{"id":4276,"date":"2015-01-10T15:50:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T20:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2015-01-10T15:50:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T20:50:38","slug":"watercolor-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2015\/01\/watercolor-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Watercolor Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mom-birch\"My son is always making things. He is also the sort of kid who never really has an answer if you ask him something like, “What do you want for your birthday?” As a result, he has amassed quite a collection of art supplies.<\/p>\n

Art is something that Alex enjoys; it is his thing. So, my approach as pretty much been one of letting him be, and giving him the space to do whatever he wants. However, I noticed that he only uses a few of his supplies. He’s branched out a tiny bit, but he seems to only use the the things he’s sure how to use. <\/p>\n

So, I wondered what would happen if I asked him to make something with me. I wanted to get him to try watercolors. He was game. We followed a YouTube tutorial<\/a> and made mom and son paintings.<\/p>\n

It was very interesting to follow something step-by-step with him. It illustrated the difference in our personalities\/approaches very clearly. I had watched the video once already when I found the activity that I wanted to do with him. Then we watched it together. I followed the steps pretty closely. He followed them loosely. At one point, he realized that he had done something totally different than what the instructions required. He was pretty bummed. I told him to work with it anyway. In my opinion, that’ what made his painting more interesting than mine.<\/p>\n

About three quarters of the way through the project, Alex lit up and said, “Hey, we did this in art class.” It was so weird to me that he didn’t realize this until we were almost done. Sort of. It is abundantly clear that the way that Alex processes things is different than the way I do.<\/p>\n

He told me that he was glad that we had done the project together and that he would like to do more things like this together in the future. I am determined to take advantage of this while he still feels this way. 
\n\"birch-alex\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son is always making things. He is also the sort of kid who never really has an answer if you ask him something like, “What do you want for your birthday?” As a result, he has amassed quite a collection of art supplies. Art is something that Alex enjoys; it is his thing. So,… Continue reading Watercolor Fun<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#Watercolor Fun--making a little art with my son http:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-16Y #parenthood","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[205,8],"tags":[745,54,707],"class_list":["post-4276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenthood","category-projects","tag-alex","tag-painting","tag-watercolors","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-16Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2760,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/08\/lunch-bags\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":0},"title":"Lunch bags","author":"admin","date":"August 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One day, my son decided to go to bed early. It was one of those weird times when a child pretty much says, \"Bye, I'm going to bed.\" Then he yawns, then he disappears into the night. So, given this unexpected quiet time, I decided to make him a special\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "alex"","block_context":{"text":"alex","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/family\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2682,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/07\/following-his-lead\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":1},"title":"Following his lead","author":"admin","date":"July 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Alex loves to draw. Actually, Alex loves to draw and do other things with his hands. It is fun to see all of that unfold. It is also quite telling to see how\u00a0he thinks about his work. The most interesting, no, the most surprising part of all that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "parenthood"","block_context":{"text":"parenthood","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/parenthood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"buggyboo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/buggyboo.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":284,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2009\/09\/not-quite-a-drawing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":2},"title":"Not quite a drawing","author":"admin","date":"September 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Goal number 8 is to improve my drawing. This, like improving cardio endurance or improving one's cable-knitting\u00a0skills, is a matter of practice. Yesterday, when I was wasting time on the Internet, I came across an image on Sugar City Journal. It was striking to me. Her image appears to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "projects"","block_context":{"text":"projects","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/projects\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/full_size_red_riding_hood.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/full_size_red_riding_hood.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/full_size_red_riding_hood.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/full_size_red_riding_hood.gif?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1262,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2011\/11\/happy-birthday-alex\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":3},"title":"Happy Birthday, Alex","author":"admin","date":"November 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't believe that Alex is 8. Every day, that guy cracks me up. For his birthday, Alex wanted a Monster Book of Monsters cake and a variety of office supplies. His very specific requests were for tan duct tape, a stapler (though as a household we already have 2,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "alex"","block_context":{"text":"alex","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/family\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/DSCN2367-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3552,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/08\/last-day-of-camplunch-bags\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":4},"title":"Last Day of Camp|Lunch Bags","author":"admin","date":"August 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the last day of Alex's summer camp which he loves quite a bit. I love being able to drop him off somewhere for fun in the summer knowing that he enjoys the heck out of it. Throughout summer camp, there are a variety of field trips. The camp\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "alex"","block_context":{"text":"alex","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/family\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/IMG_9276.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3653,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/september-goal-3-completed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4276,"position":5},"title":"September Goal 3 = Completed.","author":"admin","date":"September 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I've mentioned here that I'm looking at my annual goals differently and setting 3-6 goals per month during this year leading up to my 36th birthday. One of the goals for September-October was to finish a scrapbook of the Washington DC trip I took with Alex. Mission completed! 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