Wild Things with Wild Imaginations

In Maurice Sendak's fantastical children's book Where the Wild Things Are, a mischievous young boy named Max is sent to his room without dinner for behaving wildly. But this does not prevent Max from imagining himself voyaging by sailboat to a lush, exotic island far away from home. On the island, he is crowned king of the wild things, a pack of googly-eyed monsters with pointed teeth and hooked claws. Spike Jonze's 2009 film adaptation of the story was inspired by revelations that Sendak's monsters are metaphors for a child's fierce emotions and the mysterious island is like the extraordinary dreamscape of his imagination. A scene from the movie portrays Max lying solemnly on his bed following an argument with his mother and finding solace playing with a toy boat he has fashioned out of sticks. There are other signs of imaginative play in Max's bedroom, including a tent made of blankets and a worn wolf costume, that are reinterpreted and exaggerated in Jonze's surrealistic movie version of Max's daydreams.

When my son, a wild thing in his own way, first handed me an invisible morsel of food and smiled when I pretended to eat it, I knew that we had reached an important milestone in his development. Children typically show signs of imaginative play by 18 months of age according to an article about the brain in a recent issue of Discover magazine. Pretending is a blend of knowledge and imagination that demonstrates "a uniquely human kind of intelligence". It is critical that parents foster this development in their children by providing age-appropriate toys or other materials and scenarios suitable for pretend play. For example, when AS and I play with his stuffed animals, I give each one a name and a voice and start to enact a short narrative with it. Sometimes these narratives are based on children's stories or fables we have read. More often than not, AS will take the animals from me and enact a different narrative with his own actions and made-up voices. The ability to think imaginatively and ultimately transcend traditional ideas helps children gain knowledge, generate meaningful new ideas, explore cause and effect relationships, and find solutions to problems that will facilitate their progress into adulthood.

The shelves of toy stores are stocked full of playthings, such as dolls, hand puppets, princess dresses and craft kits, that are intended to encourage imaginative play in children ages 2 and up. But these toys can be prohibitively expensive for parents regularly seeking fresh ideas. While spending more time outside enjoying the Spring weather, I have been reminded how much children love to explore the natural world and play with simple rocks, leaves, and sticks. These objects are free and plentiful in Washington, DC's parks and may be applied as materials or tools in craft-making. Nature crafts provide lessons in cost-effective creativity and in recycling as the materials may be re-used for another project or returned to the earth again once a child has outgrown his or her use for them. Children tend to value these types of crafts and playthings more than store bought items because they have had a hand in making them. Also, they feel empowered knowing they have employed their imaginations to "make something from nothing" and found ways to share their original ideas and vision with others.

As an art teacher, I was gratified to see my creative colleagues and students use found materials from nature in lieu of expensive art supplies. In one lesson, students created color wheels with Fall leaves collected from the school yard to learn the principals of color while observing the changing of the seasons. This exercise also introduced young artists to the natural landscape as a primary source of artists' inspiration, theories and art-making media. Another art teacher distributed small twigs affixed with pencils at one end for drawing on large sheets of paper. This unconventional tool compelled her students to make looser, more abstract images on paper and consequently introduced a different style of art-making to teenage artists accustomed to rendering drawings realistically, copying directly from life.

One approach to nature art that I especially love is to allow the distinctive shape of a found leaf, stone or stick suggest how the object should be used in the artwork. A Native American sculptor I once met said that the individual soap stones he carved suggested to him what animal form they wanted to become, such as a bear or seal. Family Fun magazine featured a whimsical drawing game, "Foliage Friends" based on a similar idea. Leaves are glued to pieces of drawing paper and children use pens, pencils or crayons to add heads and legs, using their imaginations to transform the leaves into animal characters. A birch leaf becomes a bird's wing and a leaf from a rose bush becomes a turtle's shell. Another great craft idea from Family Fun includes making a simple pinecone photo holder. Take your camera along on a nature hike and document the adventure as you search for the perfect pine cone to display your favorite photo from the day!

