Art Club

I have been wanting I do more art with my kids for awhile.

So, I started an Art Club. 

I was pinning and pinning and pinning all sorts of fun and artsy projects. I'd been collecting arts and crafts books for ages. And I'd done a fair amount of projects with my kids. 

But every summer I planned to do more.

And then I didn't. 

But art is soooo important! I want my kids to have the opportunity to create and dream and express new ideas, to work on something that doesn't have a right or wrong answer and to gain confidence in their creative choices. 

An awesome friend of mine, Elaine, started a super fun book group for kids last summer. I'm thrilled my kids get to be involved in it. And not only do they get exposed to new and interesting books and get to participate in fun book-related activities, it got me thinking...

What if I did something similar? But all about art? An Art Club? I could invite some of their friends. Then it would be on our calendar. I'd be commited. 

And because I'm impulsive, I jumped right into it. I sent Facebook messages to the mommas of my kids' friends. Kids came. And we made art! 

For our first meeting, I decided to start small. I wasn't totally sure how many kids were going to come.  We began with some drawing games.

I love drawing games! 

The first one we did, The Scribble Game,  involved scribbling all over a piece of paper. And then they passed that paper to their neighbor. Next they looked for images in the scribbles. You know, like when you're staring at a textured wall or floor with random squiggles and suddenly you realize a face is staring back at you? Your brain has organized the mess into something? Right? (Or is that just me?)  And when they found something, they outlined it with a sharpies.

The other drawing game we played, which produced a lot of giggles, was the Blind Art Game. Everyone closed their eyes and I described a scene...

Draw a house. Add the windows and the doors. Now draw a tree and a bird sitting in the branches....

I loved the moment when they opened their eyes and looked at what they'd created. Ha!

Next we made mosaics of our names using bright pieces of torn construction paper.

Next I gave each of the kids a paper divided into triangles (sorry! No picture of this one). And then I told them to fill in each of the triangles with drawings to represent the things about them that makes them special and unique. 

When there was about twenty minutes left, I got out a big drawer full of pipe cleaners. We sat on the ground and made stuff. 

I loved watching what the kids came up with! Crowns, hand cuffs (or ankle cuffs), people and unicorn horns. 

Then one girl started making guns from Despicable Me. And they were off....fart guns, freeze rays....you name it, they can probably make it out of pipe cleaners. 

I love, love, love how a group of kids (or adults, for that matter) feed off of each other's creativity. You never know what they'll come up with next. For instance...

Here's Sam as an undercover unicorn Greek god. Awesome.