and when they asked me to come inside, they showed me her 3 paintings and said they were very impressed that at her age, she very clearly told them the concepts she had in mind when she painted the pictures. And she corrected them if they repeated the wrong words to her, like "peas", giving it a bit of context.

This is "PEACE":

This is "A MONSTER":

This is "APPLE":

One of the nicest places in NYC to bring children who love to create...the Children's Museum of the Arts, in SOHO. Can easily spend hours there doing a wide variety of activities, all perfectly suited for the young ones. Just 3 examples...

2010, November

2011-03-22T19:12:00.001-04:00

November 2010. LC is 2 1/2 years old.

Here she is at home, in the kitchen, drawing with thin markers on construction paper:

She pointed to the paper and said "gray bear climb orange tree":

Still a good team when making greeting cards...LC chooses the stickers & places them on the sheet and then I add the text. For this card, I also crocheted a circle (I was teaching myself crochet that month)...and made it look like a flower...and I used a large plastic needle & light blue yarn to sew it into place, on the paper.

Then, after LC fell asleep...I decided to also include a homemade bookmark. I took drawings of LC's that looked like fish...and snipped & glued them onto a rectangular card stock...and I took the glittery mermaid tail fabric (from an old doll... that was leftover after I made the Halloween wand for LC) and cut out an alphabet letter and some shapes to glue onto the paper...and then I strung some beads and a transparent flower on top.

From an Alex craft kit "My Giant Busy Box"...LC took dog and pig body punchouts and stuck them into model dough, on the dining room table. Certainly kept her busy ;-)

Ahhhh...a milestone that every child remembers. ha. LC got her own library card!! I was so super happy that day...like this was a magical moment...and she certainly felt that way once she understood that she could take out any book or children's movie she liked.

"Mommy look...puppets!!!" Prepared food container sleeves.

Even when my little angel has a bad cold...she keeps drawing! Nothing can stop her. She came up to me with this picture and said "rocketship!!!!!!" Good job, LC. She loves playing with her space toys...the Iplay rocket, astronauts, aliens and flying saucer. (Can't wait for her to be a bit older so we can enjoy the Hayden Planetarium).

In October 2010, we visited the Children's Museum of Manhattan with LC's good friend V and her mom K...and there was a wonderful Wizard of Oz exhibit...the toddlers very much enjoyed playing pretend. (They also liked pretending to be firemen on a truck & feeding alphabet letters to a dragon..and doing some creative stuff...on another level of the wonderful museum.)

Halloween Comparison Pics: 2008, 2009, 2010

2011-03-21T16:47:00.005-04:00

It's a ton of fun to dress up on Halloween and pretend to be someone else or something else for one day...and everyone else plays along...no matter where you go that day. Take a look at LC the last 3 Halloweens (1/2 year old, 1 1/2 years old and 2 1/2 years old).

2008: Mama put on a blonde wig...and baby is a bunny.

2009: Toddler LC is a poodle.

I found this flashlight at a discount store 2010...LC could project Halloween images on our walls.

2010: Butterfly. Her face was painted at the Prospect Park Zoo.

Then, the next day...she wore her fairy princess outfit (bopper headband, wings, fairy PJs and tutu). I made the wand for her...I cut a mermaid doll and sewed the top half of it around a little pole (from an old hamper) and put stickers on it.

We marched in a Halloween parade together, which was awesome.

2010, 3rd Quarter - LC

2011-03-19T16:25:00.004-04:00

This post covers July through September 2010.

First off, a few pictures of LC's work in her Hootenanny Art House art class. Juliana instructed them on texture, layering, color, technique. But she never touched the actual work, so it was all LC's creation...LC had the freedom to explore. I loved watching her concentrate on the art projects for 45 minutes straight. Here is LC at 27 months of age:

Her teacher Juliana did an amazing job encouraging the toddlers to create beautiful collages. They were given pre-cut paper, oil pastels, brushes, glue, glitter, paints etc.

There was no right or wrong in the classes...it was about the process.

At home, LC explored different shapes, with dots to represent eyes...she would tell me her colored pencil drawings were "fish", "birds" etc.

At home, she also loved to paint.

Nothing makes LC run faster to the dining room table...than telling her I am setting up some paper and art supplies. Pic, end of July 2010:

Though she runs pretty fast to the table when I tell her I'd like to see her build with legos.

She got a huge kick out of a quick sketch I made of a future LC girl and her mommy.

2010, June - LC

2011-03-16T20:44:00.007-04:00

June 2010, 26 months old.

LC loved the large toddler brushes I found for her. She was always very focused, when creating anything. In this picture, 6/13/10, she is at home...painting with the brushes, using both hands. I believe it's Crayola Washable Kids Paint.

Serious book love. I could hardly keep up with her requests to read to her. She would cry if I didn't read a book that she brought to me. (Today, I read 12 books to her, for example, and she read all the letters & numbers out loud that she could find in the intro screens, before watching a Sesame Street DVD). Pic, 6/8/10:

Tower mania. LC could easily spend 1 hour a day building towers with her Lego Duplo set.

I took LC to a 10 week toddler art class...at Hootenanny Art House in Park Slope. Her teacher, Juliana, was impressed with LC's focus and attention span...LC's ability to easily sit at the table for 45 minutes straight working on an art project. All the pictures below are from that class. Below pic, 6/22/10, oil pastels.

Here she is working on her first collage, 6/15/10...oil pastels, paint, paper (pre-cut, by Juliana), glue in a paper cup.

When it was hung up in class, I like that paint drips formed and dried. On our wall:

6/22/10, Juliana pre-cut the paper into large owl shapes....and then gave the kids paint, glitter, glue, feathers. The teacher added the eyes and nose, when they were finished. It was very hard to convince LC to stop working on this when it was time to leave the class, she was really into it.

The final product.

2010, May - LC

2011-03-16T19:58:00.003-04:00

May 2010... 25 months old...LC ditched her diapers, day and night. No pull-ups. We had to spend a lot of time at home the first couple of weeks of potty-training. It was a full-time job to keep LC entertained. Thankfully, she enjoyed drawing for long periods of time, with her crayons.

She liked making dots, ovals, circles. She told me she was drawing "eyes, nose, fish".

Her potty-training rewards were mainly stickers. Every time LC told me she had to go potty...and we made it in time...she got a sticker or two. I let her put them up on the wall...so it would be a very visible representation of her successful attempts (then when we finished potty-training, a month or two later, she helped me take the stckers off the walls...and from then on, she only put stickers on paper again).