Budding Artists?

For Christmas, Tiny and Buba got all kinds of art supplies- markers, crayons, paint sets, scribble pads- as well as a double sided easel and two art smocks. They’ve been doing art projects at their playgroup since last May, but I haven’t been great about doing any artsy crafty things at home. I thought having all the right supplies might help.

But here we are, over a month later, and I can’t claim to have done a whole lot better. For now, art time pretty much consists of me setting up the easel and then letting them choose what form of colors they want to work with.

paint…

markers…

crayons…

From what I can tell, they both really enjoy these activities. However, Buba is often claiming he’s done after about five to ten minutes. Tiny, on the other hand, seems more serious about her work. Like she’s got a plan for what she’s doing. If given the right amount of time and space, she’ll fill up every space on the page (see horse coloring above as evidence).

I would love to get them even more supplies and have more projects for them to do, but I’m still nervous about making big messes and am not entirely sure what types of projects they’re old enough to handle. I’d love some suggestions if you’ve got any (as well as any books or websites that might be helpful). What types of artsy crafty things are your kids into? Do you just lay out materials and let them go at it or do you have a systematic way of introducing a new project and helping them through it?