Kids' Artwork 2014

Being able to experience my kids' artwork has been unexpectedly interesting and fun for me.  It is in some ways the first physical manifestation that my kids have ideas and thoughts all their own and that their little brains are working and creating things independent of me.  So much of what they do all day is what I tell them to do.  Recently Jeffrey or Arabelle said something to the effect of, "Why are moms always telling kids to do stuff that they don't want to do?"  All I could think was, yes, life would be much more pleasant for me as well if I didn't find it necessary to spend so much time doing that...  And then even a lot of the good stuff that they do I can see my hand in:  Jeffrey reading competently after I spent a lot of time and effort teaching him and practicing with him.  But, along with the funny things they say sometimes, I accredit most of their drawings to them as little personalities and believe them to be a representation of their own creativity.  And that is pretty incredible to me.

This is one Arabelle did yesterday.  She said there is a girl in the flowers and the 2 dark circles are the sun and the moon.  The most interesting part is in the upper left hand corner.  Arabelle said that is Jesus in Heaven looking down at us.  I thought the perspective was quite intriguing and also that Jesus is in shadow like there is light behind him.  She's never drawn anyone in that style before.

As the picture says, "Charlotte's First Recognize Drawing".  Done about a month ago.

And here is Charlotte's first Crabboplin.

Charlotte saw Jeffrey drawing robots during Sacrament meeting, so she wanted to make a "Wodot" too.  In fact she made lots of "Wodots."

Charlotte was careful to add that stick thing on top of all of their heads, so I think that may be what makes them a "Wodot" vs a person.

On top is the Robot Jeffrey made during Sacramant meeting, and on bottom is a picture he made at school.  There are 2 treehouses, the small brown building is an outhouse complete with a moon symbol.  And the thing that looks like a pretty impressive ostrich is actually a fairly strange dog.

And here are some doodles Jeffrey did at church at some point.  I like how completely "boy" they all are.