Art House
Written By Amy Sutherland
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Her children tote around individual art kits: tackle boxes Carrie stuffs with materials the kids can use wherever and whenever they like. They also have paper, bound art journals, and minicanvases stashed around the house. Creating art "gives each child's personality an outlet," she says.
Nonie likes to spread out on the floor with pens, paper, and scissors. "I like paper cutting a lot," she says. Henry prefers drawing — he begins to work on his own portrait of Sugar Cube at the kitchen table. Henry says that Nate, who has slipped off to work at the train table in the boys' room, "likes to make things." A recent example: Nate shaped letters out of pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks to spell "I Love You Mom and Dad," and laid them out on a chest at the foot of his parents' bed.
"Instead of me always initiating a project, it's just there," says Carrie. "The kits promote the idea of art without it being more work for me." Once, she opened Nonie's art book to find her daughter had created a pictorial diary, filling every page with colorful drawings that documented her kindergarten year.
