Here’s a peek into The Lego room in it’s current state. When I first shared this room with you it was all organized and sparkly. Since then,we’ve added another table  for building and setting up the towns the kids love to play and imagine with. They trade, buy, grow food, sell beer at the tavern, shop at Erin’s lighthouse boutique and lots of other things kids dream up.

It’s their own magical world that is so very real to them. I love that they play and learn this way and they have a space to do it. I don’t think this room will be anything else but The Lego room even though I am known to rearrange and change rooms on a whim. I’m not sure I would have a choice and I don’t think I’d want to.

More photos can be found here.

We have been changing things up around here again. If you have read this blog a while you will remember a few posts on changing the furniture arrangement here, here and here. I will fill you in on it very soon. I want to have more to show you and we are not done yet. A little hint, the lease on the studio is up at the end of the year.

The children always have a hard time with change.  They get used to things the way they are. I figured by now they would be used to all the rearranging, but alas they are protesting. We were in the middle of such a protest while I was cleaning up a little project. I had two long cardboard tubes to get rid of and thought of a better use for them than landfill for the time being.

Lightsabers!

That idea got one child out of their room and into the paint. This is something this child has not done for a while. Soon, all three were gathered around the table painting away to Star Wars music on Pandora. It was truly magical. I was in my element. I have to say the pictures do not lie this time. We were all happy working away and no throwing of paint, fighting with a sibling or being mad at me because I moved furniture around. That my friends is why I titled this post art therapy.

What works for you during the heat of the moment? What are your techniques for getting your children through change?

Note: Try Sean’s new painting technique pictured above.

Take a large flat brush, dip one side in one color of paint then dip the other side in another color of paint. Brush onto cardstock, alternating sides of the brush to combine the colors. What the colors change! While the paint is wet, take the end of a small paint brush and draw a design. You can paint over it a few times and draw again for fun or let is dry. Make sure you sign your name on your art and display. You are an artist.

One morning Erin pulled out the pink Lego box and requested that I build furniture. This happened during breakfast amidst the crumbs of bagels and the unfinished coffee.  I dove into the task of making pink and white furniture out of Lego bricks. After the furniture was complete, I had a genius idea, sort of. Use a shoe box to create a house for the newly built furniture and Lego mini-figs. I just opened it up, stood it on one side and taped the lid open. Then, we decided to paint it pink and purple inside and green on the outside. Total immersion into a project is the way to go.

We’ve also been drawing and coloring together. I draw the picture of the girl and she colors it in. We make a great team. Thank you Erin for spurring me on and inspiring me to create with you.

Here is my little kitty cat in her favorite poses. That last one cracks me up, she does that all the time without a cat costume on.

With little time to sew and gather the materials for costumes this year, I opted to buy Erin’s. The quality of this costume was pretty bad. The skirt ripped the first time she tried it on and the fabric for the bodysuit was so thin, I was concerned she would be cold. But, alas we live in in the south so I didn’t have to worry about that.

She was happy and loved her mask and tail and next year I will remember to allow more time for planning and sewing, but a purchased costume will do in a pinch.

Last year, Ian received a volcano kit for his birthday. We finally remembered we had it (sorry mom and dad) and decided it was time to see how it worked.

Using a mold and a dry sand mix you create a realistic volcano. We were able to tackle the first step with little mess involved and a few strained cries of “STOP pouring” from me. The mix set pretty quickly and was tricky to pour into the openings allowed for the mold.

After the mold set for 24 hours, it was time to paint the volcano.

Next, we waited for the paint to dry and added the eruption tablets and club soda.

We all were expecting this crazy explosion, but we were left a bit disappointed. Those eruption tablets were a bust, maybe they were too old. My bad. Ian really enjoyed the process of making the volcano and he was grateful I did it with him.

We have the mold we can reuse and I bought a huge box of baking soda and jug of vinegar, which is a tried and true method for volcanos. The kids can go outside and make volcano eruptions all day.