She’s barely four years old

Her hair curls all on it’s own

She loves pink

She loves shoes

She gardens

She swings

She’s artistic

She’s confident

She jokes

She dances

She argues

She sings

She keeps me on my toes

She has a major sweet tooth

She loves swimming in the summer

She doesn’t care for baby dolls

She mothers her stuffed animal puppies

And before we put her to bed at night, when we gather as a family to take turns praying…

sometimes…

it goes like this…

Me: “Okay Remy, it’s your turn to pray.”

Remy: “I’m not going to pray tonight. I’m just going to talk to God.”

Me: “Okay.”

Remy: “God, I just want to tell you that I really love You and when we die and You take us up to Heaven I want You to have bathing suits for us so we can swim.

And God I pray that on that day we come to Heaven that You would come and live with us and that we would have plenty of food.

And if we don’t died, but You blow your trumpet we could still go to Heaven if You come to get us.

And I really pray that You have lots of stuffed animals for us to snuggle with because we really love that, and maybe You could just tell us that we can stay up because that would be our favorite.”

Trying to conceal my smile I open one eye peeking at her and wondering if she’s finished I ask, “Amen?”

“No!” she replies. “I already told you… I’m not praying tonight. I was only talking to God.”

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My Story

I’ve always been a very creative person, interested in art, music, and writing. I was told often that I was good at those things by my peers and my mother, and their praise of my accomplishments in those areas spurred me on to become better and better at them.

Adversely in my adolescence I was also told:

I’m not a math person

I’m not a science person

I’m not a good speller

I’m not a reader

I would always struggle in school

And for what? I thought.

So  I can get into a good college?  What in the world am I supposed to do in college, if I’m barely making it through high school?  What kind of serious degree or career can I pursue if all I am good at is painting and writing poetry? Forget it!

And in many ways I did.

I became consumed with my social life and did only enough school work to stay afloat. When it came time to graduate and choose a college major to pursue, I didn’t feel confident enough in any academic subject, to be able to approach it at a college level.

Now I know, for those of us who have never been professionally diagnosed with a mental disability or genetic learning disorder, our DNA does not prohibit us from being good at Math, Spelling, Grammar, Science, History, or Language Arts. For most of us, our strengths and weaknesses in academics have much more to do with our INTERESTS and our INSPIRATIONS rather than a left or right brain dominance. We pursue what we learn to love, and neglect what we don’t. And naturally we love what we’re good at, and what we become good at, tends to be what we’ve been ENCOURAGED in.

So what are you encouraging your kids in? I hope the answer is, “EVERYTHING.”

But, for many of us who were raised in “boxes” and are used to hearing others frame people into categories of “Math people”, “Artistic people”, “Bookish people” and “Athletic people”, we might not notice at first how we are now hastily and verbally, shoving our own children into a false framework.

What’s Your Story?

Were you ever told that you weren’t any good at an academic subject? What kinds of things were you made to believe about your inabilities, in your adolescence? What things do you tell everyone…

-          You’ve never been good at

-          You just aren’t cut out for

-          You aren’t able to do because you are a right brain or left brain dominant person

Have you ever stopped to consider, that maybe you never had a real opportunity to truly see what you were made of in the areas of study you struggled with, because you believed from nearly the start, you were BAD at them?

Is there any possibility, that given an inspiring mentor or a well written book, and some time and determination, that you might actually be capable of becoming good at the very things you’ve spent your entire life believing are impossible subjects for you?

Is it math?

Is it punctuation?

Is it drawing?

Is it spelling?

Is it reading?

Left Brain or Right Brain?

How many of us were taught to assess which side of our brain is dominant and allow that to tell us our future; what we were made for and what we should pursue?

As a pre-teen, I was told I wasn’t a math person. So, when math became difficult and no longer any fun, I had no motivation to work through it.  I assumed that the side of a person’s brain which makes them strong in math was not the strong side of my brain.  I believed that lie my whole adolescence and was empowered by teachers and mentors to use it as a valid excuse for my struggles. In High School I finally just gave up on math altogether.

Now as an adult, I have realized that was just something people told me and it might not be true. Once I had that breakthrough in my thinking I opened myself back up to math and I’ve learned I can be good at it, and my new attitude towards it has allowed me to develop a real interest in it.

