kids art

this post {#99} is devoted to kids. especially my own....


a very successful art sale....more publicity for the Stollery Children's Hospital...especially the Critical Care Step Down Unit.

read more about it here.



a lot of cards! i never counted all of them...lol...there were 10 kids under 6 years old that created art and also an entire class of grade five students {more on the school kids later!}

Kelley is 6 years old and her brother is 5 years old. i think they made around 150 cards each?! and art. and wrapping paper. and Kelley sold photographic cards from photos take with a FisherPrice digital camera.

of course my kiddos were shy when i wanted to take a photo of them with their hard work....

we are so proud of these two. Aidan was excited to help Kelley. he really respects her and has always wanted to please her. Kiara was excited to help Aidan. for the same reasons; she respects her big brother and wants to please him.

i learned a lot about helping my kids work toward a goal. encouragement. respect. every day they glued, painted, folded, cut....every day. we joined the campaign late, so we had one week to complete as many cards as we could! better late than never. if they could only make 2 cards, i would have been pleased.

it was fun to shop for supplies to add to the cards. Aidan was very thoughtful and methodical as he roamed the shelves to choose his. they had many oppportunities to share. we would chat about everything. laugh. we may not have a goal to create art....but i will anticipate with excitement the opportunity to create these lovely messes with my children. the drops of glue where you'd least expect. the stickers piled high. special touches with thought behind. most of the art they made has a unique story behind it. like the Santa card with a star. the car stamp, glitter and a marker line....the car was driving in the snow! the hand drawn tree with so many glittery lights attached you could hardly see the tree!

they also taught me a fantastic lesson: each of the cards were made in their own design. yes i encouraged them to do their best so that Kelley would be proud too. but they cared more that they were proud of their own work. so easily we get caught up in the expectations of others, that we try to please others at the cost of our own confidence.

i have to be honest. one of Aidan's cards featured a white star that was going to be the background of a snowman. he added the hat on top. the buttons down the front. a carrot for the nose. then he proceeded to add carrots all over the star! all the carrots. we did take them off....i insisted he use them for the other snowman too. later on i regretted that decision. after all, it was unique. and so what if none of the other snowman had carrots anyway. it was a good reminder. i hope i learned a lesson.

my favourite story involved our last day of art before the sale. i brought out the paper and asked them if they would like to make pictures for the wall. they were excited. {another lesson for me was to keep thinking and searching for new techniques and ideas for them to try! some failed, but others were so good we can't wait to do them again!!} anyways....back to the story. one of the first techniques we tried was ink blotting. using finger paint paper and paint. they chose two colours each. would you believe four different colours by them? they smeared the paint around on one side of the paper. would you also believe that they listened to me?! they each had a lot of paint, so i made a monoprint of their work before we finished! Aidans turned out to look like a heart. Kiara's looked like a flower. and it was unique. very them. and beautiful!

Aidan and Kiara, mommy and daddy are very proud of you. we love that you wanted to help out your friends. and in turn help out strangers. you are inspiring. we look forward to learning more from both of you!

i had set a goal for Aidan to make 50 cards...thinking that was high. then Kiara had to also join in the fun. between the two of them they made 80 cards. and about 20 pieces of art.

we were thrilled to have raised $3000 on Saturday for the hospital.

Kelley's first fundraiser was held when she was 4 years old. she was the only one who did the work. the sale was held out of their home. her goal then was to raise $200. she raised $1,600.

this time around, she hoped to raise $600. it's $3000. she is continuing to raise awareness and money until the end of November.

we still have cards, art and wrapping paper left over too.

if you are interested in donating money to the Stollery Children's Hospital you can still contribute!! and if you want art made by young kids, we still have lots of that too!!!

a great opportunity for young kids to help other young kids. a very proud moment for parents.

i promised to tell more of the grade five students. their teacher has been providing opportunities for her classes to help others. she supplies the stamps, ink, paper, etc. after the kids have completed assignments they have the opportunity to create cards. the proceeds of the sale of the cards goes towards a charity. this year they helped the Stollery. a couple of the kids came to volunteer on Saturday. very humble children. and very impressive art work.

and to those that donated...THANK YOU! a worthwhile cause, and also a great opportunity to encourage our children to be leaders and care about others.

leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you want a card!