Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Joshua's Art Project


For those of you who know Joshua, you know that he hates drawing pictures. He would rather practice and perfect his printing skills over and over again than sit down and draw a cute little picture of a house. If you want him to draw a picture of a house, you basically have to tell him or show him a square and triangle.

So you would imagine my surprise when on the kitchen table I found this abandoned piece of paper. It was definitely crafted by Joshua. He has those signature people at the bottom with the big coloured-in ears. I asked him "What is this a picture of?" and he said "Joshua eating a cookie, Joshua eating cake, Joshua eating ice cream." (So that's what that circle and upside down triangle is) Wow, you can tell we like to eat a lot of those things around here :) Of course on the back of the paper he had written "cookie" "ice cream" "cake" and "jayhawks." I knew he just HAD to write something somewhere. Hooray for Joshua! I guess next time I want you to draw a picture, I should just ask you to draw food!!!


One of our favourite family games right now is "Guess Who." I found it at a garage sale the other day for $2 and got nostalgic. The kids love it. And they're both really good at thinking up questions like, "Does your person have brown hair?" all on their own. The best part is that it forces Joshua to actually listen and RESPOND to Whitney. He listens to me and Steve just fine, but often he just ignores Whitney and drives her crazy. Now, he listens to her question, looks at the card, and says, "No Whitney, no brown hair." It's great! So if you want a game that encourages sibling cooperation, give Guess Who a try!

P.S. I bought the old school version of Guess Who. I looked online, and they now have an ethnically-diverse version. I'm all about encouraging my kids to accept and embrace ethnic diversity (I bought Whitney an African American baby doll when she asked me why some people are chocolate) I just don't know if I want my kids asking, "Whitney does your person have brown skin?" or "Joshua, does your person have yellow skin?" Aren't we trying to get our kids to look past skin colour?

10 Comments:

At 8:57 AM, Blogger April said...

Cute picture! We also LOVE LOVE LOVE Guess Who? at our house. GREAT GAME!

 
At 9:40 AM, Blogger heidi said...

is it impossible to ignore skin color with a game like guess who? and i think saying chocolate is the nicest way ever to acknowledge skin color. i would like to be creamy instead pasty with blotchy red spots.

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Laura Weight said...

Awesome pictures---- he will be ready for kindergarten art class---- some of my kinders couldn't even draw a circle never the less knew their own names at the start of the school year.

sometimes Multiculturalism acceptance goes beyond and acheives the opposite. Like... diversity day on the office.

 
At 1:54 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

I love Guess Who! My MIL has the old school version...Parker just likes taking the pictures off the hooks...someday he'll get it, though!

 
At 4:45 PM, Blogger Mommy Meen said...

You brings back suck vivid memories of finishing work early in French and getting to play "Qui-est?" Maybe you could expand vocabulary and have them say things like "Does your person have African American skin tone?" or "Does your person get burn in the sun easily?"

 
At 5:11 PM, Blogger Sarah S said...

that is really funny about the skin color. thats a tricky one!! I'll have to remember that Guess Who is a good one in a few years...

 
At 7:57 PM, Blogger Anne Marie said...

Never played Guess Who. How did we miss that one? It sounds fun. Love Joshua's food theme. Treats are frequently on my kids' brains.

 
At 9:45 AM, Blogger Kelly said...

totally love the birthday cake with candles!!

 
At 9:00 PM, Blogger MaryAnn said...

Sarah I noticed that you are colourful in how you write. . . Sometimes I forget you are CAnadian. I love it though! As far as guess who I don't think it's offensive to say does your person have brown skin or white skin,etc. To kids it's just a description like red hair or yellow shirt.

 
At 10:38 AM, Blogger Tiffany Winters said...

Great Job Joshua! And I love that game. I haven't played that in years...

 

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