This article is supposed to be about our children and how their thinking is being shaped, but in order to positively frame their self-image, we will first need to consider our own.

It took an epiphany for me to stop assuming since I was a creative person, I could not be a successful math or science person. We must each face the lies we’ve been believing for decades about ourselves and our abilities to learn, and in doing so, change the statements we make in front of our children.

If we say it about ourselves, our children will learn they can say it about themselves and get away with giving up, like we did.

Preparing Them to Be Able to Do Anything THEY Want

In a home where a parent is artistic, where drawing and painting are daily demonstrated, and artistic resources are always available, a young child is likely to be interested in art. They will more easily pick up artistic abilities and be encouraged in such endeavors.  And most importantly they will be INSPIRED to take part in art by a parent who loves it and lives it passionately in front of them.

In a home where a child has a mathematically confident parent and never hears the phrase, “I’m not a math person,” a child may be able to flourish in math because they never learn to associate the subject with fear and impossibility. A child like this will have a huge advantage down the road when math really does become difficult, in that they won’t be afraid of the subject, or have any belief that they won’t be able to eventually tackle any stage of it, with some effort.

But, if a child hears over and over from their parents and mentors that they just aren’t a math person, a science person, artistic, or good at spelling, you can bet they probably never will be. It won’t be their DNA that has dictated their weaknesses but rather their beliefs about themselves.

We all truly can be math people, science people, history people, eloquent people, artistic people, and yes even athletic people, if we choose to be. There of course will still be a spectrum along which we fall compared to others. We will be stronger in some areas and weaker in others, but we don’t have to feel genetically incapable of any of it.

It is so important to affirm our children’s capabilities, so that we are not shaping them to cut out certain pursuits by telling them what they weren’t made for. We ought to allow our children to discover their own passions and purposes, rather than dictate what they will become, by telling them from a young age what “ just isn’t their strong suit.”

This is NOT that talk!

Now let’s hold on right here while I make something clear.

This isn’t one of those talks that follows the philosophy of “Everyone gets a trophy no matter how well they play their sport, and everyone gets an A+ no matter how well they did on their assignment.” In those ways children need a barometer to see how the effort they put into their pursuit matches up with the results that they receive. Receiving a poor grade or not getting a trophy in a sport, teaches a child that they need to find new ways to approach their goals in order to receive better results in the future.

This talk is about thinking before we speak and knowing that the more times you tell a kid they are bad, bad, bad at something, the easier it is for them to believe it and give up on it.

And I’m not talking about mean verbally abusive parents. I’m talking about very kind, loving parents. Parents who often may not even realize they are saying these negative things to their children, but who based on how they themselves were educated, truly believe right brain/left brain dominance dictates WHO someone is capable of being and WHAT they are capable of being good at.

Parents and mentors need to be the voices of support encouraging children that they can excel in anything THEY DESIRE. We need not to be the people in their lives who throw our hands up and say, “You’re just not cut out for this. You just weren’t born to do this.”

(Unless of course we’re talking about being in the NBA or the Royal Ballet School… of course in those types of cases very specific genetics are pretty much a requirement!)

The Powerful Words of Mentors

We as parents are not the only ones who can frame a child’s world negatively by what we are telling them about themselves. Even when we correct our own speech, we still have to be concerned with input they are getting elsewhere.

A good mentor is able to creatively and passionately INSPIRE students towards accomplishment. But sometimes the mentors our children end up with, have decidedly chosen their approach to teaching and whoever can’t keep up, is verbally torn down or simply made to feel less smart by inference. Negative experiences like this can not only change the way a child thinks about themselves, it can affect how he or she pursues their own education, forever.

We must be vigilant as parents, to listen to our children and take action when we hear them beginning to repeat negative comments about themselves and their abilities to learn. If an adult in their life, like a coach or teacher has been telling them they aren’t good at something, or just aren’t cut out for something, it will begin to show up in a child’s attitude about themselves.

Our first instinct in this kind of situation can be to go on the defensive and like a mother bear march right in to that coach or teacher and tell them a thing or two about their lame brained teaching skills. But hold on a minute! Instead of getting all huffy and puffy over a situation like this, we can embrace it as part of the shaping of our children’s character.

