Sunday was art day with our friend Marie. She comes over one Sunday afternoon a month and she and I and the kids do some sort of craft activity. We've painted rocks, made bakeable clay beads and pendants, and today, decorated foam fish. The little fish came in a kit, to be punched out of foam and decorated with foam parts, marker, and glitter, complete with googly eyes. They will make great refrigerator magnets. I loved making my own fish and got a real kick out of the way each of the three kids approached the activity. Zachary is little yet and had so much fun working with Marie, talking as they made color choices, accepting help and suggestions, using as much blue (especially blue glitter glue) as possible. K.K., eldest child and perfectionist that she is, followed instructions precisely and made fish that looked like the examples, perfect - then loosened up with the markers and glitter, creating a varied and beautiful school. But Danny is an artist in a whole different way. At first I wondered if he even "get it" about what to do with the stick on parts. I, like K.K. was guided heavily by the examples - but WOW! With time and freedom Danny created a beautiful school of diverse and brilliant fish. He altered fin shape, overlapped stripes, changed directions of stripes -did all kinds of things the rest of us didn't think of and it really worked. The kid has an eye! And all of us had fun. Its my turn to pick the craft next month. I wonder what I will choose. I'm so glad we brought this tradition of shared art time with Marie into our lives.