Art Alive...
I'm watching the kids this morning...along with two other kids from our community. We went outside to swing on the tire swing, throw apples at each other, and make believe. Spending time with children is fascinating. Downright spellbinding. Right now as I type this bit of content, the two youngest of the clan are talking baby talk to each other as they play house. They aren't saying anything I understand, but they mysteriously understand each other. Slurred speech and cute little lisps and gurgled vowels and tongue-tied utterances. Their voice inflection changes and they have strategic pauses to communicate pathos in the midst of the communicative chaos. One is talking on something that is serving as a phone of sorts. She sounds like receptionist that just had a stroke. They are nodding their heads and handing each other toys like their transaction has huge ramifications. Oh boy, one just yelled at the other chiding her for her lack of attention. Emotions are flaring. Oh look, they just worked through conflict resolution and are back at it with full strength.
They have just started to play with dolls. Well, to me they're plastic dolls, to them, full fledged little human beings needing tender love and care. They are wrapping them in blankets and patting their backs as if they are going to belch out pent up air bubbles. One just yelled at the other because she stole her blanket, I think we have the motherly instinct coming out at age two...fascinating.
I don't have much time, so I best cut to the chase. We were upstairs a little bit ago and I witnessed something astounding. We were watching Noggin, which is a children's cartoon network. It has shows like Connie the Cow and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and Blue's Clues and Sesame Street. I like it. It's clean, wholesome and simple. One of the shows that comes on in between cartoons is called, "Art Alive". When it comes on, no matter where the kids are in the house, they all run to see this 2 minute segment that arrests every fiber of imagination in their little souls. Today, Aly saw that it was about to start and she yelled, "Hey everyone, Art Alive is on. You have to see this!"
This is a two minute deal that shows a little child drawing stick figures and houses and trees and birds, etc....and then the second half of the show animates these child-like rederings into a brief story. I don't know excactly what captures the kids attention in this show, but I think it has to do something with art and the fact that it's alive. I guess it's amazing to me that at such an early age art means something to them, and more intriguing is the fact that we all want things to come alive. We inherently have a trigger inside that values artistic expression and the coming to life of dead, inanimate things.
Art alive...a simple show...a profound reality.
They have just started to play with dolls. Well, to me they're plastic dolls, to them, full fledged little human beings needing tender love and care. They are wrapping them in blankets and patting their backs as if they are going to belch out pent up air bubbles. One just yelled at the other because she stole her blanket, I think we have the motherly instinct coming out at age two...fascinating.
I don't have much time, so I best cut to the chase. We were upstairs a little bit ago and I witnessed something astounding. We were watching Noggin, which is a children's cartoon network. It has shows like Connie the Cow and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and Blue's Clues and Sesame Street. I like it. It's clean, wholesome and simple. One of the shows that comes on in between cartoons is called, "Art Alive". When it comes on, no matter where the kids are in the house, they all run to see this 2 minute segment that arrests every fiber of imagination in their little souls. Today, Aly saw that it was about to start and she yelled, "Hey everyone, Art Alive is on. You have to see this!"
This is a two minute deal that shows a little child drawing stick figures and houses and trees and birds, etc....and then the second half of the show animates these child-like rederings into a brief story. I don't know excactly what captures the kids attention in this show, but I think it has to do something with art and the fact that it's alive. I guess it's amazing to me that at such an early age art means something to them, and more intriguing is the fact that we all want things to come alive. We inherently have a trigger inside that values artistic expression and the coming to life of dead, inanimate things.
Art alive...a simple show...a profound reality.
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