Reid's an Artist!

Reid has become such an artist the past few months. Here are just a few of his holiday creations 

Let's get a close up of that sleigh, shall we? 

Seriously! I cannot believe my boy who just barely started coloring in the lines this time last year was able to sit down and create that beauty in just a handful of minutes. He did use the festive night light my mom and dad gave us as his guide -- but that just amazes me even more! He saw Santa's sleigh on a night light, put it in front of him, and created that entire scene. I love how he used an ordinary object as inspiration for a self motivated art project.

As for the art piece on the left, one morning he brought me a piece of green construction paper and asked me to draw a tree for him. I usually tell my kids I don't draw things, but I figured I could just do the stacking triangle thing and send him on his way. Half an hour later he showed me his final masterpiece. He cut the tree out, decorated it and added a trunk. Then he glued all that onto a piece of black construction paper. Next, he drew a polar bear and a sleigh (your'e seeing it from the bottom), cut them out, and glued them on too. The final work was his North Pole wonderland. I think I displayed it more proudly than he! I couldn't wait to get that thing on his bedroom wall. 

In fact, I'm having a hard time throwing away either of those two art pieces. I think I'll just stow them away for next year. It's always fun to pull them out again and see how much he has progressed in a year's time (I'd saved last year's Big Bird).

On top of those two master works, he was constantly creating other bits of paper we found lying around the house. The kids love to make things and leave them on our nightstands.

Notice how he used my triangle stacking tree after standing by and watching me do it just one time? Nell made a comment about his sideways tree and he replied with some insight about art being interpretive (I think he said it was the tree he and Ben (snowman) cut down and they were carrying it home ... some idea like that, anyway). I was so impressed, as he is usually such a perfectionist about even the smallest details. He may finally be out growing that stage and I think that is why he is starting to really thrive. I'm hoping he's always in love with the creative process and the beauty of his own art pieces. It's certainly something I struggle with.  

Reid is so in love with art, that even Santa is encouraging his talent! When Reid put a nutcracker on his list, Santa was thrilled to give him one he could paint all on his own. What a clever idea, right?

This tree is a project we actually did together. In November he brought a turkey home from school with directions to decorate it with whatever supplies we had on hand. That way their hall art would all be unique. For the turkey he colored the face and legs and then glued craft feathers onto the body. Before all that I made a couple of copies of it so that Nell and Coraline could each decorate their own for home. Coraline was so proud of herself. I think it's the first art project she's really gotten into and fallen in love with. And I love that it occupied all three of them (together) for a good 20 minutes one Saturday morning. But back to the tree. When I found it in his backpack I immediately envisioned the above. I ran the idea by Reid and he loved it!

So while I came up with the idea, he did everything else. I did have to get out the glue gun to keep the branches down. He'd already placed them and tried to glue them down with regular school glue, but that wasn't drying well so I stomped it all down better with the hot gun glue. After that he was able to smoosh the snow (torn cotton wipes) on with the leftover school glue that was oozing all over the paper. The star was his idea and I thought it was brilliant. 

I'm so proud of this little boy and the adorable little man he is growing in to. Lately, I haven't been able to go anywhere without someone commenting on how grown up he has become. Sometimes it's people who see him almost weekly, and they are still just shocked by how much he has grown and changed these last couple of months. And they aren't wrong for thinking this -- I had to replace his gym shoes at school and he's been complaining his old 4K clothes don't fit anymore. We've added most of them to the garage sale pile. It's a little sad to realize how fast he is growing, but I sure love being a part of the process!