Creative Self Portraits with Kids

 Doing long term self portrait art with young children is a great way to incorporate a variety of developmental skills while creating a special keepsake that will undoubtedly make you both smile down the line! As a classroom teacher, I always did at least two or three self-portraits with my students each year, and some years we did self portraits as a monthly morning work activity (often coinciding with Rosh Chodesh (the new Jewish month) to add a sense of ceremony to the activity.
Some children loved doing self portraits. Others did not. In fact, some of those children would rush through the activity altogether. I realized this happened for a variety of reasons. Some children did not particularly enjoy coloring in general or struggled with representational drawing or fine motor skills, making the activity challenging. Some children didn't feel connected to the activity of drawing themselves and most did not feel particularly encouraged by the idea of a keepsake they would not take home until the end of the school year. For young children who live very much in the moment, the idea of "looking back on your work and how you've grown" in seven months just isn't that compelling! Nonetheless, I never abandoned the project. Creating self portraits in the early years targets and tracks a variety of developmental skills. Fine motor strength comes into play along with spacial awareness as children develop from the scribble stage to drawing lines, squiggles, simple shapes, representational shapes and eventually body parts and bodies. Early on, the activity may be just some scribbles on a page. Children develop into their ability to recognize that a body has parts and later, to where to those parts are placed proportionally and how they can utilize art to represent their own bodies on paper. So rather than abandon ship with the activity, I got creative. I continue to toy and tinker with self portrait art as I incorporate it into our home routine. If you're looking to integrate a long term self portrait study into your own classroom or home, here are a few of my own tried and true tips of the trade:

• Format Matters: When doing a long term project or study, I prefer to use a medium that lends itself to long term use. Using paper or printouts on their own is fine and this can be bound down the line. Nonetheless, using a notebook, blank book, journal or even a homemade journal can be a great way to provide a permanent format for your long term project. 
• I introduce journals to my own children as soon as they are able to use a crayon or marker, glue, stickers, etc. This is certainly a young stage in journaling and using journals with a toddler will look different than using them with a preschooler/pre-writer and even different than an early writer/independent writer. Journals in my home and classrooms are always accessible and available to children to use as they like and at certain times, I provide a prompt or guided activity. 
• Display completed portraits done on individual paper in a frame if you do happen to go with a loose-leaf version. You can even set it alongside a current photo and swap them both out when you add your next installment.
• Provide Mirrors: Drawing from memory is not only challenging, it is a very abstract concept for young artists. For my students who did not connect to the idea of drawing a self-portrait, some particularly struggled with the concept of drawing themselves as they currently appear. I would provide verbal prompts to encourage them to think about what they are wearing, what colors they have on their clothes and body parts, what shapes and where things are spatially. Nonetheless, a real game changer happened on the morning I first set out a class set of mirrors with our activity. All of a sudden, my most reluctant artists were enthralled! What child doesn't love to look at himself in a mirror and make silly faces? And I even allowed for silly face self portraits! Individual mirrors can be purchased quite inexpensively even at the Dollar Tree. As with anything fragile, be careful to support children in safe handling.
• Make it Special:  For children who do not feel connected to long term projects (and most do not--it's hard to wait!), adding some unique elements to your setting can give it more meaning. Perhaps you reserve a special set of crayons or markers just for self portraits. Perhaps you coincide the activity with the new month or an upcoming holiday/milestone. You can even add a holiday/birthday theme to your self portraits if you wish.
• Templates are a great option for children who may be overwhelmed by a blank page. A simple Pinterest or clip art search will provide you a variety of printable options for head or full body templates.
• Size, Dimension and Medium can also change up your game a bit. Consider working in a smaller format (think blank index card or paper doll cut from card stock). Or perhaps think BIG and trace a full body onto butcher or craft paper. For children who are not as drawn to drawing in two dimensional form, consider abandoning paper and crayon altogether. Use cardboard, fabric, clay, or sew a mini-me doll. Work in collage, with paint, tape, stickers, foam, felt, etc. Draw or paint self portraits onto wood blocks or wooden peg people to use in your block area or with a dollhouse. One of our favorite methods so far has been using dry erase markers directly on mirrors to draw temporary self portraits.

•  Join 'em! Why not join your students or children in the activity as well and create your own self portrait? You can even partner up and take a turn drawing each other!

Whether they are smitten with the idea of self portraits or slower to warm up to the activity, children love to look back at their artwork from "way back when..." We will certainly be continuing our creative self portraits at home and until then...