After all, our kids will face criticism, competition for place, and even insults, throughout their entire lives. Rather than try and make those negative comments go away, we want to instead take notice of them and equip our kids to look ‘em in the eye, and knock them down with truth about their abilities.

As parents we need to stay on top of these kinds of negative influences as best we can, being aware of them, and bringing them up in discussions with our kids. We ought to more often be our children’s cheerleaders rather than their defense, reminding them that they can accomplish what they set their minds too and that they ought to get out there and prove it.

Exactly What TO Say and What NOT to Say

My hope is to encourage parents and mentors not to negatively frame a child’s world by the words of your mouth.  It takes a continual conscious effort to make sure we don’t verbally put our children in a “box” with a label of “not good at…” when we see them struggling in academics.

Instead, we should be affirming our children when they struggle and saying things to them like,

“You can do this, you just need to keep at it.”

“I know you can get into some tough spots with this subject, but just stay with it.”

“Don’t give up. You are very smart and totally capable of getting this.”

“ You will get it… you’ll see.”

“You are great at this.  You’re at a tough part with it, but you’ll get it because you really are great at this.”

These are the types of things we need to be saying to our children over and over again so that when things get tough, those affirmations are what fill their thoughts and push them on towards achievement, rather than cop-outs. We need to avoid saying things to them like,

“You’re just not a math person.”

“Honey science just isn’t one of your strong suits.”

“You’re just a creative person, not an analytical person.”

“You’re just like me, terrible at spelling.”

“You’re just like your father, terrible at punctuation.”

These negative comments allow our children to simply give up. These kinds of phrases tell them, that no matter how much effort they put into improving, they will never be GREAT. How is this motivation to work harder? It’s not. It is however motivation to drop the effort entirely.

One Final Note

I think as parents we are even sometimes tempted to say our children “just aren’t good at something” in order to take some of the heat off of ourselves.  If our child is struggling in a subject, it is much easier to tell the world and that child, that they simply aren’t a math person or a science person than it is to work harder with them on the subject. It is easier to box them up as “bad” at a subject, rather than admit we as parents or teachers might be failing in helping them to better tackle a topic.  After all we are awfully busy and having to realize that one more thing needs more of our attention can be an overwhelming admission.

The good news is that if you really stay on top of the ENCOURAGEMENT and building up of your child’s confidence in their God-given capabilities in ALL subjects, the farther ahead you’ll be in trying to help them conquer the subjects they struggle in. They will already be assured that they can succeed at anything, if they just keep trying.

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Have you ever seen this Disney cartoon about Ferdinand the Bull?

It was one of my favorites as a small child and I’ve shown it to my own kids many times.

Ferdinand was different than all the other bulls. He wasn’t interested in snorting and fighting and demonstrating his anger in as ferocious a manner as possible. Ferdinand preferred to “sit just quietly, and smell the flowers.”

I’ve really been trying to work on being more of a gentle mother, slow to anger, and softer in my speech and tone toward my children in the times when they exasperate me.

I’ve found that the most difficult time of day for me to remain calm, keep a patient demeanor with my children, and speak softly to them, is at bedtime. This is such a dissapointment to me because I’ve always had visions of making bedtime the most precious time of day.

I feel like bedtime should go like this…

7:30 -

Mommy – “Children put on your pajamas and brush your teeth, then come and see me for a story.”

Children – “Yes Mommy.”

7:40 – 7:50 -

Mommy reads story, children sit quietly and adoringly, enthusiastically listening to whatever story Mommy has chosen.

7:50 -

Bedtime Prayers

7:55 -

hugs and kisses and exchanges of gratitude and affection for a great day together

8:00 -

Children are quiet in their beds, Mommy quietly sits on the couch and begins her time to herself-  Bible Study, email, blog, reading, TV, and adult conversation with her enchanting husband.

Instead… most evenings here go more realistically like this…

7:30 -

Mommy -”Okay, go brush your teeth.”

Child 1 – “But I’m not done with my dinner yet!”

Mommy – “I served dinner at 6:30! What do you mean you aren’t done yet? Hurry up! It’s bedtime.”

