Sometimes I have a hard time crafting with my kids because I don't want to pull out everything and make a big mess!
A few years ago I went over to my grandmother's house to make a cake with her - she had given me the recipe, but hers always tasted so much better, so I wanted to watch her make it and get the secret (turns out I wasn't mixing it long enough)! I was pouring the batter into the pan, using my spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and get out as much as possible - she just looked at me and said "don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!" That memory has stayed with me and now that I am a mom, I hear her reminder whenever I think of not doing something with the kids for fear of the mess!
I know my grandmother was thinking of baking and cake batter when she shared her advice, but this week it helped me break out the charcoal and experiment with the kids. I had never used it before myself. It was really messy, it did clean up, and we had a great time!
A few years ago I went over to my grandmother's house to make a cake with her - she had given me the recipe, but hers always tasted so much better, so I wanted to watch her make it and get the secret (turns out I wasn't mixing it long enough)! I was pouring the batter into the pan, using my spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and get out as much as possible - she just looked at me and said "don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!" That memory has stayed with me and now that I am a mom, I hear her reminder whenever I think of not doing something with the kids for fear of the mess!
I know my grandmother was thinking of baking and cake batter when she shared her advice, but this week it helped me break out the charcoal and experiment with the kids. I had never used it before myself. It was really messy, it did clean up, and we had a great time!
Joshua's first charcoal drawing.
4 comments:
I'm still that way. I don't want big messes or sometimes it's just easier to do it myself - isn't that bad. Hopefully I'll learn soon.
I need you to show me how to bake bread. It seems I can't ever get it right. For now, I just blame the altitude...
My problem with that stuff isn't the mess on their hands, it's the mess on the walls! Maybe we should just do everything outside!
Some kids love to get their hands dirty. I think the longer you've been doing this (mothering), the more you figure out what kinds of mess you can cope with. And it depends on your mood too. If a project is going to take longer to clean up than it took to make, you'd better be having a great day before you start it! My kids would probably love to experiment with charcoal -- what's the best kind of paper? Do you get the charcoal at an art store? I've never done it.
Liz-
You can get charcoal at Joann's or Michael's in the art section(or any art supply store). We used cardstock, but I'm sure any heavy paper would work great! Hope you and your boys have fun!
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