My mother has always been very fair with all of her children. She’s always had us pegged for our strong suits and usually doesn’t dare to bring up our weaknesses. We are all uniquely special.
My older brother was the boy genius who would devour sci fi novels, launch model rockets, and discuss the theory of relativity just for fun. Never great in school but the smartest person I know.
My older sister was the creative one. She hated to read but loved to draw. She took many of her school electives in things like Art and Psychology and was always featured in the local art show.
I was the hard worker. I did evenly well in math, science, and anything in the liberal arts area. I liked science. I enjoyed art. I dabbled in music. But my specialty was that I was a good student and an excellent public speaker, favoring the dramatic arts.
My younger brother was the baby. My mother took extra care not to pressure him to follow in anyone’s footsteps and he paved his own way. He followed his passion for music and studied to become an audio engineer.
We’re all unique. But at the same time, because we were pegged, I felt like I could never really expect to excel in art. It wasn’t my thing. It was my sister’s thing.
The truth is that I enjoy that creative side. Never one for painting, I enjoyed drawing and always dreamed of dabbling in pottery. The closest I got was a blue and white painted pot I used for a macramé plant holder.
How I miss the days of elementary school art. The only agenda was to learn different ways of creating art and simply enjoying it.
I’m so thrilled to be able to sit back and watch my son experience the same joy. Here’s why.
He’s not a crafty type (like his mother). He used to go to his sitter’s house and she would tell me how he hated to color. He’d make a few scribbles and complained that his hand hurt.
Now, when we’re heading out, he grabs his bucket of crayons and a sketchpad and quietly sits in the back creating elaborate pictures.
While he complains three out of five school mornings about having to go to school (like his mother did), he actually gets excited when I remind him it’s Wednesday and he has art class.
It’s also why I’m excited to work with the Art Room Aid project to help fund art supplies for Evan’s classroom. Sponsored by Blick Art Materials, it’s a program about “building community, supporting creativity.”
Step One was to create a project that we wanted to fund. I named our project Art Works! (get it?)
I was really hoping to work with his teacher Mrs. Campbell on this project but we couldn’t seem to coordinate our schedules. So instead, I relied on my insider at the school, my 6 year old, to help me determine the best art supplies for his classroom.
When I asked him what primary art supplies they use, he said: paper, crayons, clay, and scissors
Sounds easy, right? Well, Blick has tons of different paper types and I was clueless so I looked at clay.
Umm, that’s a little complicated too. Some clay air dries. Some clay needs to be fired. So I moved on to scissors.
In Evan’s words, the scissors in art class “aren’t very good” which we finally figured out meant that they were stiff and didn’t cut easily. So I found a classroom caddy of 25 pairs of Fiskars scissors.
Then I moved on to crayons. According to Evan, their crayons “are all broken and stuff” so I found a great classroom pack of 400 crayons AND I found some really cool crayon sharpeners by X-acto.
I added them to my Art Works! Project on the Art Room Aid site and now I’m ready to promote.
I’m thrilled to have the possibility of funding some new supplies for the art classroom. In the future, I’d love to work with Mrs. Campbell on a specific project with a larger and more specific supply list. Art Room Aid gives you the ability to add up to $2000 worth of supplies to your wishlist and even helps you promote your project to parents, educators, the PTA, and even the community to rally support.
If you’d like to contribute to the project (hint, hint, local moms of Freedom kids), simply head over to my Art Works! project and add your contribution!
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What inspires you to be creative? Take a look at what some artists had to say!
Disclosure: My participation in this program has been sponsored through The Motherhood who is also generously contributing to my Art Room Aid project.
4 comments
You know I have a very soft spot in my heart and a hole in my wallet when it comes to kids and art. Sophia wants to be an artist like her grandmother and great grandmother and one of the things we like most about her new school is that she has art multiple times a week and really ,art throughout the day. This sounds like an amazing opportunity to get good materials into classrooms. I will definitely check it out for the local underprivileged school that we support. Awesome!
It is SUCH a great idea because you usually partner with a teacher for all the supplies for a specific project. And everyone can get involved with the fundraising!
This is a great program! My daughter is in 6th grade and she tells me that she misses art class so much. Her school doesn’t have art for middle schoolers. Looks like that was cut in the budget cuts.
I am shocked to hear that art is not even a program at some schools. I’ve music education on the chopping block quite a bit but had no idea art was in jeopardy. I think it’s SO important on so many levels!