Of course, simply being in a beautiful setting like a state or national park with your child has its own rewards, not the least of which is to watch a child demonstrate how truly inventive he or she can be. Outdoor activities can engage your child's senses, help them make relationships between themselves and the natural world, and teach them to respect the natural environment. So get outside, and let your imaginations run wild!

Toddler Art: Process and Play at Palisades Park

I discovered a book at the library last week that has me so excited about making art with my toddler son that I feel like I might jump right out of my skin. As I turned each page for the first time, I heard myself repeatedly saying "Wow!" out loud and could hardly wait to curl up on the couch at home at night and read it more thoroughly. The book is First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos by MaryAnn F. Kohl, an author who feels "the process of art for young children (is) more important than the finished product". Kohl collaborated with a parent and an art teacher who encouraged her to fill a literary void by writing a book about art for children this age.

First Art fulfilled a need for me, too, as I learned that art classes for children in Washington, DC, start at 18 months of age at the earliest and do not fit within our budget. Only Gymboree offers an Art 1 class for tots age 18-24 months, but it is costly at $79 a month. Last December, I resolved to more cheaply introduce my infant son to art-making at home by using nontoxic materials, corresponding methods to his capabilities, and using appropriate caution for his safety (see "Arts in Infancy: Part 2"). Kohl's book is just the thing to help guide AS's toddler endeavors in open-ended art activities. She also wrote a book for preschool children that focuses on the "experience of art, not the final product a child creates".

Why focus on the process of making art and not the end product? We all remember at least one art teacher who expected us to merely imitate their examples, but how much of these copy-cat experiences did we internalize and retain? By giving young children the freedom to explore different media (traditional and non-traditional art-making tools, materials and methods) at their own pace, we open the door to more meaningful learning opportunities and a sense of ownership. Children learn best by experimenting and they develop confidence by problem-solving. For example, Kohl relates the story of a boy who was given a tightly rolled tube (like a cigar) of colored crepe paper leftover from a birthday party, a bowl of water and a large sheet of paper. He dipped the crepe paper tube in water and discovered he could draw with it as the dye from the damp crepe paper transferred to the paper sheet. After doing this several times, he tore off a piece of newspaper and dipped it in water to see if it would also work as a drawing tool. This demonstrates direct development in his visual thinking skills.

One key to success is to neatly present just a few materials at a time so that your toddler is not overwhelmed and immediately discouraged. Also, you may model art-making techniques but should encourage your child to investigate autonomously, praising them for their efforts. Often, there will be no "finished" art product. Instead, the child may employ the tools and materials in imaginative play rather than art-making or abandon them entirely to play with something unexpectedly more intriguing.

Since the weather had turned unseasonably warm, we tried one of the outdoor art activities suggested in First Art, "Out and About Water Painting". Preparation was quick, and there was virtually no clean up! We filled a plastic bucket with water, sealed it with a lid, and collected a round sponge and large paint brush to take with us to Palisades Playground at 5200 Sherrier Place, NW. I brought my camera to document the process knowing that photographs would be the only keepsake remaining from this activity. We found a wide stone and concrete patio adjacent to the mulched playground area and put the open water bucket on the ground with the sponge and brush inside. The light gray patio surface darkened dramatically when wet, providing the perfect "canvas" for water painting. My husband and I demonstrated the process for AS by making a few preliminary marks on the flat gray stones with the damp brush and sopping sponge. The marks disappeared as the water evaporated in the sun, reminding me of an Etch-a-Sketch.

AS saw he could make different types of marks with his painting tools, including lines of varying length, width and angles as well as dots and splatters. I described the types of marks aloud, introducing new vocabulary to him. He also tested other surfaces by dampening his skin, clothing, and a fence post with the brush, exclaiming "Wow!" as I did when I first opened Kohl's book. A look of concentration appeared on his face as he alternately dipped the tools and his hands in the cool water, and he laughed when he realized the sponge floated. He eventually picked up the bucket and dumped the water out on the ground, making a puddle to joyfully stamp with his feet. The entire art activity lasted just 15 minutes or so before AS was satisfied with his work and decided it was time to explore the rest of the playground.