Happy Playing!

Shabbat Theme & My Five Senses: Part 4

As the next installment to our Five Senses of Shabbos theme, we explored our sense of touch and introduced the concept of different textures. So much of a toddler's experience is sensory-laden. Each and every day, my son is exposed to a variety of textures and tactile experiences. Having the formal opportunity to develop language and vocabulary around it was wonderful, and we had a lot of fun doing it!

Happy Hands-on Playing!

I never thought I'd have an educational opportunity to use Pat the Bunny or any of the other companion books that forever seem to make it into homes in gift bags after a baby arrives, but what do you know? They are a great tool for teaching about different textures (and other senses for that matter). "The bunny is soft!" my son shouted proudly after learning the word for the texture. 

Caught red-handed responding to his journal prompt at Table Time.

Shaping challah dough was initially the activity I had planned for the sense of touch, but since I am not baking this week, I decided to incorporate some different textures into our associated Shabbat craft activity--decorating a challah board. He had fun sanding the wood with the scratchy sandpaper block. I felt the block would be easier for his hands than a sheet of sandpaper at this point.

The sponge was initially intended for the upcoming painting part of the project, but he enjoyed using it to dust off the wood shavings and noticing its crinkly, squishy, somewhat scratchy texture.

And here it is again being used for painting.

He loved exploring the different designs it made by dabbing versus stroking it across the board. Once dry, we will add some stickers and a layer of Mod Podge before letting his very own challah board grace our Shabbos table.

And since we didn't make real challah, we still got the smooshy and squishy dough experience with some playdough!

Shabbat Theme & My Five Senses: Part 3

Besomim (spice) box for Havdalah

Today we explored the sense of smell and, although it technically marks the separation between Shabbos and the rest of the week, Havdalah. The Havdalah rituals help us to say goodbye to the sweetness of Shabbos while welcoming a wonderful week ahead. Special blessings are made over wine/grape juice, a lit candle with at least two wicks (also to symbolize the separation between the holy [Shabbos] and the mundane [weekdays]), and besomim (sweet spices to awaken the senses and bring us joyfully into the coming week). Besomim is commonly comprised of cloves, cinnamon or other pleasant smelling spices. It can be simply used right from its spice box or decoratively displayed in handcrafted containers that are often works of art in and of themselves. As part of our Shabbos theme and exploration of our five senses, I felt making his own besomim box would be the perfect way to use our noses today and to create something very special my son can use at Havdalah, which now with the sun setting a bit earlier, he may even get to stay awake for soon!
Havdalah can be made only when there are three stars visible in the sky, at nightfall. This is the time that Shabbos officially ends and the rest of the week begins. We used star-shaped stickers to decorate the box and help us remember this as well as some smiley face stickers to help us remember that we should enter the week ahead with the same joyfulness that the Shabbos brings each week.

We began today's lesson with another great non-fiction find from the children's section of our local library all about the sense of smelling. I find books like these--with clear photographs and very simple/minimal language--are naturally interactive for even the smallest readers/listeners. They also encourage vocabulary development. We took the lesson over to the table to test out our own sniffers and some favorites from our spice shelf and natural medicine collection. My son loved smelling some of our favorite kitchen spices and extracts as well as some familiar essential oils. 

Next, I introduced our activity tray with a dish filled with cloves and some cinnamon sticks ready to go into his soon-to-be-decorated besomim box. I arranged it as a practice in transferring skills, providing a small measuring spoon for scooping, a small bowl to transfer from and the box to transfer into. I did not give specific instructions, but rather let him lead and show me what worked best for him. He did naturally pick up the larger cinnamon sticks and put them into the box and he also immediately took an interest in using the spoon to scoop and transfer. 

"Smells yummy!"

When it became a bit challenging to scoop the little cloves up and pour, he began using a helper hand to place them into the spoon, testing out picking them up and placing them right in the box and even tested out pouring.

He had so much fun with the transferring aspect of this activity alone that I set up a Montessori-style transfer tray with two dishes, another portion of whole cloves, and a small spoon for scooping. This kept him happy and busy for quite some time! I love when an activity unexpectedly holds his interest and inspires further exploration. One benefit to being in a homeschool environment is the ability to linger in these moments and not have to "finish" a project in a timely manner. 

Happy playing, learning and lingering when interest is sparked!