7:45 -

Child 1 – “Can I be done with my dinner even though I didn’t eat it all?”

Mommy – “What?! You’re still eating? What is going on? Yes! Fine! Just be done. Go brush your teeth. Hurry up!!! You should have been done a long time ago!”

7:55 -

Mommy – “Why aren’t your jammas on yet?!

Child 2 – “I don’t know.”

Mommy “Go get your jammas on NOW! Hurry up! I don’t want to have to tell you again!”

8:00 -

Mommy – “Okay, go get in bed.”

Child 2 – “But mom, I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”

Mommy – “What!!!!!!!  GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH NOW!!! What in the world have you been doing all this time?!!!”

8:05 -

Mommy – “Go get in bed!”

Child 1 – “But Mommy I want you to read me a story.”

Mommy – “No way! Not a chance. You took way too long to get ready for bed and now it’s already past bed time. No story tonight!”

Child 1 –  minor meltdown over no story

8:10 -

Mommy – “Okay, that’s enough! It’s time to pray! Be quiet! Everyone… sit still and be quiet.”

8:10 – 8:15 -

Family Prayer

8:15 -

Mommy calm but grumpily – “I love you both. Lord bless your sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Children – ” Goodnight Mom.”

Mommy – “Goodnight.”

- hugs and kisses. Everyone is tucked in. Light is off. -

8:20 -

Mom sits down on couch and lets all the built up tension and exhaustion from the day melt off. Big sigh. And now… peace. Ahhhhhhh

8:25 -

pitter patter of feet on the kitchen floor

Child 2 – “Mom, I need to go potty.”

Mommy – “Go.”

8:35 -

Mom yells from couch, “Are you still in the bathroom?”

Child 2 – “Yeee-ess.”

Mommy – “What in the world are you doing in there?! Get to bed NOW!!!!”

Child 2 returns to bed

8:45 -

Sounds heard from the bedroom

Children – “No! Stop that! Quit it! Turn off the light!”

Mom yells from couch – “Hey! What is the light doing on?! You two are supposed to be sleeping!”

Child 1 – “I’m looking for my pink puppy.”

Mommy – “Well get it and get in bed! NOW! This is ridiculous! It’s almost 9 o’clock!”

9:00 -

More sounds from the bedroom -

Child 2 – “Turn off the light!”

Mom yells from couch – “Hey! Get up and turn off the light. NOW! I don’t want to hear another word!!! GO. TO. SLEEP!!!!!!”

9:15 -

Pitter patter of feet

Child 1 – “Mom I need another drink of water.”

Mommy – “No! You had your last drink of water for the night already! Now get in bed!”

Whimpering Child 1 – “But Mom, my throat is really dry. I neeeeeeed it.”

Look of death from Mommy – “Get your last drink RIGHT now and get in bed!”

You get the picture. Many nights in our house have been some kind of close variation of this scenario.

Shameful.

Did you notice how much of that angry shouting was carried out by me while sitting firmly on the couch with no intention of bothering to get up and address my children face-to-face where I could speak to them more calmly with love?

That’s “Mother-of-the-Year” material right there huh folks?

Sheesh.

I’m working on it. I promise.

That’s where Ferdinand comes in.

One night as all of this was going on, Ferdinand came to mind.

I calmly regained my composure, sat down at my kids bedside and told them,

“Kids…. do you remember that cartoon about Ferdinand the Bull?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well, I want to explain something to you. Every day Mommy works very hard all day long. From the time I get up, until the time you guys go to bed I am busy making meals, cleaning up messes, doing chores, teaching lessons, running errands, and all of that stuff. And I am so blessed to be a stay at home Mommy. It is such a privelage to be here all day with all of you and to get to spend so much time together, but it is also a lot of hard work. When you guys go to bed, I get a chance to sit and do things that are just for Mommy. I get to read a book, write in my journal, work on my blog, watch something other than cartoons on TV. Your bedtime is my time to relax and be done with so much work for the day. I become like Ferdiand, and all I want to do is sit quietly and smell the flowers. But when you two take all this extra time to get ready for bed because you are goofing off, and when you start getting back up out of bed to go to the bathroom and get drinks of water, it disrupts my quiet time, and it often turns Mommy into a raging bull just like Ferdinand when he got stung by that bee. Now, I don’t want to yell and get angry and be like a raging bull. I want bedtime to be a peaceful loving time between us when we cuddle and love each other and settle down after a busy day. I’m going to work very hard at having more patience at bedtime and trying not to yell and become an angry bull, but I need you also to work harder at getting ready for bed quickly and being quiet and going to sleep without getting back up after I’ve tucked you in. Deal?”