Some scholars believe there are different styles of learning, visual, auditory and tactile, but it is sometimes difficult to determine what a child's preferences are at an early age. Parents and teachers can ensure their students' success by using methods of instruction that address all three styles. The goal is to both accommodate children's learning preferences while encouraging them to ultimately become adept at learning in a variety of ways. Effective, fun education ensures children are successful in and out of school and more likely to become lifetime learners. By bringing art to the park, we provided our learner with multi-sensory experiences that educated his mind and exercised his body through play.

Palisades Playground has several multilevel wooden forts with ramps and bridges, red plastic slides and tunnels, and tire climbing areas bound to exhilarate active kids and inspire imaginative ones. A picnic area, bucket swings, and a sandbox welcome parents with babies, too. When we were there on a Saturday afternoon, soccer games were in progress on the nearby fields so the parking lot was full. We found a spot on Sherrier Place, a pretty residential street, and walked a short distance to the playground and recreation center. See the DC Department of Parks and Recreation website for more information on free and discounted activities at the recreation center for DC residents.

Eastern Market: Monkeys, Fairies and Whirligigs... Oh My!

A co-worker who was born and raised in Southeast Washington revealed that before she became a teenager, she had never left her neighborhood. She had little reason to; most everything she desired was within a few blocks of her home. I remembered this as we traversed town to spend another great day bargain shopping and exploring the community near Eastern Market at 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue SE in Capitol Hill.

We didn't need to venture far from the Eastern Market Metro stop. Just north of the station on the 300 block of 7th Street SE are two places I wanted to visit first, before we wore ourselves out at Eastern Market Farmers Market and Flea Market. Monkeys' Uncle consignment shop and Fairy Godmother children's books and toys store are conveniently located in adjacent row-houses. As we parked our stroller outside beside the front steps and prepared to carry AS inside the cozy little stores (read: not stroller or wheelchair accessible), a 3-year-old passing by with her grandmother said, "I want to go to Fairy Godmother". It was apparently a place she liked enough to know by name.

The two men who operate Monkeys' Uncle, "purveyor of recycled children's clothing" and maternity wear, are DC residents and proud uncles to nieces and nephews. Their mission is to provide affordable clothing for infants to pre-teens by applying the principles of reduce, recycle, reuse and rethink. They greeted us immediately and were overheard offering "The Father's Chair", a comfortable resting place, to an older gentleman shopping with his daughter and her child. Prices are reasonable, more than a thrift store but less than retail. The clothing is gently worn but clean, current and seasonal. It was a relief to browse items presented neatly by size, unlike shopping at large thrift stores. I quickly found dress shirts, tees, and pajamas to fit AS and was offered help when I wanted to see the toddler pants located in bins stacked above the clothing racks. In addition to clothing, there was a shelf of parenting books and some baby gear. Check the store website if you hope to sell your children's outgrown clothing to Monkey's Uncle. They constantly provide "intake" updates to prevent you from schlepping over with bags of stuff unnecessarily.

At Fairy Godmother, an independent book and toy store, we were also immediately offered assistance but chose to simply wander the aisles discovering a wonderful variety of merchandise for infants to teens. I spied Caldecott and Newberry award winning books for younger readers, foreign language titles, and bestsellers like the Twilight series for big kids. The toys ranged from bargain items at the front counter (perfectly priced for a child spending their hard-earned allowance) to moderately priced educational and eco-friendly toys, craft kits and musical instruments to more expensive collectibles. The proprietor was graciously complaisant when our toddler wanted to touch everything and also perfectly happy to ring up our modest purchase, a metal kazoo for $2.50. A community bulletin board near the door advertises upcoming events, and complimentary copies of "Kids' Next" provide book recommendations for kids ages 4 and up from indie booksellers. The shop does not have a website, but reviews and info are available on ParentsConnect.com. It is closed on Sundays.

