All the Waldorf art talk on the blog recently has inspired me to pull out the art supplies a bit more this week. My older two kiddos have been enrolled in an art program at our co-op this year and I will admit that we haven’t done as many family art projects at home lately as we have done in the past. The kids always have their own projects going, art is a part of their daily lives, and they have brought home some wonderful projects from class… but it is so much fun to sit down as a family and create something together. While Bug was napping yesterday with a fever (hopefully the last of the winter icks), the girls and I did just a bit of school. By their request we did Math and Art. They wanted to play games and paint rainbows.
Reading this post this morning got me to thinking. When my children were younger I never had to work “art” into their day, it just happened. As they’ve gotten older, and are busier with academics and I need to schedule art time, and it often gets ignored. I HATE THAT! I definitely need to get back to making art and everyday, or at least more frequent, occurance! Lovely pictures, girls!
I know it can be hard as they get older to find that perfect balance of activities. My son definitely had more academics to accomplish this year then in the past and they all have a growing list of personal interests that I want them to have time to explore. We also don’t have a formal art curriculum that we are following at the moment which means family art time doesn’t always make it on the schedule. It doesn’t mean we aren’t creating and my kids do have access to lots of art and crafts supplies that they use all the time but we have not taken as much time lately to sit down together and do something like painting as a family.
Of course, just when I think I’ve got a handle on our daily rhythms something changes. LOL. Fairy girl has just started asking recently about learning to play the violin and we have been exploring adding that in. Wonderful and exciting! But again it is another activity that will require shifting that balance a bit.