Annabel’s drawing obsession has been going strong for over a year now. Her preschool offers enrichment options, and when I saw that one of them was a drawing class it was a no-brainer. Annie has drawing class once a week, which is great for her, and she comes home 45 minutes later that day, which is great for James.
I really had no idea how it was going to work – I figured the class was going to be glorified coloring, since it was geared to three and four-year-olds. When I walked in to pick Annie up after the first class, I saw the art teacher had an example drawing up on the board. Annie ran over to me and showed me her drawing.
I looked at it and was like, holy crap, she drew an actual rainbow. With the sun…and grass. And it actually looked like what the teacher had up on the board as an example. I was impressed, partly with Annie, but also with the teacher because I cannot imagine teaching a gaggle of preschoolers how to do anything, let alone draw.
I think I look forward to Annie’s drawing class almost as much as she does. Sure, it means more paper that I have to find a place for (because to throw away a piece of Annie’s artwork is asking for trouble), but I’m just always surprised by how good it is. I know I’m her mom so it’s my job to think it’s good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be decipherable and it actually is.
I didn’t see the example on the board and I knew this one was an airplane. But just to be certain, I asked Annie what she’d drawn, and she explained the plane to me, including the lone cloud, “It was a pretty warm day, Mom, so there was only one cloud in the sky.”
I have zero drawing ability, unless tracing counts as drawing. I know she’s copying the teacher’s example, but I couldn’t do that if my life depended on it. So my feelings of ineptitude might be coloring my judgement here a bit.
At her last class she drew a Jack-in-the-box (I needed the teacher’s example drawing to decipher that one). When she handed me the drawing I said, “Wow, Annie! Your Jack-in-the-box is so good!” And she replied, “NO, Mama. It’s a Jackie-in-the-box. See her earrings?”
The teacher told me that Annie really wanted to draw a girl, hence a Jackie in the box instead of a Jack.
Yesterday Annie told me that she wants to write her own book, but since she doesn’t know how to spell she’s just going to make it a book of pictures. At the rate she goes, I expect she’ll have a 200 page novel finished by the end of next week.
edenland says:
Oh my goodness she is AMAZING!! Her pictures are so so good! She is such a creative, expressive little girl. You did real good, Mama xxx
Lilian says:
You do know that you have an artistic and creative genius on your hands, don’t you? It’s obvious to me, that this child is special and has inherited every creative ounce that you and Mike have. She can sing, she can dance, she’s already an accomplished actress (movie lines!). And now, she is showing her artistic streak! She’s amazing, and I’m excited to see what she becomes! I predict she will be very successful in whichever field she chooses! How wonderful for you Mike to watch her development!
Maris says:
Ditto
Kimberly says:
The pictures are beautiful! I know of one family that bought inexpensive shadow boxes to hang in breakfast room that they placed the kids latest artwork in. Every week, they would put latest artwork in and “archive” the old ones. A nice way to display drawings and encourage the kids. And it made for a unique and personal decoration. (Archive = box to save). I have my kids archive and they are in their thirties!
melissa says:
I know a family who scanned or photographed each piece of artwork, then let the kid keep just the favorites/most recent. They created a photo book on a shutterfly with all the pictures. Alternatively, you could create a photo video with music so Annie could watch her art.
Jenny says:
Have you seen “Tangled”? Annie reminds me of Rapunzel and the opening song here. She draws, she is focused, she probably really could finish a picture book in a day or two and she has amazing hair. :).
I bought a photo album with the cover sheets and magnetic overlay. We keep artwork in the “portfolio”.
Aubrie says:
Wow! Good job, Annie!!
Antonia says:
Have you ever thought of scanning them in and making a book from Shutterly?
ldoo says:
My daughter is about 6 weeks younger than Annie is actually quite adept at drawing for her age. What she does is nothing compared to Annie. That kid’s got real talent!
Jody says:
Made my day to read this – just makes me happy Annie is quite the little artist!!!!
Mandy says:
get a file box, like the kind you can put the hanging file folders in. I got one of those for each of my boys. They each have a folder labeled “toddler/before school age”, then a folder for each grade after that. I put the precious scribbles, finger paints, and now as my oldest is in 2nd grade, he’s sometimes cryptic writings and math papers. Keeps them organized and easy to grab should a hurricane head our way!
Mandy says:
PS- I also attach a copy of the school picture to the front of the folder & extra copies inside the grade level photo
Effie says:
Love this! As a kindergarten teacher I see a lot of “undecipherable” drawings. Rather than insult the artist, by asking, “What is this?” I always say, “Tell me about what you drew”. I find that kids respond well to that prompt.
Jeanie says:
Annie did a great job! Love that she put earrings on the jackie-in-a-box.
wendy says:
my four year old walked up just as the first pic was centered on my screen, “ooooh, a rainbow!”
Ruth says:
When my oldest daughter was Annie’s age she drew constantly, and wanted to make books from her pictures.
So I bought some story paper (like this: http://www.amazon.com/School-Specialty-Picture-Story-Bloser/dp/B003U6KWOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380901860&sr=8-1&keywords=story+paper). She drew her pictures in the blank space, and then dictated the story for me to write in. When we ran out of story paper — and as a (not incidentally) cheaper alternative — I drew a line about 2/3 of the way down a piece of printer paper; picture on the top, words on the bottom.
She “wrote” hundreds of books this way. I saved many of them. It was wonderful to be able to really see her storytelling and drawing abilities improve over time.
(This same child is now a senior in high school, and will be going to art school in order to study illustration and animation.)
Paula says:
^Ruth has a great idea! And for the copier paper you can add lines to it now. Annie has a lot of talent in her little growing body.