The Idea

One of the best parts of being a home educating parent is the freedom to let your children create beautiful messes in the pursuit of their personal artistic genius.  It’s also one of the worst parts.  There are just some days I need an engaging, low-mess art project.  Engaging to keep them from fighting.  Low-mess to allow me to create some sort of order in my home.  The bonus here is that the end result is beautiful, and I end up with ONE project to put on display, not FOUR.

The Execution

Use google images to find a simple line drawing.  (If you don’t know how to do this: Go to Google Images. Type in your search term and search. At the top of the images, click on More Tools > Type > Line Drawing.)  Using the print dialog, scale the image to fill the page.  Print on card stock paper.  Turn paper over and draw squares in pencil.  Number the squares so that you can easily reassemble.  Cut into squares.  (I usually do 3x3inch squares, or something similar).  Have each child color their squares.  To reassemble, flip squares color side down and arrange in order.  Use clear packing tape to attach, being very careful to line everything up exactly.

Tree and Dragon by my children, ages 4, 6, and 8.  With some details added by mom at their request.  Some of the cool effects on these pieces were achieved using Colour Magic Pens we purchased at Hamleys in London.

The Extension

If your children enjoy working with the small squares, another fun project to do is Inchies. Inchies can also be reassembled into a larger collage.