Shabbat Theme & My Five Senses Part 2

Our homeschool bookshelf and basket are stocked with favorites from home and some borrowed from the library that relate to our current themes. We incorporate reading formally and informally--both at set times and throughout the day as my son chooses books to be read aloud.

The night before a homeschool day, I pack a few of our special books and activity materials in my son's school bag. He was so excited to take it from the hook (at his level) and open it up to see what was inside waiting for us today!

Our folders also hold important materials for the day ahead.

Our big kick-off to Homeschool Preschool ended up happening with a bit less fanfare than I'd planned due to an unplanned and brief stint as substitute preschool teacher for myself and substitute preschool student for my son. Lack of planning and all, I think it was the perfect opportunity and transition for us. My son did beautifully in a "traditional" classroom setting, and I got to see (as a neurotic teacher-mommy) that he does indeed have the ability to adapt to classroom structure and routines even having been at home with me. When the time comes that he does enter a classroom environment I think we will both be more than OK! And as much as I love the structure and flow of a traditional classroom setting, I also love the ability to move at our own pace at home. School at home can happen in one large chunk of time or in smaller chunks throughout the day as we see fit. Working outside of the house for shorter hours allowed us time in the afternoon to engage in learning activities And today, on our first full day at home together, we were able to go through our morning routines and activities, break for the ever so important library visit and Story Time, return for some more learning and play and break again for some lunch and a nap. I love that my son had the idea today to bring a book outside. He was so excited to use his new homeschool bag that we made together a few weeks ago, he grabbed his board book copy of "Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus," packed it inside and asked for help to carry his toy school bus and a few Fisher Price passengers! There are so many benefits from both the traditional early childhood classroom experience as well as the play at home experience. I'm so blessed to have had a glimpse into both worlds and I think both my son and I are eager to continue on our journey this year. Here's a peek at our next installment of our first Homeschool theme: Shabbat & My Five Senses. Wherever your day happens to take you, I wish you joyful learning and happy playing!

Our Sense of Hearing:

Here are a couple of books we used today to explore our sense of hearing. The Sounds of my Jewish Year is an old favorite of my son's and yet he was so excited to unpack it from his homeschool bag this morning--as though it were brand new! I brought along Hearing, one of a great set on The Five Senses we found at our local library. The photos and simple text were a great way to start conversation about the sense of hearing and explore/expand vocabulary. 

These homemade egg shakers (dollar store "easter eggs" filled with rice/beans/bells and duct taped shut) are a regular installment here when we daven together in the morning or do other music & movement activities. It's a fun and fabulous DIY project that will be sure to get a lot of use. Today they were a great tool to explore different sounds together.

I used a couple of bells threaded through a pipe cleaner and some duct tape to create our jingle brushes. It made painting (an already beloved activity here) even more fun!

We are working on a book together throughout this theme I've titled "My Shabbos Five Senses Book." In addition, we are using many of our senses to create some special crafts and materials to decorate our family Shabbos table. My son was so excited to get to paint his own set of Shabbos candlesticks--and even more excited to hear his painting in action with our homemade jingle brushes.

The finished product, plus a layer of Mod Podge and some added LED lights shaped like candles for play. These could also be used as a display item or used with real candles (obviously out of child reach).

"Where are your ears?"

Tuesday Table Time: What Is Table Time Anyway?

It's Tuesday morning, but it could be any weekday morning in this house. My husband leaves for work by 5:30AM, and since being home for the summer and no longer needing to set the ol' alarm every night, I've yet to wake up after my toddler--but I'm aware it could happen. It is a known fact that I am a morning person. I just need to have my coffee first. One of my sweet little boy's first words was "coffee," and he's been known to pick up my cup, hand it to me and say "Mommy, more coffee" on occasion when my amazingly perky demeanor hasn't woken up yet. I needed a plan going into this summer as well as the year ahead--something that could occupy my toddler while I activate my pleasant daytime mode or prepare breakfast or just take a few deep breaths to start the day. And so, from a simple child's sized card table and chairs as well as a dose of ingenuity, Table Time was born.