“Deal!”

This Ferdinand analogy has been able to help me remember to remain calm and smell the flowers all through the bedtime process, appreciating the details of these precious times together that will only last so long. It’s helped me to be more patient and gentle in my speech, even when my kids don’t perform their bedtime rituals smoothly with obedience.

I don’t want to be an angry bull. I want to be a calm, loving, gentle, and patient mother who is creating positive memories for her children. I’m working on it.

And, if my kids are dragging their heels while getting ready for bed or making noise after I’ve tucked them in, I calmly say as a reminder, “Hey in there, don’t make Momma into an angry bull. I’m out here trying to smell the flowers, ” and most times that reminder settles them down.

I’ve even overheard one of them saying to the other, “Knock that off. You better stop it. Don’t make Momma into an angry bull.”

The other thing that has been helping me to remain calm and keep an attitude of patience about me at any time someone or something threatens to steal my peace and patience, is being grateful for all of the many blessings I have.

And so my list of gratitude continues for…

9. Ferdinand the Bull

10. children to tuck in

11. toothpaste and toothbrushes

12. last drinks of water

13. bunk beds

14. bedtime stories

15. family prayer

16. favorite stuffed animals

17. soft pillows

18. warm safe homes to sleep in

19. sweet dreams

20. quiet time alone

Here’s the Ferdinand video just for kicks…

This post linked to the Finer Things

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I’ve had a great response to things people are interested in, in my Online Store.

The most popular items people seem to be interested in so far are the Bringing Up Boys and Bringing Up Girls books by James Dobson, the Animal House kitchen items, and the products I have in the pre-school section.

These pre-school Books by Kumon are some of my favorite first books that I’ve used with my kids.

Kumon is a learning system made up of both curriculum and learning centers which administer lessons in math and reading from pre-school up to college.

These pre-school books can be found in my online store on this site, as well as at your local bookstore. I’ve even seen them from time to time at Costco.

This first one I want to show you is a book for pre-schoolers used to better acquaint them with the alphabet.

One of the things I love about these books is the suggested age level on the top right corners of all the books. This makes it easy for a busy mom like me to sift through the selection quickly and find the books that will work with the skill level of my child.

Kumon workbooks like these, range in suggested skill level from ages 2 – 8.

In the Alphabet Book there are these fun and simple dot-to-dot lessons, but with letters instead of numbers. Each dot-to-dot starts with letter “A” and moves to consecutive letters of the alphabet.

This beginner lesson is used to introduce children to the first 3 letters of the alphabet so it only goes up to letter “C”.

This elephant lesson is further along in the book so the letters go all the way from “A” to “Z”.

Each lesson also has a corresponding page of alphabet letters to practice tracing.

Alphabet lessons in this book progress to more typical dots-to-dot with no outlining grid to follow…

And a mastery in tracing and recognizing both upper and lowercase letters from “A” to “Z”.

Here is the book of Numbers.

Again… notice how great these books are at giving you just the information you’re looking for right on the cover. In the top right corner you can see the suggested age level for the book and it lets you know it covers lessons and games for numbers 1 – 30.

There are additional Kumon workbooks that progress up through greater numbers.

This Numbers Book also contains dot-to-dot lessons.

I love that the beginning dot-to-dot lessons in both the Letters and Numbers books provide a highlighted white grid around the projected path each created line should follow.

When my 3 year old wants to do dot-to-dot games without this kind of path, (like on kids menus at restaurants for example) her lines from one number to the next take on such strange and totally non-DIRECT paths, that when she’s done it’s hard to tell what the final picture is.

The dot-to-dots in these Kumon books start out with highlighted paths to train on, and then eventually progress to more advanced dot-to-dots, without highlighted paths.

The Numbers Book also contains corresponding pages of number tracing.