Eastern Market, on the 200 block of 7th Street SE, is Washington's "oldest and continually operated fresh food public market" and a great outing with kids, especially on sunny weekends when local farmers peddle fresh produce, artists and collectors sell crafts and antiques, the flea market is bustling, and musicians perform outdoors. My son was especially thrilled by the artists painting and drawing as he watched, blues musicians swaying children to dance, vendors displaying hand-crafted toys (like wooden whirligigs whirring in the wind! Wow!), and even flocks of pigeons taking flight from the market rooftop. Parents will love the unique, hand-made baby items such as knitted hats, toys and wall art at the Arts and Crafts fairs on Saturdays and the affordable children's clothing at the flea market on Sundays. Food merchants sell their tasty wares, including deli sandwiches and baked goods, indoors at the South Hall Market, part of a historic building renovated after a fire in 2007. Free food samples are sometimes available, or ask for a taste. The Market is closed Mondays. Hours are posted here. The North Hall is used for community events, including weekly $10 Tango Night classes which are open to the public. See the Events Calendar for details.

If you wish to grab lunch at the Market, picnic tables are available outside and it's often easier to find a seat there than at the cafe indoors. If the tables are full, cross North Carolina Avenue SE and enjoy a little picnic in the grass at the small Turtle Park play area with concrete turtle statues perfectly sized for kids to climb on. The small statues were created by local artist John Giesecke.
Also, don't miss the birdhouses unexpectedly embellishing the park's trees!

At the end of the day, before heading back home on the Metro, consider recharging with a cup of coffee (bring-your-own) and soaking up the air-conditioning and conversation at The Family Room while your children enjoy safe toys, books and art supplies or a climbing structure provided for their amusement. Admission to The Family Room, an indoor play area located a few blocks southeast of Eastern Market on 8th Street SE, is free for children under age one and for adults accompanying a child. An all-day pass (you may come and go with your child, as often as you like) for children ages 1-6 is $10, but the price drops to $5 after 3:00 Sunday to Thursday or after 5:00 Friday and Saturday. The Family Room also hosts family dinner-and-movie nights on Fridays and a babysitting service for couples looking to get away to a near-by restaurant on Barrack's Row. More information is posted on their website.

Whenever we venture into this part of town, my husband and I iterate that it feels like we have entered a different city. In fact, Capitol Hill is one of the oldest and largest residential neighborhoods in Washington, DC. There are many reasons, several within a few blocks of the Eastern Market Metro station, why families love living there. And while they might have less reason to justify bargain shopping in other parts of town, we look forward to returning to the Hill again to discover what more there is to see and do with kids in Washington, DC.

Mother as Muse

Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund, a profound epic describing the dichotomous nature of the life of an artist, is one of the few novels I have read several times in my life (most get one chance, then I'm on to another must-read). In my first post, "Living the Impossible Life", I introduced myself with a favorite quote from the character Goldmund. A sculptor, Goldmund uses the term "bliss" to convey the state of mind he seeks both as a student of religion, an artist engaged in the creative process, and as a man traveling the world in search of his muse. He looks to God and to the image of his mother, his own creators, for inspiration and ultimately accepts that his artistic development, life experience and happiness are integral. He cannot fully realize one without also nurturing and making sacrifices for the other.

Minimalist sculptor Anne Truitt's (d. 2004) Daybook: The Journey of an Artist is another book I have been compelled to reexamine. My appreciation of her whole life, the public life of a successful artist and the private life of a Washingtonian, changed significantly after my son was born. I now understand the weightiness of her seemingly simple decision that dirty dishes remain unwashed in the kitchen sink during childrens' nap times; she seized the opportunity to work in her home art studio at the expense of tidy appearances. But more stirring was her disclosure that her early pieces, sculptures of the "marked, used" female form, "failed" in her estimation. Having been misdiagnosed as sterile and told she would never have children, Truitt was haunted by this physical "deprivation" and feared that her work would lack the "vital force" of assimilated experience. Reflecting back on life during her 50's, she asserted that her career was the only enterprise she made successful entirely by herself, but her three children were her "greatest blessings".