And it's not just a morning thing. Table Time refers to any activity that can occupy the attention of a child of any age for a developmentally reasonable length of time (with a toddler, this varies) with minimal adult support and involvement. To be clear, this is not the time I set out the Netflix (although that also has its time and place in our home). When he was a baby who could not yet sit at a table, I frequently set out discovery baskets-- a basket with household items like measuring cups, measuring spoons, metal colanders, spoons and spatulas, or sensory bottles for shaking and exploring, or a variety of fabrics like scarves, washcloths, fuzzy socks and silk fashion scarves for my son to explore. This was one of his first entrances into the world of independent play and tinkering. I might leave the same basket out for a week or so at a time and then swap the materials out. Now that he is two, one aspect that makes Table Time successful is the novelty of it. I do set out a different activity each night before I go to bed that he can use in the morning and throughout the following day as desired. I do not, however, reinvent the wheel on a daily basis. Many of our activities follow a weekly routine and rotation. Every Friday morning, my son comes to a table set up with a plastic cup and stickers he uses to decorate his own kiddush cup for the upcoming Shabbos meals. Usually about once a week lately, the activity involves playdough as that is a current favorite of his. This is an activity he will often revisit multiple times throughout the day. As we explore themes in our "Mommy Camp/Mommy School," or as certain holidays or seasons approach, I aim for the activities to be theme related. Pinterest is a great resource for this and there are many blogs as well as books devoted to sharing ideas for age-based activities, projects and games. Sometimes I will even set out a toy he hasn't played with in awhile or put a couple of toys out that he may not have thought to use together before.  My son does not always choose to use what I set out on the table nor does he always use it in the way I anticipated. I am totally OK with this. It is there if he is interested, he knows what to expect and many times if an activity does not draw his interest on its own, my sitting at the table and beginning to play will draw him in and lead to independent play.

My essential goal with Table Time activities is to encourage independent play (not as in a babysitter in place of me, although independent play can act as an extra set of hands while a parent gets a few things done around the house). Many times I make observational comments (non-judgmental and non-praising) just noticing what my son is doing. Feeling noticed can feed a need for healthy self-esteem in a more sustainable manner than even comments of praise--think recognition versus approval. For example, I might say "I see you're rolling the playdough into a long, thin shape" as opposed to "I love how you're making a wiggly worm" or "great job with the playdough today!" Sometimes I do join in the activity with him (and some activities do require more assistance than others, like peeling smaller stickers off the paper), and other times I do not. I love watching the ideas children can come up with on their own for using materials and activities set out in this manner. In homes where children span in age, a bit more creativity may need to come into play. While unattended markers might be a great material for an older child to use independently, they may be a recipe for a new paint job for a younger one. On the other hand, an older child can support a younger one in using markers, or Table Time activities that are geared toward older children can be reserved for the times when the younger ones are napping and the older ones are bored.

Lastly, when choosing activities for Table Time, you do want something fun and interesting and developmentally challenging enough to capture attention, but you do not want something that will lead to feelings of frustration. When this has happened, I have altered or adapted my materials or even just put an activity away and shifted gears. You can't win 'em all! I try to keep my expectations reasonable as well. What I think my son my LOVE may not interest him at all, and what I think he will pass right over might become his new favorite thing to do. Keeping an open mind and an ounce of humor to go with it goes a long way.

Below is a small sampling of some of our recent Table Time activities. Future Table Time posts will include one or more activities at a time, sometimes theme related. Enjoy & happy playing!

During our dinosaur theme, I FINALLY found a use for that funny faux grass bottle drying rack (which I HAD to have but never used). I thought my son wouldn't get too into this one, but he LOVED it. He had more success with the smaller tongs (purchased in a 4 pack at a Dollar Tree) and still needed to use his "helper" hand to work with the dinosaurs, but loved trying to use the tongs to pick them up and set them up in the "Jurassic Jungle." 

I HATE surprising loud noises, so we had to stop playing Jenga here! But I found a fun use for those perfectly sized wooden blocks. My little one liked this so much, I ended up storing it in the pencil case and leaving it out on his toy shelf for him to revisit throughout our dinosaur themed weeks at Mommy & Me Camp.

Playdough Silly Faces--a great addition to an "All About Me" theme, "Feelings" theme or any rainy day! This one is great for older children as well.

During a gardening theme, this parts of a plant playdough exploration was a big hit, The "seeds" are dried black beans, the "stems" are pipe cleaners and I took apart some artificial flowers from the discount store for flowers and leaves. This happens to be homemade playdough that I scented with lavender oil, but any playdough or clay can be used.

After a long and happy life on our dining room table, these beautiful flowers were on their way out, but not before my toddler got a chance to play and explore with them. He loved using the magnifying glasses and pulling apart the petals. Older children could also use scissors or tweezers.