Art is a Process. So is Cleaning.

Every preschool art project comes with the reminder that art is a process. The act of doing a project and experimenting with the materials and imagination is far more important than the final outcome for most tiny artists. Mine are no exception.

Cleanup is always a bit of a process, too.

An interesting craft idea that I read about.

Pour salt into a small bowl, stir with colored chalk until salt reaches desired tint of color.

(We mixed blue and red to get purple salt,

a trick Liesl remembered from Ellen Stole Walsh's wonderful book, "Mouse Paint.")

Apply glue to paper, dribble colored salt onto glue.

Artists at work, learning/creating

She really dug this activity

They also played together very nicely.
Score! Double bonus.

Loads and loads of sensory experiences. :-)
(There may have been a "tasting" sensory experience when my back was turned for an instant. Fortunately, sidewalk chalk is non-toxic.)

Dump the excess salt into your lap back into the bowl

Ava is like her Daddy...when she concentrates, her tongue just sticks right out of her mouth--and stays out.

DON'T turn your back on toddlers with watercolors.
Actually, this face painting is mild compared to what I've found in the past.

I admit to cleaning off her face before I snapped this shot.
She had a full-on watercolor "beard." She was delighted with herself.


Reading stories for Sissy. Liesl is actually reading entire books to Ava these days.

I'm not trying to duplicate a classroom at home--that would be silly--but a teacher friend gave me this ABC wall boarder, so I couldn't resist putting it up in my kitchen. The vowels are in red, so Liesl now knows all of her vowels.

I also have a preschool/kindergarten-type calendar set up in our front hallway. It has a weekly calendar, a monthly calendar, and a weather/season chart that we change every day. Liesl enjoys "Doing Calendar" every day before morning violin practice.