Family and home have long been pervasive themes in my artwork, whether it be capturing images of relatives and close friends or scenes from the neighborhood. But I returned to Hesse's and Truitt's writings for a little perspective after a month during which I infrequently raised a camera to my eye. Instead of documenting AS's every new accomplishment in pictures, I exhausted my reserves in hot pursuit of a toddler boy who very much wants to wander and explore, often into harm's way (not so unlike Hesse's Goldmund). The artist in me, for whom creating is vital to well-being, needed gentle reminding that my son and I are collaborating in the most creative endeavor, his development.

Gretchen Ruben, an urban Mom and author of The Happiness Project, deduces that mementos help prompt positive memories and that "recalling happy times helps boost happiness in the present". So, instead of fretting about the serious art that is not getting made since I left the teaching profession to be a SAHM, I try to remember all that I have accomplished during my first momentous year as Artful Mom. I pull out an album of our mementos, snapshot photos I have diligently taken and archived, and place it on the floor. AS sits in my lap and helps turn the pages. He identifies the faces of his parents and grandparents and flashes smiles of recognition at his own image. We love looking at the photographs together, and this motivates me to pick up my camera again. While I take pictures of AS, he experiments with an old 2.0 megapixel compact point-and-shoot. Digital cameras designed for kids are available in toy and camera stores, but this hand-me-down seems to do the trick. AS already knows, from seeing his parents model the behavior, how to hold it and push the shutter release button. He immediately looks at his LED screen for playback of the digital image and shows it to me. A third book comes comes to mind, Show and Tell, containing photos of city life by artist Thomas Roma with written commentary by his son Giancarlo who was eight years old at the time. Giancarlo selected the pictures to be used for the book and thereby turned the process of creating it "into a dialog between father and son".

That afternoon, we look at newsworthy pix from an on-line gallery at WashingtonPost.com. It proves to be a great opportunity to introduce AS to new vocabulary and help him see the most basic elements of an image, such as colors and shapes, which I point out or trace with my finger. This is similar to our experience of looking at photographs together at the Newseum or in the West Building at the National Gallery of Art. As I carried AS on my hip from room to room to view the prints on display, I talked to him in clear language about important details, including features of people's faces and clothing. AS enjoyed seeing the images from my eye level (as opposed to the lower vantage point of the stroller), and I was able to keep his interest by talking animatedly and gesturing to parts of the pictures. While we were at the NGA, I overheard a wonderful mother of three older children, probably between ages 5 and 9. She asked her kids a variety of short questions about the pictures, praised their responses, and modeled good learning practices by reading information provided by the museum to answer her childrens' questions when she didn't already know the answer. A book I later discovered in the juvenile section of our library, Tell Me a Picture by Quentin Blake, provides examples of questions parents can ask their children about art.

Documentary photography, maybe more than any other type of photographic imagery, seems to have immediate appeal for young people. Perhaps this is because kids can better relate to images made directly from their world. In the 1980's, Jim Hubbard, an acclaimed professional photographer, began documenting lives of the homeless in Washington, DC, and found children he photographed especially eager to look through his camera's viewfinder. Many of these children were from low income families that suddenly fell upon hard times, such as the death of a parent or a parent's loss of a job, and were at risk of being lured into gangs and illegal activities. Hubbard was motivated to establish, "Shooting Back", a program to help children in shelters develop skills to increase their self esteem and to learn about legitimate career possibilities. I often shared a documentary film about "Shooting Back" with my own students to raise their social awareness and prompt them to act.

In 2002, I had the pleasure of attending a workshop for DC educators at the Corcoran Gallery of Art by photographer, teacher and author, Wendy Ewald. Ewald has helped build darkrooms and bring the power of photography to disadvantaged children and their communities all over the world. She discovered that children, "insiders" in their communities, often take more emotionally compelling photographs of their families and neighborhoods than do professionals who are "outsiders". Ewald applied for grants to purchase Polaroid instant cameras and film for the children, empowering them to find their own voices and to become ambassadors for their communities.

