Time to Create – Revisiting Water Colour Pencils and a Quick Book Review.

This is a review post.

Last year Morgan got a package in the mail.

It was a special package, sent from a special friend who had a request. Morgan was thrilled to get a package and excited to help our friend… especially since it involved drawing, painting and monsters!

A little over a year later and another packaged arrived at our house.

This package was just as special as the first and was opened with just as much excitement. It contained a book – Time to Create by Christie from Childhood101.

Morgan threw himself down on the couch and excitedly started turning pages. The girls plonked down next to him and they all oohed and ahhed over the cool art activities outlined in the book.

Suddenly Morgan stopped turning pages.

“There.” He said triumphantly… “Look there! I’m in a real book!”

And there he was, using his special water pencils Christie had sent him, drawing and painting monsters, in a ‘real’ book.

After bookmarking every page in the book that contained a photo of him, his sisters or any of their art work he carefully wrapped the book in bubble wrap (“So it doesn’t get wrecked”) and put it in his school bag for show and tell. Then he ran off to the art cupboard, hunted out the water colour pencils and some paper and sat down to create.

We love the ease of water colour pencils. All you need is paper, the pencils, a brush and some water and there are lots of options for drawing, painting and creating without heaps of mess.

In some ways so very much has changed for my boy in the last year, but in other ways he is just the same. He is a school boy now and concentrating hard on his proper pencil grip, but he still makes time to create and he still loves drawing monsters.

My boy is so proud to have his photograph and artwork in Christie’s Time to Create, as are my girls. And I am so pleased to have been able to support my wonderful friend to writing this fabulous book.

Time to Create is full of down to earth, doable, creative ideas for all ages. There are lots of great photos (even the ones I took turned out ok!) and step by step instructions as well as information on why art is important, what children learn, how to talk to your kids about their art, tips for displaying and storing art, and pretty much everything you need to know about art for young children.

Time to Create is the sort of book that makes doing creative activities with young kids seem possible. It’s not full of craft activities that require you to spend a small fortune and that don’t turn out like the picture in the book and then your kid cries and you feel like a total failure as a parent…

Time to Create: Hands On Explorations in Process Art for Young Children is now available in bookstores throughout the US and Canada and internationally through online booksellers, including The Book Depository, Amazon, Fishpond and Barnes & Noble.

Want to know more about Time to Create? Keep an eye on the following blogs for upcoming stops along our international blog tour…

Picklebums . An Everyday Story . Learn With Play At Home . Octavia & Vicky . Sesame Ellis . Nurturestore . Simple Kids . Our Everyday Things . Rainbows Within Reach . Teach Preschool . At Home With Ali . Go Explore Nature . Not Just Cute . Lessons Learnt Journal . PreK+K Sharing

{disclosure: I was given a copy of the book Time To Create as a thank you gift. I was not asked to post this review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions in this post are purely my own and those of my children.}