When I’m busy at the table working on Home School with my 8 year old, my 3 year old will bring these books to the table and joining us she announces,

“I’m doing school too.”

I’ve never required that either of my children do work in these Kumon Workbooks. I’ve just kept them available to my children, on a shelf they can reach next to some crayons and pencils, and both of them have ended up learning from the books on their own time because they’ve wanted to.

I love when learning happens like that!

The Numbers Book advances to standard dot-to-dot exercises, as well as fill in the missing number exercises like this.

None of these Kumon Books are expected to be the primary source from which your children will learn. They are just an additional resource to reinforce lessons already being taught. While little ones may be interested enough in doing these workbooks on their own, it’s beneficial to have a parent’s involvement or at least nearby to keep the child progressing according to the directions of each lesson.

Here are a couple of Kumon Books that insist a parent be nearby and ready to help.

Both my kids have REALLY loved the Cutting Book.

Cutting is one of those things that you might not allow your pre-schooler to do very often, simply because it’s unsafe unless you’re supervising. For this reason they may not have as much access to time spent with scissors, as they do other skill building tools such as books and crayons.

Then, when you finally take the time to sit down and do a craft project with your pre-schooler, which includes cutting, you realize how neglectful you’ve been of allowing them to cut, and how much they struggle with it simply because they haven’t had much practice. And then you both are so anxious to create your project, and they are so frustrated with trying to cut out all the shapes, that they say,

“Mommy will you just cut out the shapes for me?”

And you oblige because you’d like to make some progress as well, and keep the day’s schedule somewhat on track.

And then once again… they get no practice at cutting.

Or am I the only one this happens too?

If I’m not the only one this happens to…

Here is a fantastic Book to get both you and your child more frequently practicing cutting.

Because my pre-schoolers have LOVED this book, it’s hard for me to forget to do it with them… they ask to do it every day!

And the great thing about this book is that the lessons are short, but challenging enough that when we’re done, my little cutters are ready to move onto something else.

This book starts out with cutting strait lines.

In lesson 5 displayed above the cutting has progressed to being able to create a little craft. Once all the pieces are cut out you can tape them together to make one long train.

In the Cutting Book, projects progress to cutting curves, shapes, and eventually more intricate objects like animals.

And here is the Pasting Book.

It really should be called the Cutting and Pasting Book because each lesson offers the opportunity for both.

And of course if any of the cutting required in this book is too advanced for your pre-schooler, you can do all the cutting and allow your pre-schooler to just get some practice at pasting.

Using the Cutting Book and the Pasting Book will allow your child to advance in both areas, and they provide a great way to have some quick, fun, skill building time together at home.

The Pasting Book starts out simple like this.

Cut out square. Glue on Apple.

It progresses like this.

Cut out eyes, nose, mouth. Glue on Pig.

The pasting exercises don’t really advance in difficulty, but there are some variations in the fun you can have with them like in this lesson where squares must be pasted correctly in the grid like a puzzle to form a picture.

Kumon makes several other Pre-School development books such as, Drawing, Tracing, Telling Time, Mazes, Coloring, and more.

I’ve loved using these books with my kids and I’m sure you’ll love using them with yours.

To purchase check out my online store, or click the advertised links below.

Spend some time playing with and teaching your pre-schooler today! You’ll be glad you did and so will they!

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There is so much to learn about becoming a parent.

Isn’t this a great book? So helpful. There are lots of books like this that really help prepare you for parenthood.

Here’s another great one. Again… so helpful.

But guess what.

There is something you need to know that isn’t included in any parenting book.

This is a well kept secret… a deep, dark, difficult secret to deal with.

What I’m about to tell you is not easy for most expecting parents to hear.

Are you ready?

Here it comes.

Along with all the new preparations you are making to become a parent, along with all the things you are trying to learn, there is something no one else has shared with you, that you are going to have to learn…

You are going to have to learn to draw!

Now take it easy, take it easy… I know what you’ve been through.  We’ve all been there.

We all believed we were artists when we were five. Our mothers told us our drawings were amazing and hung them on the refrigerator with pride.

Then one day, in the sixth grade, we were asked to draw our shoe.

