Adult Art Class and a Prized Possession

Lucy and I signed up for an art class called, Two-osy Doodler. It is for children 20 months to 4 years old. We have enjoyed the class so far. Lucy seems to like the interaction with her five classmates, I like the new ideas the class provides, and with the recent weather we have both enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the house. I would recommend a class like this to anyone with the only negatives being that it does cost $100 for six classes and ultimately the art projects could be created at home.

To start the first class we read The Very Hungary Caterpillar, a Johnson family favorite. After the story we received directions on how to make a caterpillar out of clay and some other materials. Including cutting out some food for the caterpillar, gluing it on, putting antlers on the caterpiller and of course adding glitter I calculated that this would be a 25 minute project for Lucy and I. The next calculation was 25 minutes minus Lucy's attention span of 5 to 7 minutes on a good day. This left me with 15- 20 minutes of unfocused time where I battled to keep her seated.

It turns out I was not alone. I am not sure if it was when I was folding our piece of swiss cheese in half to cut a couple holes in it or when I was looking for pink construction paper to make a strawberry, but I looked up and Lucy wasn't in her seat anymore. She had found her way over to the play kitchen where she was unloading the dishes from the play sink. She was accompanied by 3-5 other "artist" at any given time. All of us parents seemed content to try and make a bit more progress on the project and after our artistic visions where mapped out try and get our child back to the table. I even over heard a couple moms exchanging some clay to make sure the eyes of their caterpillars turned out. I am sure this is because it is what the kid wanted!?!?!?!!

After successfully getting Lucy back to the table twice with the promise of attaching the antennas and using glitter, I was out of tricks and she was back in the kitchen. It was during this trip to the kitchen (while I put the cherry on top of my artistic sundae by writing LUCY with glue and glitter) I heard a female classmate of Lucy's start screaming, "I got it, I got it." All six parents snapped out of their projects, with the assumption that two kids would need another reminder on sharing. The scene was different thought. It was just a girl standing there and her mom, knowing exactly what she was talking about, headed to their travel bag. Shortly thereafter, it became clear to the rest of us what her prized possession was, when she announced, "I got poop!" She was really selling it too, "I got poop! I got poop!" The other kids weren't quite sure why she was so excited, but I could sense they all wanted one too. As I worked to convince Lucy that it wasn't that great of a prize I thought I saw a couple kids even grunting!?!?!?!

After two weeks we have a caterpillar and a windmill painting in the house. Over the course of two 45 minute classes, Lucy has logged at least 30 quality minutes in the kitchen and I have learned that operating a glue stick is just like riding a bike.