creativity

Many years ago I read articles on a blog somewhere about corralling kids' artwork.  At the time Miles was in school a couple of days a week, Audrey wasn't here, or was just barely here, and he was bringing home a few paintings or drawings a week. I liked this cardboard box storage and we started painting.  I used USPS flat rate boxes turned inside out and painted by the boy-wonder himself.  (Of course now that I'm ready to do some with Audrey, USPS has started printing their logo all over the inside.  Guess they got sick of giving away boxes to be shipped by FedEx.) I was guessing we'd fill a box every year or two, slowing down in grade school of course.

Next I started taking a snapshot of everything, saving only the best and recycling or sending grandparents the rest.  I occasionally go back and edit even more.  I save anything with a handprint or footprint on it, and try hard to remember to date them.  I even got one of the old library date stampers, but I'm not very good at keeping up with them.  I upload all the pictures to each kid's online Picasa gallery (yes they have gmail accounts too!)

Miles' Artwork

Audrey's Artwork

Where am I going with this? Miles has become a very prolific colorer! I'm worried we may exceed our maximum box capacity too soon!  He loves to draw stick people and they are evolving very nicely.

This is one of his earliest free-hand sketches, done around his 4th birthday.  It's a self portrait!

 Soon after that he drew this cute hermit crab.  I was really impressed with the spiral.

This picture of his house was this past summer.  The sideways figures in the top left are he & Audrey in bunk beds.

And recently we've had a big series of group portraits.  Many of these have been mailed to the subject, as they were all drawings of Miles with various grandparents and other family members.

 Now we start to see other objects.  This is the crosswalk at the park near our house.

 Here's his Halloween collage. Clockwise from top left: Haunted House; Bat; Mummy; Skeleton; Ghost; Witch; Pumpkin.  But you knew that, right?

 Wayne and I love this tree.  I'm thinking about printing it on some art paper and framing it.

 And he finally drew Audrey in the picture of the family.  Guess which she is.  The other new addition is Apollo.  Poor Chelsea didn't make the cut yet.

 And now he's getting into office supplies.  He likes to make books, stapling many of his works together.  And he discovered my label maker!

 Not sure about this one.  Witch? Pickle? Oopma Loompa?

 This is rain falling on our house:

 He learned about exclamation points this week! Now they are everywhere!

 Sorry, forgot to rotate this one.  Dude has on a fedora!  He's a detective! Love it!

Here's the boy himself. Replicas of the Nina and Pinta were he this week and we went on a rainy day to see them. Still fun!