Ant and Bud attended their first day of Art Camp today. When I signed them up, I had visions of them sketching bowls of fruit, painting Picassos, making great ash trays on the pottery wheel. What did they do? They made the longest paper chain I have ever seen. Three hours of cutting, wrapping, and stapling. No wonder Bud was bouncing off the walls when I came to pick them up.
I talked to the teacher and he said that this activity was to help the children get to know each other and work together while creating something. Huh. Ant knew five of the other eight children there (one was his brother and two were his cousins).
I admit that I have an aversion to this stuff I call "arts and craps". Although I know it's supposed to help build motor skills, etc., etc., I don't like the mess--the glitter that sticks to everything but the project, and glue smeared all over, and the chunks of playdough in the carpet, the broken crayons and their wrappers, the dried-out markers, the rainbow of paint all over my table, the little scraps of paper littering the floor. So when the opportunity came to have my kids go somewhere else to get their art fix, I was happy to sign them up.
But a paper chain? It has to get better.
What are the best and worst art projects that your children have brought home from school or an activity?
6 comments:
I can't say that my kids have had any art projects quite as bad as a three hour paper chain.
I agree with you that the mess can be kind of hard to deal with, but my kids have so much fun that I don't mind so much. What I do have a hard time with is that they want every single craft, drawing, painting and sculpture saved and diplayed for an indefinate amount of time. If they had their way I would never see my refridgerater!
Wow, that is disappointing. And very related, I think, to the comment you left for me last night. I hope it gets better and that this really was just some sort of get to know you activity. Maybe the teacher wanted the chance to get to know the kids when they didn't have to focus on a more interesting project. I don't know. A 3 hour paper chain is hard to explain...if it were me I'd go insane. Had to latch onto that rhyme this morning.
Did you have to pay for them to make that paper chain?That would really get me! I dislike it when I pay for a class and the kids bring home cheap materials and glue that won't stick and I've got bead and feathers falling all over the place. Yukk!
Hopefully the rest of the camp will go much better.
My kids absolutely love crafts. It doesn't matter which kind. I have to remember to be a good mom and let them do it, instead of worrying about what messes they are making.
That is really frustrating, especially if you paid good money for the class. Hopefully, the arts part will pick up. Couldn't they have done a mural together and acheived the same thing only better?
I agree, the paper chain is kind of lame with a pretty flimsy excuse for doing it. I love Nettie's idea of doing a mural. I think I am going to have my kids do that!
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