The success of Hubbard's and Ewald's efforts with children motivated me to begin a mentorship program at the high school where I taught. Teenagers in the advanced photography courses were challenged to apply their knowledge of photography and writing to teach elementary school students, for whom English was often their family's second language. We used the childrens' own images of home life, captured with simple Kodak one-time-use film cameras, to inspire their creative writing and help improve their literacy. One of my high school seniors adapted this program for the Best Buddies chapter at our school, creating friendship and learning opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is now teaching photography to inner city kids in Baltimore using inexpensive, plastic Holga cameras while she completes her degree in special education at Gaucher College.

These personal experiences, however, did not completely prepare me for how to introduce the magic of photography to my very young son. Nor did a quick tour of photography websites for kids on the web (Google: "teaching kids photography"). So I looked to my original role models, my sensitive, right-brained parents. Art-making became intrinsic to my life in early childhood due to their efforts and understanding of it's value. Mom encouraged my natural interests by keeping art materials and books on hand, enrolling me in classes and, most importantly, earnestly participating in art and craft projects with me. My father and paternal grandfather were avid amateur photographers who also shared their equipment, knowledge and enthusiasm with me. I first fell in love with drawing for its immediacy as I urgently recorded the real world and shared the stuff of my imagination. As a teen, I inherited a small, portable single lens reflex camera and created lasting images of beloved people, places and things, reconnecting with them through the process. Smitten, I went on to earn a BFA in Photography before earning my teaching certification in Art K-12.

As an artist, I found encouragement in knowing that I could not fail to make important images if I was photographing my family. As a teacher, I led by example and shared my work with students as they shared theirs with me. In this way, we learned more about one another and about Art. My mantra, photograph what you are passionate about. If an image ultimately lacks artistic relevance, it will still have personal value. This is the thing I want most to share with my son about art-making, the special and limitless rewards of following your bliss.

Passing Snow Days with Paper Cranes and Snowflakes

My 14-month old son has learned a new word, "Snow!" This comes as no surprise as the District looks like the shaken interior of one of those plastic snow globes from the DCA airport gift shop.

The city has been crippled by seasonal record-breaking snowstorms that buried the Washington, DC, metro area last Saturday and again mid-week just as we were beginning to see light. The federal government, public schools, and many businesses are closed and may remain that way through the weekend. Markets and drug stores are open intermittently but lines are long and the shelves picked over. Driving is treacherous, and public transportation service is limited to the main bus routes and below-ground train service. Sidewalks are unshoveled and icy in places forcing pedestrians to walk in the streets. The mail has not been delivered in days. A historic mess, yes, but we feel very fortunate to have power and water. Some of our family and friends in the suburbs have not been so fortunate.

My sister made a mad dash for groceries as soon as her street was plowed after Round #1 in anticipation of the next blizzard headed this way. Her 6-year old son asked why they were buying even MORE brownie mix, then paused in revelation and said, "Does this mean we're never going to be able to go outside again?" Collectively, Washingtonians are showing signs of "snow stress", and parents are facing the additional challenge of keeping young children stimulated and entertained while home from school. After several days, even new toys and books have lost their novelty and favorite television shows and video games have grown tiresome for kids. But if you keep paper of any kind in your house, you're still in luck- the kind of luck you grant yourself by folding paper cranes.

You may once have learned the concept of origami (from ori "fold" + kami "paper") from a school teacher; math teachers often use the exercise of folding paper to illustrate geometry. John Montroll, an American origami master with several books to his name, teaches at a local boys' school. He has gained the kids' admiration for his remarkable ability to improvise imaginative three-dimensional forms, such as a 3-headed dragon or a framed image of George Washington, out of a single uncut square or rectangle sheet of paper, as he sometimes does with a napkin from the cafeteria or a dollar bill from his pocket. If you were to tour the school, you would discover origami animals of different forms, patterns and size created by his students perched upon bookshelves and in unexpected little nooks across campus.

