The lounge coffee table, once perfectly polished and gleaming, adorned with fresh flowers and a chosen book or two of the moment has long gone. Underneath are drawers of stickers, stamps, stencils and colouring books. The surface is pot holed and well loved. Glitter, scratches and pen marks hide under a ton of work in progress. I gave up a long time ago on keeping it pristine and embraced the world of creativity that comes from having two motivated young learners in the house. When the right tools are placed within a child’s grasp, creativity is fruitfully forthcoming and beautiful to watch (though lessons in tidying up are very much a work in progress!).
The most positive outcome of letting go of my pristine coffee table (which, in time, will return – but so too will, sadly, a quieter house minus the creations and gifts to Mummy and Daddy) is the welcome ignorance of the T.V. The girls rarely watch T.V. now – except for well picked movies at special times. They spend hours creating and giving us gifts from the heart.
The dining room table, where our computer sits, is strewn with piles of bills and artwork. The kitchen table also has pens and paper at hand. Even the laundry room has been completely taken over with art, play-dough, paint and crafts.
Sophie is currently learning to cut and fascinated with sticky tape, glitter and glue. Charli is writing stories and letters. The floor is strewn with off cuts and pen lids (another work in progress teaching Sophie to remember to replace the lids!). Sophie asks to paint at all hours of the day – after breakfast, before bed… I have reams of her artwork piled up and waiting to wrap presents in. She loves to mix colours and watch the magic of creating new colours. Charli shows her emotions through writing.
However, some of her notes are a little lacking in sensitivity and knowledge of the power of certain words on others! This lovely piece of artwork was presented to me after I’d told her off about something or other – I can’t even remember what now!
Anyway… she went away and came back with this – it wasn’t until I looked closely (you’ll have to click on the photo to really read it!) that I realised exactly what she’d written and how old she’d put me – zero – for baby! I was chatting with my neighbour at the time and fortunately we saw the funny side and had a good laugh! I’d rather she take out her anger and frustration on paper than venting it in outbursts of physical and verbal fury!
(Sorry Charli – you’ll really laugh at this one day too… and in fact you did laugh when you saw us oldies seeing the funny side! You followed up by saying, ‘Mummy, if you feel like no one loves you and you need some time away in your room, you can put this on your door!”)
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Sas,
Don’t worry – you have three things working against you on this one:-
Reason you get the hastle – “familiarity breeds contempt”.
Reason Grandma and Grandad get away wih it – “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.
And, best of all, Oscar wild’s reason why grandparents and grandchildren get on so well – “they have a common enemy!”
Your loving
Dad
So true Dad! Oh, I miss you and your intelligent humour. Thanks for giving me a laugh this morning – off for a much needed coffee now! Love, Sas x
Awwww, they are so cute!
Thanks! – Most of the time! Tee hee!
It is good to see so much creativity long may it continue. I once saw one of those snappy slogans ‘ A tidy house is a sign of a boring life.’ which I’ve been happy to embrace. My goal is to be tidy but I never achieve it so I’ve given up worrying.
So true! It’s so unrealistic to have a completely pristine house. I do spend a lot of time maintaining general cleanliness, but in terms of ‘clutter’ there’s always plenty – but it’s far from clutter – definitely work in progress and so much more fun. It would be such a shame if my girls felt scared to do something for fear of putting a cushion out of place!
They really do feel free to express themselves and are so enthusiastic with their little projects. We also have a place for everything – shoes by the door, a puzzle shelf, a music corner etc. and I’m so pleasantly surprised when they now return things to the correct place (after a little prompting and ‘let’s do this together’!).
Oh this is just so funny and soooo precious! My 7 year old girl writes the same kind of notes about me. And like you, I am keeping them to show her when she’s older! Hubby and I laugh our heads off at them. At least we know our kids feel secure enough with our love that they know they can write those things and still be ‘OK’ with us, right?!! Thanks for posting pics. Really made me chuckle:)
Hi Joanna, thanks so much for stopping by and wonderful to hear we’re not the only ones that find these notes so endearing (even when they are rather blunt!). We’re so enjoying this next stage of development – like learning to talk – this reading and writing business is an absolute joy. We all share lots of laughter in the strangeness and depth of the English language too – so many words spelled differently, but meaning different things. Sarah
Fantastic stuff, a friend of mine bought some of those under the bed plastic storage things, you know the ones you suck all of the air out of? Well she filled them up and has stored away the best artwork. Not only is it out of the way but its airtight and guaranteed to last. Only thing is that in your house you are going to need one HUGE storage thing!! x
Neat idea! I am periodically putting the not so special artwork out to the recycling bin – but having to be diligent about this otherwise we’ll end up with enough paper for a bonfire come next November 5th! The really special pieces I’m putting away for safe-keeping. It’s quite hard making the right judgement call at times! I would just love for them to have one folder for each year that they can look back on and reflect on their interests and progress – of course it won’t be long before they are making their own calls as to what to keep and taking charge of scrap booking. And then… they’ll be the secret diary years! Remember those?! – But then again, will they still do that with the online world now at their grasp? Will be interesting to observe.
What a fantastic use for a coffee table=) You are encouraging such interesting, creative, and wonderfully expressive girls! I’ll have to make a note to self to keep all the crafty things in an easily accessible spot once we have little ones running around… don’t think the dog and cats would appreciate them much;). I’m enjoying following all the family adventures. Love the horseback riding pics- wish I was doing that instead of my current activity (writing report cards- blah!). Ok, time to stop procrastinating… back to work I go. Take care!
Jenni
Oh my yes, the diary years! I still have my first ever one (the second was destroyed – but thats another story!). I still think there is nothing better than a diary, but it has to be hand written. I so wish I had started one when we moved here, it would be so very full right now!! xx