Yes We Call This Art

In the short time I've been blogging I've stumbled upon many blogs that inspire me.  One of my most recent finds is Tot Treasures.  Almost daily Morgan posts something fun she has done with her little one that I want to try!  A few days ago she posted THIS, and I knew immediately we had to give it a go.

KJ was asleep in the nursery, and KO was napping downstairs.  Normally this would be an outside or kitchen floor project, but in an effort to let the babies have a good nap we worked in the studio.  To protect the area rug I spread out two large beach towels then put a self-healing mat on top before unrolling some butcher paper.  It worked well.  As wet and messy as this was, not a drop hit the carpet.

Step 1:  Make a design with glue.

Would you believe I actually had to encourage JZ to use more glue?

Okay, he didn't need too much arm twisting.

Did you know it's more fun if you stand up and pretend the glue is a bomb?

Step 2:  Cover the glue with salt. 
(Be generous)

Step 3:  Since JZ was having a ball getting salt everywhere, JM had the job of adding food coloring to the dishes of water.

They both took their responsibilities seriously.

Step 4:  We shook off the excess salt, then the boys began dropping water onto the salt covered glue.

The idea is to drop a tiny bit of water on the glue and watch how the salt absorbs it and spreads the color along the design.  I knew going into this project that the boys would drop an excess amount of water, because what young child wouldn't enjoy the freedom of dropping colored water all over?  It was still a cool thing to see.  JZ got it. I showed him how to squeeze just a few drops and watch the water run.  He did it a few times with a huge grin.  Then he decided it was much more fun to drop gobs of water all over.  ;)

 

JM asked me to make him a train to color, because our design looked like a track to him.

He said, "That's like the really fast train Grammy and
JZ went on-wheeeeeeeee!"

(He meant Thunder Mountain at Disneyland.)

JZ saw the three colors and asked if he could combine them.

As the project went on and on I was inspired by another post from Morgan about the PROCESS of a child's art.  It was incredible watching the two of them work.  Some might look at it and see the mess, but I saw two adorable boys deep in the process of creating.  The paper was almost completely saturated, but they stayed within the boundaries and kept their creativity on the paper.

When you let go, it truly is amazing.

Once the project was completed JZ asked for an oldie but a goodie-mixing colors.

They are learning so much right here.  Besides the obvious about colors, they are learning to create, to be careful, to take turns and share, to think outside of the box, and the list goes on and on.

 

 

Once the water was a murky, bluish-black JZ went back to the paper and added some more.

See that face?  Wouldn't you say it was worth it?

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