A childhood friend, whose mother was a 7th grade math teacher, learned paper-folding at home and eventually introduced it to her own elementary school students. Her "Introduction to Origami" intersession is one of the most popular offered. When my high school photography students mentored her 5th graders in a "Literacy through Photography" program, the youngsters expressed their appreciation by making origami cranes for us. We subsequently donated the cranes to students in the Japanese Culture Club who threaded together hundreds of them collected by the student body. The hand-made cranes were presented as a gift of encouragement to a classmate tragically injured in a swimming accident. In Japanese culture, this magnificent bird has been considered a symbol of loyalty and honor for thousands of years. Because of the strength of this symbol, Japanese tradition holds that a person who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted his greatest wish.

A few years ago, my same teacher friend took a trip with her Mom to their maternal homeland in Italy where she brought decorative 6" x 6" squares of paper in a small travel bag and created paper cranes as a gesture of goodwill to the people she befriended along the way. At one small outdoor cafe in Sicily, she began folding a crane for a curious school girl who approached her in hopes of practicing English with an American. Before long, several of the girl's classmates had joined in the conversation and were asking to see the origami demonstration again and again.

Origami may not be your cup of green tea, but these anecdotes suggest that young people do love the challenge of crafting new things with their hands from a familiar material like paper. In retrospect, you may fondly recall how to make paper fortune tellers, footballs, airplanes, boats or doll chains from your own childhood. If you need a quick refresher, there are a number of how-to books and websites dedicated to origami and other paper crafts for children. Look for additional resources that describe the history and cultural significance of the craft in the countries where different traditions, like origami and kirigami in Japan and papel picado in Mexico, have evolved. Also, choose age appropriate projects if your goal is for your children to play on their own. Easy origami is appropriate for children as early as four years of age, but they will still need your help getting started.

When the snow first began falling heavily five days ago, I initiated a week-long project to revisit some of my favorite paper crafts. AS is much too young to make them on his own but enjoys watching his father and I construct things, contributing where he can, and playing with them afterward. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we first created cards with leftover construction paper and scrap paper from an old address book. I drew bluebirds on the cover of each card with crayons and, afterward, AS added his own crayon markings to help personalize them. On day two, I taped four 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of notebook paper together to fold a large paper hat for AS. We passed the afternoon trading the hat back and forth, taking turns wearing it and striking silly poses in attempts to make each other laugh. By Monday, we were in the mood to race. Our newest creations, origami jumping frogs, hopped two-by-two to cross a finish line at the end of the coffee table.

Inspiration came the next day from Snowflake Bentley, a children's book we borrowed from the library. This Caldecott Medal Book by Jacqueline Briggs Martin is about a 19th century farmer from Vermont, Wilson Bentley, who created the first close-up photographs of individual snowflakes. I read AS the story and showed him the beautiful photographic images of snowflakes reproduced in the back of the book. He then watched as his father and I folded and cut white computer paper, creating large snowflakes to hang on on his bedroom window like talismans against the next impeding storm (Round #2 of the so-called "Snowtastrophe"). The little diamond-shaped cut-outs from the snowflakes made snow-like confetti which we sprinkled over AS's head in flurries. While AS is too young to wield a pair of scissors himself, he loves to crumple paper. I gave him his own white sheet of paper so he could form a "snowball" to complement our snowflakes.

Creating paper crafts with your children is an inexpensive hobby and takes little planning. The process is fun, perhaps even therapeutic, and can help children pass time indoors in a quiet, constructive way. Projects such as paper bag puppets can be easily stored and recurrently enjoyed. Others can be pressed into scrapbooks as keepsakes once they have outlived their use. You may also use the opportunity to educate your children about recycling by reusing paper from shopping bags, magazines, and computer printers or notebooks.

This week local headlines in DC once again became national news thanks to the Blizzard of 2010. But rather than grow discouraged by another grim winter weather forecast and the prospect of additional snow days, we plan to re-purpose those newspapers and make the most of our time indoors.

