Mom's Visual Tweets, How to be Heard Without TALKING

Yep, I've personally tagged wall quotes in our home with the title and purpose...' Mom's Visual Tweets.'

My first child was born in 1986, and my last child came into our life in 2000. Watching the world change quickly has been an incredible, almost shocking ride. I've been holding onto the railings for a long time, so quotes prevent me from going postal. Fact.

Understatement coming....parenting today is challenging. There are too many outside forces coming at our children; products, technology...more stuff...more things...more useless crap, even more crap that's eventually going to become useless and rinse and repeat! Too much 'stuff' and too many 'things' make Mom a big grump and maybe a tad nuts.

Most of my boys are young men now, but I'm sure other parents can attest that parenting never ends, and I do mean NEVER. As the mom of 4 boys, it's hard to deliver life tips and messages without getting that 'hurry up, yah yah, glazed over look' from your kids-slash-young men.

So, to solve this dilemma, I used wall quotes and handwritten quotes to feature in our home.

Instead of Deciding to beat the 140 Character-Attention-Span-Syndrome, I Decided to Join It

By sporadically using wall words throughout the house, I can send a positive life message to the
boys (and myself). Oh yeah, the quotes get eye-rolled. But tough bananas, like Martina McBride said in her song, I Do It Anyway.

I haven't just purchased wall quotes; I've also handwritten them and put them on the fridge.

Unfortunately, the fridge started to look like a hippie wall from the '60s, so I've since transferred most of them to a binder.

The binder sits ready for the kids to read..I've yet to see them open it. I should stuff some cash in it - in 10 years, check it, bet the money will still be there. 

But I don't get discouraged. Not me. Nope. I'm going subliminal.

I just keep rotating them from the binder to the fridge, where one always sits in full view: I have to keep that puppy up for a long time cause it's usually a month before they notice 'a quote change'.

For the family, I particularly love quotes about the mind, our thoughts, and how "we become what we think about" - 'control your thinking, control your life.' <---I'm hoping to control that thought so it sinks in.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

FOLLOW US ON:

Little Artists

As the Little Crafty Kids Contributor for Squidoo, I don't just look at craft projects for the under-fives, I look at art ideas, too, because to me, the two subjects are inextricably linked! Many crafts involve at least some painting, drawing or artistic input, and all the creativity that goes into them can only serve to enhance the art that kids go on to produce.

I'm writing about art for preschoolers this week because my daughter has done very little crafting, but a heck of a lot of drawing. She is obsessed at the moment, and is really exploring color, too. So much so, that even food cannot get in the way of this current passion - she doodles away on the paper towel that I put under her breakfast, lunch and dinner plates, so I am currently the proud owner of numerous sheets of beautifully decorated kitchen roll, including numerous rainbow designs like the one on the left, which I am working out how to effectively display in some kind of scrap book!

Engaging with children and their art is a wonderful way to connect and encourage, I feel. Don't simply say, "Oh, that's nice," and definitely never ask, "What's that?" - instead, talk about the shapes and colors and styles used. Comment on what you like about the picture, or why they decided to put that particular object there, or whether there is a story behind it. Today, I was telling my little girl how much I liked the way she had drawn the mountains in the background, and the pattern she had colored on the girl's dress. This led to her explaining more about what the picture meant to her and why she had drawn it.

They may only be young at this age, but don't let that put you off exploring the art world! I have been reading lots recently about introducing different artists to preschoolers, and I heartily agree with this idea.

I recently showed my daughter (4) some of my high school artwork, and she was particularly captivated by this pointillism painting I had done (right). So I explained a little bit about pointillism, impressionism, and Monet, and she expressed interest in having a go herself. As serendipity would have it, one of the books we had taken out the library, Katie and the Waterlily Pond, was about a little girl exploring an art gallery, and she magically hopped in and out of, yes, you guessed it, various Monet paintings whilst trying to paint her own impressionist painting! My little girl was now definitely hooked, and we're in the midst of starting an impressionist project as I write!

The beauty of art is that you can make it as simple or complex as you like - great for deconstructing artists and interpreting them at home for age appropriate activities! 

One of the great things about art for kids is that, like crafts for kids, there is plenty of scope for recycling things! I'm slightly obsessed with melting things at the moment, especially with all the terrific ideas for melted crayon art and melted bead crafts. These projects do of course need adult supervision, but under-fives will just love the things you can do - such as seeing what amazing patterns and colors you can make on canvas with this Melted Crayon Art project by neeznoodle.

Another wonderful form of art for children is modelling with clay. We were using it out in the forest this week, making marvelous mini beasts at forest school (here's Pud's lovely ladybug on the left, decorated with twig legs, leaf wings and catkin spots!) 

As this was a fun activity outdoors, the bug is left unbaked. For ideas at home, don't worry if you don't have access to a kiln for proper clay. There are lots of air drying clays available, as well as non-toxic polymer clays such as Fimo, that you can bake in the oven. You can also make salt dough or your own homemade clay too. 

So, are you inspired? What masterpiece of artwork can you create with your children or grandchildren? If you have enjoyed some great art projects with your under-fives, please and share them !

As always, happy crafting.

(c) All photos are copyright of the author

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

FOLLOW US ON: