kid art that is cute enough to hang

Please don't judge me by the title of this entry.  Obviously all of our children's art is cute enough to hang.  I have a spot in our home designated for all the many, many, MANY pieces of art our children color and/or paint every.single.day.

This piece that I am sharing about is one Avery and I worked on together.  I have been wanting to hang something over her bed for awhile and I had decided it would be on a canvas and thought of her creating something herself... but I wasn't sure exactly what.  

Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw a framed piece of painted art somewhere on the internet.  As soon as I saw it I thought it was a great idea to turn over to Avery, for her to create her own version of.  It was a simple enough shape and pattern that I knew even if she wasn't able to keep it all perfect and straight, the design would still show through and it would be awesome!  Kid art isn't suppose to be perfect and straight anyhow, right? Right!

I posted a picture of her working on it to Instagram this morning and someone replied what a fun mom I am.  I had to admit that although yes, this is fun, it also serves as a type of practice or "therapy" for me.  Practice of giving up control and letting my children be who they want to be.  I like (and kinda struggle with) things to look and be a certain way.  So projects like this take a lot of work for me to intentionally praise my kids for things that I actually really want to correct.

 We decided to trade off every couple of rows.  Avery really wanted me to do this with her and that made it harder for me to watch her paint a wavy row of non matching v's next to my straight, even, matching rows.  Do you see my struggle?  I am so happy I did not correct her, that I did not coach her, and that I only praised her for how she wanted her v's to look.

 Because THIS is how it turned out and it is simply amazing.  A creation created by me and my little girl for her to hang near her bed.  A piece of art that she can look up at and remember the conversation we had while making it.  The conversation we had about the differences in art, in people, in the way we look and even in the way we act.  The fact that God made us all different inside and out and He gave us different gifts.  That there is a reason why we are all different, and a plan for each of us that is different then the plan in place for someone else.  Together we created a canvas full of v's but even in my rows where I tried hard to make them the same, they aren't.  They are all different.  We talked about how with time and practice things usually get easier for us... but even in the beginning when we are learning and practicing we are just where we are intended to be.  That even art pieces created during our time of practice are worthy of hanging for all to see.

 I love these moments where I get to soak up time with one of my kids.  Being able to talk with them about big stuff in a simple way.  All the time praying in my heart that the love I have for them is soaking deep into them where they will never doubt it's realness.