Saturday 22 September 2012

Mementos

Ever since Bean started showing an interest in art and craft I've been actively encouraging her budding creativity. I found a little table and chairs on gumtree, and then cleared two shelves on one of our bookcases so that she could have all her art and craft supplies accessible at her level (Montessori style)...


She does a lot of mixed media pieces, first she goes and gets out her paints and brushes, followed by the dot art bottles, then pens and crayons, and often she finishes off with every kid's favourite - stickers! And of course, being the doting parents we are, her latest works go on display...


...But there's also a rather large stack accumulating on top of the art shelves! which I've begun to sort through every so often...


I love starting to collect these mementos made by Bean, and with the ones I've decided to keep I pencil in the date and her age at the bottom for posterity. I'll probably have a closest full in a few months time!! but I just can't bring myself to throw them ALL in the recycling.

I remember my own mum kept a drawer in the kitchen full of all kinds of keepsakes from my childhood: mothers day cards, paintings, salt dough figurines, books I'd written and illustrated, short stories, and photographs. As I got older I used to look through the drawer from time to time. I liked to remember the times past when I'd lovingly created the various pieces, but most of all it gave me a sense of how much I must be loved. Since my mum had cherished this collection even through all those years, numerous teenage rebellions, and three different houses!

So I hope that one day Bean will enjoy looking through her own assortment of mementos, and perhaps feel that same warmth and appreciation that comes with the knowledge that you and all your creations are treasured by someone you love.

I, however, may need to find some more storage space! ;-)

Bxx

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with you: one day she'll see all the stuff you kept, and she'll realise how much you love her :)
    We have boxes of paintings, drawings, collages, etc. Sosi is so prolific, sometimes I forget to write the date on each of them and I end up with a massive pile of drawings with a generic "early Aug 2012" or "mid Sept 2012", I figure it's better than not writing a thing, though her style and development is clear to me now and I can tell approx in what month she drew something, the memory is fallible and I might not be able to tell in 5 or so years time... I also started writing what she's drawn, of course at her age now every drawing is telling an entire story, and I like keeping a note of who is in the picture and what they're doing etc.
    We are still doing ok with storage, but I really don't know how we'll cope in a few years, with so many drawings accumulating from both kids... Good luck with your storage! :)

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