The art class November 9, 2007

Our local newspaper recently featured a paper pumpkin coloring contest, and they printed the winners by age group. The ones from the youngest age group (2-5) were by far the most interesting, with the level of creativity steadily decreasing through the ages. It was such a depressing illustration of how we stifle our children’s natural creativity.

A while back, I told my boss that one of the things that was hardest for me about working is that I was dying to take Gatito to an art class. She encouraged me to do it, and I looked around and found a class on Friday mornings. It’s far away and outrageously expensive, but it’s a lot easier for me to take a Friday morning and work from home in the afternoon than a Tuesday. They wouldn’t let us come until he turned two, so last week was his first class.

It’s a fun studio where they set up different stations with activities for the kids. At first, it was hard to let him paint the paper covering the table, rather than the cardboard picture frames, to use his hands instead of a paint brush, or to refer to (and use) the paintbrush as a shovel. But I managed to hold myself back and let him enjoy the process, the feel of the materials, his own way of doing things. He walks out of there covered head to toe in paint. (So do I.) The sign of a great art class, in my opinion!

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Gatito had his 2 year well visit today and was a total show-off. He chatted up a storm and spontaneously pointed out shapes, colors, letters, numbers, animals, and body parts. He didn’t cry when they took blood or even when they gave him shots! He weighed in at 31 pounds (with clothes– around 80th percentile) and 37.25 inches, which means he remains above the 97th percentile for height.

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