This is what my back hallway looked like for three days during an art camp I hosted for my kids and those of two other families. The participants were six kids ranging from almost-three to five-and-a-half, with two other moms assisting and three younger siblings running/scooting/lying underfoot. We did a variety of projects from blow-painting to stringing dyed pasta necklaces to stamping broccoli forests to watercoloring caterpillars to printing cards. The kids produced an impressive amount of artwork and a good time was had by all.
Things I learned:
1. For my first time putting together something like this, I think I did a pretty good job picking the projects, gathering the supplies, and facilitating the process. Sir I. was very jealous of my status as Art Camp Director and was often overheard telling people, “Only Mommy is the instructor.” Heh.
2. When you get five girls together to create art, a lot of pink and purple gets used. By the end of art camp, even Sir I., the only boy, had succumbed to peer pressure and automatically asked for purple.
3. Three days is a bit much for the age group I was working with. On the last day, we lost Sir I. and another little girl to a vacuuming truck outside our house. The collage butterflies could not compete with the massive machinery.
4. Try using watercolor paper for watercolor painting projects. Maybe there is less chance of destroying the paper by overpainting it, like Miss M. almost did. Oops.
5. When picking pasta for pasta necklaces, don’t pick the large tubes because they slide over the rest of the pasta and the knot you made to keep things from falling off one end. Double oops.
6. If you need to wait for paint to dry before you can finish a project, it’s probably a good idea to do the painting a day before. Those egg carton bugs sure would’ve been cute, but we just didn’t get around to them.
7. Kid art is really cute! I mean, I knew this from before, but it’s fun and dynamic and utterly charming
8. We should do art camp again! Once the memory of the chaotic three days has faded, that is. Which it should by the end of summer.
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