Arts in Infancy Part 2: Visual Art

"My newborn son is asleep on my lap, and I am finally doing what I had hoped to begin ten weeks ago- document in words and pictures his first year. He was born in early December and the days since have provided many challenges and joys. I feel like there is already so much that I should have captured, so many experiences to commit to paper and yet there has been so little time to do much more than simply live. We've been in survival mode."

These are the first words I penned in a journal I hoped would serve as a keepsake of our first year together. I imagined an artist's book complete with new writings, images and other memorabilia collected on a continual, even daily basis. Before my son's birth, I naively assumed I would have plenty of time during my three months of maternity leave to care for a newborn as well as continue the creative work I was accustomed to producing as a child-free artist. Of course, it was weeks before I even had the presence of mind to brush my teeth and wash my hair regularly. Every free moment was dedicated to the pursuit of sleep in a desperate attempt to recoup what was lost during the night nursing my son for thirty minutes every two to three hours. The only creative energy I could spare was applied to finding ways to entertain him during the day. Unloading the dishwasher became an introductory art lesson as I described the circular and rectangular shapes of plates and baking pans and clanged them together in a multi-sensory performance piece. To bathe myself, I secured my son in his bouncy seat just steps away from the tub and rippled our geometrically patterned shower curtain with my left hand to create a visually stimulating OpArt experience for him as I attempted to wash and shave with my right.

As soon as the baby's eyes could focus more closely, we lay side by side on the floor together looking upward at illustrated children's books like Harold and the Purple Crayon. He kicked his feet excitedly in response to the bold lines and distinct shapes of Crockett Johnson's simple purple and black drawings. He responded similarly to pictures in books by Sandra Boynton, Richard Scarry and Dr. Seuss, which have comparable design characteristics.

I must admit, though, that I was finally motivated to make art at home with my son when I discovered my friend's boy, just a month older than mine, was already creating paintings with his feet in preparation for an "art opening" or Open House at daycare! I scoured parenting chat rooms and books for ideas on how to I could introduce my infant son to the visual arts in age appropriate and safe ways. I was specifically on the lookout for projects I could easily do with him at home myself (read: without an extra pair of helping hands) while my husband was at work during the day. I discovered some lively on-line debaters disputing the merits, even the possibility of making art with children less than a year in age. But I was not to be deterred; it was not too soon in my mind for Artful Son (AS) to experience the joys of art making.

Of course my greatest concern was finding nontoxic art materials that would not irritate his sensitive new skin or accidentally be ingested. Instead, I found ways of preventing AS from needing to touch the art materials at all! Inspiration first came from a surprising source, author and mother Ruth Yaron's bestselling book Super Baby Food. This is primarily a resource for feeding your baby and toddler, but it has a wonderful arts and crafts section filled with many thrifty ideas. She even includes a recipe for making your own playdough and other art materials that are so safe for children they are even edible! What's more, Yaron is very conscientious when it comes to creating a safe home environment so her tips are always both child and earth friendly.

For our first endeavor, I squeezed a dollop of tempera paint in each of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow, onto a white paper plate. Then I carefully inserted the plate into a clear gallon-size Ziploc and sealed the bag closed. AS was propped up on a pillow with the plate placed beneath his feet. I encouraged him to begin kicking which started the paints mixing into secondary colors, green, purple and orange. After a few minutes, I removed the plate from the bag and allowed it to air dry. We then experimented blending cool and warm hues. For AS, the process was the most enjoyable part, but I was delighted to have the finished products, tempera paintings, to keep and share. In times to come, we explored (with varying success) basic printmaking, finger paints, and air-drying clay.

While safe children's art materials, such as Crayola paints, crayons, clays and construction paper, can be purchased relatively cheaply, I am a big fan of artist and educator George Szekely's concept of "environmental shopping". Szekely encourages his own children and students to search in unlikely places for non-traditional media and techniques. For example, cardboard boxes can be cut and recycled into sturdy painting surfaces, and sponges or even small tree branches can be used to make marks with paint in lieu of expensive brushes. Want to learn more? Check out his website or excellent book Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons.

Do you have an infant art making idea you'd like to share? Please post it in the comments section.