art lab for little kids

so if you have a little person in your life you probably are bombarded with drawings on a daily basis. my little is currently quite obsessed with drawing and then cutting things out. one week it's houses, then swimming pools, the other day she made a computer...

i'll let you in on a little secret. i'm an ART TEACHER, but i don't often set up art projects for my little. why? well... sometimes it's hard for me to think of ideas that will work with her ability [a 4 year old's dexterity is quite different from a 20 year olds]. sometimes i just don't want to get THAT messy. other times i just draw a blank, but really i love how excited she gets when we do something OTHER than just pull out paper and the standard markers/crayons/pencils. [for example - the other day she painted styrofoam peanuts with acrylic paint and glitter and LOVED it]. 

susan schwake's new book art lab for little kids is really fantastic for getting me to think outside of the paper + media rut. and for presenting tried, true and TESTED projects that will work with my little's age group [4-6].

these are some of the projects that i really want to try :

so clever. i have acrylic inks that i bet would work just as well as food coloring. 

i've had it in my head to bust out the paper mache routine, but making a pinata would be that much MORE fun....

what is it about kids and glue? do you remember putting a layer of glue on your hands and peeling it off? one summer when i taught art to kids we had this day where all we were talking about was space... and so glue became moon juice... heh heh.

so if you have a little kid, or are looking for a perfect gift for parents of a little kid, or a birthday gift for a little kid [i know that i am most grateful for books and practical items instead of more and more and more plastic toys]... then this is a sure bet. so go... get it [on powells]