Ta-daaahhh! We thought as we completed the assignment.  Piece of cake.  Just wait until the teacher makes an example to the whole class of this beauty.  I even included the details of the tied bow and the little holes that the laces go through.  This is AWESOME!

And then, as you looked around the room your pride rose even higher because you saw a couple of students still working on the assignment when yours was already done.

Not only talented, but quick too.

You decide to get out of your seat and meander over to a best friend’s desk and chit chat until it’s time to turn in your work.

And then… you see it.

The drawing of a shoe that your friend has created, which in one quick and jolting moment alerts you that… your entire life as an artist has been a lie!

You stare at the shoe. You know it is a picture of a shoe. You can see that. But for the life of you, your brain can not in any way, shape, or form figure out how someone… namely your goofball friend… found those kinds of details and shading possibilities by looking at their stinky, old, STUPID shoe.

It’s ok.

You see… you’re among friends.

We’ve all been there, and we’re going to get through this together.

It’s simply time to come to terms with the fact that the art you abandoned at age twelve, now must be picked back up again and pursued.

How do I deal with this?

I practice.

You’re going to need to start practicing too.

Pull out those Disney DVDs, flip them over to the backside, and start copying the characters. Memorize the methods… you will most certainly be tested on your skills when you least expect it.

When you’re new little one reaches the age of two or three is when it’s going to happen.

One day, when you’re out to dinner with your sweet little family and you’ve just handed the waitress your menu after placing your order, your darling little angel is going to flip over her child’s paper placemat, hand you a crayon, look at you with those big beautiful adoring eyes and say,

“Mommy… draw me a picture.”

or

In my case with Remy it was,

“Mommy, draw me Lightning McQueen.”

Now you might get lucky and instead of a favorite Disney or Nick Jr. character, your little darling may ask you to draw a house, or a tree…

But if this is currently what your trees look like… this is not going to cut it.

Your very small child whom has admired you and your husband as infallible heroes up until now, will no doubt find the first crack in that facade, if she asks you to draw a tree, and this is what you produce for her.

And trust me, it’s going to get far more complicated than trees.

It’s only a matter of time before she asks you to draw a, “Beautiful Princess.”

Again… this is not going to cut it.

Luckily however you have stumbled upon this website, and I am here to help you… ALWAYS.

This is a fantastic new book Remy and I have been using.

It shows you how to draw and paint all kinds of princesses and ballerinas.

It even shows you some neat figures you can make by gluing on embellishments using different textured papers.

It’s really a fun book.

I believe the book is intended for eight or nine year old girls to begin learning how to draw princesses and ballerinas themselves. I’m telling you though, this book and others like it are wonderful for parents of babies and toddlers. This will prepare you for that moment at the Macarroni Grill when your munchkin expects you to start creating a castle on that paper table cloth they so thoughtfully provide you with.

Yes, the book includes instructions on how to draw a castle.

Wonderful, fantastic, step-by-step instructions.

Here is the one Remy and I created.  I drew and Remy colored. And after I had created all these sweet little princesses, Remy said,

“Mommy, draw a big scary dragon.”

This is not in the book, but remember… my firstborn is a boy.  I’ve been through all of this before but from the male perspective which requests dinosaurs, aliens, robots, monsters, and of course… dragons.

And please remember also… one of my goals in life is to become an author and illustrator of children’s books. I’ve been practicing drawing my entire life.

After that sixth grade shoe incident instead of abandoning art, I committed to practicing, practicing, practicing.  It was in my blood.  I see the same passion for art now in Remy.

So after I drew that monstrous dragon attacking the castle, there was just one problem.

The princesses all looked way too happy to be dealing with an attacking, ferocious dragon.

I quickly came up with a solution to the problem.

The two most important keys to parenting:

#1 Be prepared

# 2 Be flexible

And don’t worry… if you have little boys, there are lots of books just like this princess one, to help you learn how to draw robots, aliens, and Star Wars characters.

These books make great gifts for families of all ages.  I especially like them for families with very young children so that kids and parents can grow in skill with the books.  I would even be so bold as to include a book like this in a gift basket at a baby shower with a note to the parents that it’s time to, “Start practicing.”

You can find “How to Draw Princesses and Ballerinas,” and other books like it, for sale below.

