Chalk Lessons

How do you feel about failure?

This summer, we made chalk paint with cornstarch, food coloring, and water. 

Summery delight!

See our driveway canvas?

 Little did we know that a thunderstorm brewed two hours away.

All our chalky wonders washed away overnight.

It's that resonance of art and failure that makes us strong, right?

Do you ever wonder if we can learn as much from our flops
- our sloppy first drafts, our rejections, our imperfections -
as from our neat and tidy successes? 

I have this thing. This fear of ruining a brand new notebook or sketchbook. 

I figure if I'm constantly working at something, then naturally, I'll keep improving. 

And when I look at my old notebooks stuffed with terrible first drafts and awkward brainstorms, 

I get panicky. What if this first page represents who I am through that entire notebook or sketchbook? Can't it at least start out perfect?
Talk about writer's block, eh?
So, I solved it. 

It's my secret to hurdling the fear of failure. (in a notebook.)

I just skip the first page. 

Then I'm set. I have a one-page cushion keeping me from a first-page flop. 

(Really, it means that the second page becomes the first page, but shhh.)

But really, don't we gain something in being brave with each feeble offering of ourselves?

In truth, even if I jump right into the first page of a notebook and ink it up with a scratchy failure, 

actually my "failure" teaches me something, and that becomes growth.

And if that's true, then maybe "failure" isn't so much of a failure. 

Maybe the effort of trying something stretches and grows our skills. 

And actually, that is beauty right there: being brave.

So, go out and be brave, my friends!

Ruin some second pages.
Scribble your heart out.
Make sloppy chalk paint that gets rained on overnight.

Get all muddy and splash around in those glorious flops.

Our Sidewalk Chalk Paint recipe:

Mix equal parts cornstarch + water.
Add a few drops of food coloring. Voila!

 

 Chalky books!

Journey by Aaron Becker
Quest by Aaron Becker
Chalk by Bill Thomson
Art & Max by David Wiesner
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
Harold's Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Parlez-vous party?

It's birthday week for my three girls.

It took them awhile to agree on a theme.

Paris + kitty cats + French pastries.

Kitty cat cafe ?

Ooh la la. 
And you know me - I love any chance to make art,
especially for a party.

After researching all manner of things French,

I sat down to sketch in the book fort.

(Avec iced coffee in a jar, no less.)

Oh, happy day, mes petits.

I think I'll make some hanging art

and some tiny, cupcake art.

I should probably figure out games. 

I'm no good at games. 

Anyone?

Hide the baguettes? 

Name the French cities? 

Guess the French words? 

Some French books we love:

This is Paris - Miroslav Sasek

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

The Story of Babar - Jean de Brunhoff 

The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle by Barbara McClintock

Madame Martine by Sarah S. Brannen

The Story of Diva and Flea by  Mo Willems & Toni DiTerlizzi

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, ill. by Terry Fan

 
 

Breathing Room

 What do sharp new pencils, pigs, and a gym ball have in common?

Call it a surprise twist in the plot, 

a hopeful story arc...

 

One that involves less free time while we learn the ropes

but hopefully more flexibility in the long run. 

Pip and Winnie are trying a new school setup: 

a public school / home school mix. 

 

Today was our first day.

It felt like the first day of a tricky job. 

Do you know that feeling? 

The feeling that you might possibly be drowning after only minutes into it?

Or like finding the opening lines to your novel of novels, the jaw-dropping first page...
Every word has to be wonderful.

 

That was me today.

It should have been great. 

We're home all the time!

But somehow, I crammed all my expectations 

into one small day's window. 

I even had a list written up on the wall - our day's assignments. 

The first fifteen minutes were bliss. 

And then it all began to unravel:

Pip asking over and over when we could go to the library, 

Winnie crying about the math game where you throw the little pigs and count them,

Sugar Snack bouncing the gym ball at everyone, 

sneaking off with the camera, 

and me wondering who was going to make me some coffee 

if I was down here doing MATH! Quelle horreur!

"Gym Ball" - by Sugar Snack

I love perspective.

The day is now folded away.

The moon is up, warm and embracing.

And I'm here, peeling off my layers.
Thinking about how sometimes I take a great wad of expectations that would probably fill a year or a lifetime and I stuff it into a summer, a holiday,
or one small first day
when really,
all that's needed is joy for the moment,
patience,
and a lot of love.

Tomorrow, we'll try it home style.
We'll aim to get some learning done,
but this time we'll add a generous dose of
breathing room.

 "Uniforms"

A sweet book about breathing room:

Little Bird, by Germano Zullo, illustrated by Albertine

The Cake Ordeal, or Trial By Frosting

Birthdays for one small Two

and two big Sevens

all in one whippy whirlwind of a week. 

Whew! 

With such a mouthful of birthdays,

we partied nice and mellow...

except for... the big girl cakes...

 

Uh.

A few words to the wise: 

Betty Crocker

invented cake mix for a reason.

The reason?

She had twins plus two toddlers

and could not juggle kids and kitchen.

My attempt turned out two overly dense 

six-layer rainbow pink berry chocolate cakes

with floppy, sloppy frosting... 

sound yummy?

hmmmm.

I have learned from my mistakes. 

From now on, I will stick to wordy, artsy things

and leave baking to the Big Whisks 

and their foodie blogs.

Goodbye, high rise glorious 

skittle skat roarious.

It's cupcakes from now on.

Five days later, Birdy's birthday began

with a houseful of pink balloons.

Heaven!  

 

What else does a newly two need?

 

A frilly dress-up,

a home-sewn crown

fuzzy old chenille in a soft new quilt,

giggles

and some really easy cupcakes from a stress-free mama

and a

"blow-the-candles-out!"

Yummy Cake Books:

The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious
High Pie Angel Food Cake - Nancy Willard, Richard Jesse Watson
The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies - Heather Forest, Susan Gaber
Round is a Mooncake - Roseanne Thong, Grace Lin 
Clever Jack Takes the Cake - Candace Fleming, G. Brian Karas
Mud is Cake - Pam Munoz Ryan
Thunder Cake - Patricia Polacco
Moon Cake - Frank Asch
Babycakes - Karma Wilson, Sam Williams
The Fairy Tale Cake - Mark Sperring, Jonathan Langley

What are your favorite yummy books?