Art for Tots

Yesterday, we enjoyed a special class together at the Muscatine Art Center, Adessa: "Art for Tots" taught by Julie Herold. This is a weekly series of classes specially designed for 18-month-old through 3-year-old children. Perfect for you! The theme of yesterday's class was "Earth Day" -- creating art out of recyclable and Earth-friendly items.


You sat an attentively listened while Ms. Herold explained the projects we'd be working on for the day. Well, you sort of attentively listened... you could hardly wait to get your hands on the paints (literally) and started to get pretty antsy.


Fortunately, it wasn't long before we were invited to just jump in and start where you wanted. You made a beeline for a canvas and started painting with your hands.


Perhaps emulating your manicure from the weekend, you started painting your own nails blue.


One of your favorite spots was the cutting and tearing pool: a kiddie pool filled with pages and papers you could cut and tear to your heart's content! What a great idea! You preferred to use scissors and very nearly cut papers into tiny pieces.


Your masterpiece for the day was this little snail made from an egg carton and pipe cleaners.


Gluing the eyeballs on Mr. Snail.


Mr. Snail can see!


You put on Mr. Snail's pipe cleaner tail and antennae and I congratulated you on creating such a beautiful project. But you stopped me and said, "Daddy, I want to put on a smile." Sure enough, Ms. Herold's example had a little smile drawn on its face. You wanted your snail to be just right. So we asked Ms. Herold for a marker and she found one for you... and you drew on a smile, a nose, and even hair. Now he was complete!

Later that day, as we drove around Muscatine and you held and admired your Mr. Snail, you told me, "Jett is sick, Daddy. He has to lay in bed until he gets better." I asked if you might want to give Mr. Snail to Cousin Jett as a get-well present. You thought this was a very good idea and agreed. I'm really proud of you for that.

I hope we may get to participate in few more of these Art for Tots classes -- the series continues for the next month or so. Ms. Herold and all the helpers just loved having you and you had a blast -- and so did I.

Daddy