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This is one of my kids favorite school books.  I bought it when Leo was just four years old.  We started learning about different animals using some “Animal Encyclopedias” and “Amazing Facts About Animals” books.  Once a week we would pull out this Cut and Create book and do a little craft project to go along with our lesson.

The book is great for teaching pre-schoolers how to cut and paste simple shapes as well as how to follow visual step by step instructions.

This book is also really helpful for parents because it gives you the templates for all the pieces you’ll need to make each animal.  I’ve never actually traced any of the templates.  I just always copy the pictures as closely as I can onto different colors of construction paper and then let the kids cut them out and glue them together.

The book is full of all kinds of really cute animals.  You can just put them together as a craft to hang on the fridge, but some of them like this one, make really great masks and the kids love to put them on and act like the animals they are learning about.

This camel makes a great puppet for Old Testament Bible stories if you glue him to a Popsicle stick.

Check out this adorable octopus.

I just love octopuses.

Whenever I see an octopus at an aquarium the rest of my family has to drag me away.  I could just watch these guys all day.  They are so fascinating.

Did you know that octopuses are super intelligent?  They can learn to traverse through underwater mazes, unscrew jar lids with their tentacles to get to food, and even possibly distinguish between shapes and colors.

Octopuses have been known to sneak out of their habitats into neighboring ones in search of food and I have even heard stories about owners who have found them climbing up bookshelves with their suction cups.

Octopuses have no bones at all and can squeeze through openings the size of their eyeballs.  I read one story about an owner who found his large octopus curled up hiding inside a teapot.

I could go on and on about octopuses. They are so amazing!!!

There is also a page in this Cut and Create book that shows you some additional items you can make to create a habitat for your paper animals like flowers, trees, leaves, food, rocks, and coral.

This little tree frog looks so cute perched on a big leaf.

Recently Remy has been quite taken with the Big Bad Wolf.  She is a fan of his work in both the tale of the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood.  As she flipped through the book this past week looking for which animal she would most like to make, she of course chose this one.

Remy wanted to make the Big Bad Wolf but she wasn’t in the mood to do any cutting on this particular day so Leo volunteered.  Even though he is now in third grade, Leo also still loves making animals from this book… I’ll admit it… I like it too.  It’s just fun.

We took the liberty of adding some fangs and scary eyebrows to make sure he wasn’t just a Zoo Wolf, but rather a Big… Bad… Wolf!  I also cut some slits in the eyes to see through and poked holes in either side to hold knots in ribbon so it could be worn as a mask.  Once Leo and I finished this mask for Remy, Leo decided he needed a mask too so they could play in their masks together.

This is one of the things I love about home schooling my kids.  It’s so awesome to watch brothers and sisters spend time with each other playing and growing together every day instead of being separated from each other for the majority of their weeks into their own age groups.

Of course they both still need time with their peers which they get through Sunday school, Awanas, enrichment classes, and team sports, but I love that the majority of their time each day is spent together as siblings.  My husband and I are hoping this experience will continue to foster a very close bond between all of our children.

So, we decided that the appropriate animal to create to go along with the Big Bad Wolf would of course be a Little Pig.  But this is a zoo book and it didn’t have any pigs, so Mommy had to put her illustration skills to work and create a Little Pig from scratch.

Here he is… our forlorn Little Piggy.

Isn’t it amazing what two strips of black paper used as eyebrows can express if placed at just the right angle?  He sure looks worried…. as he should.  There is a Big Bad Wolf coming his way!

Once you’ve used this book a bit and get the hang of putting these animals together regularly you really can start to create all kinds of your own masks, puppets, and craft projects from lessons and stories.

Cut and Create books come in several different themes and are great tools to inspire quick and easy crafts.

You may think it’s just the pig mask, but under that paper Remy’s face looks just about the same.  She threw a fit when I tried to get her to be the pig for this picture because I guess we made the Big Bad Wolf just a little bit too Big and Bad for her comfort.  She didn’t mind being the Big Bad Wolf herself, but she did not like seeing that mask on her big brother.

And I just paid how much for costumes from Wal-Mart this past week?  I could have used these free masks and been the hit of our Church Harvest Festival.

If you’re interested in having some inexpensive, educational fun with your little ones, check out all these awesome Cut and Create books…

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