Make Your Own Museum

If you are a regular reader you may remember that my son stopped napping and we started doing quiet time instead. Most days we still use the 1-2-3 approach but some days we mix it up to keep things fresh. One of his favorite things to do is to turn his bedroom into a museum. What I love about it is he is coloring on a vertical surface which is important for wrist development all the while he is also developing a love of museums without ever leaving our house!  Here is what we do.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some color wonder coloring pages. I use both blank and coloring book ones. You will also need some painters tape and color wonder markers. Now feel free to use regular paper , markers and / or crayons but I am not that brave when I am not supervising. Remember this is for quiet aka “Mama is downstairs working out and watching How I Met Your Mother reruns” time.
2. Tape the pages up around their room. You want it all over the room because after they are finished they are going to give you a tour of the gallery.
3. Let em’ go.
4. Workout, read, go to the bathroom in peace .
5. Time for a tour.  He cracked his dad and I up with the names he gave his paintings. My favorite was ” Splish Dot Squash” .
6. After the tour we add the new creations to a permanent collection. 

Books

Touch the Art: Brush Mona Lisa’s Hair by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo is the inspiration for this post and my son’s new found love of Renaissance Art. The book is a board book with touch and feel aspects to it. The text is cute but not a story, each page asks the reader to do something with the touch and feel item . The real gem is bringing the art to young eyes. The book includes wonderful masterpieces : Girl with A Pearl Earring , Birth of Venus, The Arnolfini Portrait and more!

Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan is a great book not only about Jackson Pollock but also about how an artist goes through the artistic process, their influences and what their life is like. This book is perfect for older children but my son loved looking at pictures and Jackson Pollock’s dog! I would suggested this for anyone with budding artists!

Hugo and Miles In I’ve Painted Everything by Scott Magoon is going on my Christmas list. I have renewed this book for months from my local library. I finally have to return this book and I just don’t want to! The book is all about Hugo a painter who has painter’s block. He goes to Paris with his best friend Miles for inspiration, and among the sites, the masterpieces and thanks to the Eiffel tower he finds it! I love this book and my son just eats it up. He wants to go to Paris to the “Moosay Dor-see” to see Van Gogh and climb the Eiffel tower thanks to Hugo!