Trash vs. Weather Changer Project Possibilities

One of the fun things about having young kids is their ability to see something special out of something adults might overlook. Since last summer John has been working on "The Biggest Art Project Ever" when we go out to my parents' house. This project is going to become a weather changer (yes, I know, it's not likely to be successful, but boy, is he hopeful). He's painted, screwed, hammered, and more in the process of building the weather changer. He's also collected a lot of items for possible use in the weather changer. We try to get out regularly to walk around our neighborhood, often in search of friends, or just to get out of the house for a bit. Everytime we do (or even when we're at home or anywhere, for that matter), he's in constant search of items to collect for this project. We can be walking along, and what seems like a piece of trash, or a rock, or other item that many of us would walk by, he'll put it into a bucket or bag to bring home. It then gets placed into a box in our closet called the weather changer box. That's where we collect these things until the next visit to the grandparents' house. It's absolutely hilarious! At first my reaction was to try to discourage this process, but it's true recycling, and although I won't let him collect everything he tries to bring home (I do have some limits with this stuff), there really is no harm in a few sticks, rocks, and maybe an old tissue box being saved from the landfill for awhile.

I'm not sure the weather changer will ever really be completed, but he's having a great time working on it. And it's helping to remind me that things we often overlook might be useful in creative ways.

Tossing Artwork

Well, yesterday John surprised, no, shocked me yet again. As I described earlier, he is a crazy artist. He produces an incredible amount of "artwork." Often, he'll start an art project and then will decide to put it aside to finish later, but then never quite comes back to finish it. Then we end up with lots of piles of partly finished projects. For awhile I had gotten him to put them into a box so at least it was contained. Then I hosted a party and put the box away. Recently I found the box and came really close to tossing the whole thing, since he hadn't ever asked about it. But I couldn't quite bring myself to doing it. Not sure why. I desperately am trying to purge some of the clutter in our house and the box epitomizes clutter. For whatever reason, the box lived on.

The other day, John came downstairs and was asking about making yet another art project, this time I think the idea was a house made out of paper for his favorite stuffed animal, Puppy. I suggested that maybe a paper house wouldn't be so sturdy, but maybe we could find a box to use instead...THE box, in fact. John didn't think that the box would be such a good idea, but thought that maybe some of the paper scraps inside the box might be helpful. Well, at least some part of it was going to be used. Then, he proceeded to pull each and every scrap out of the box and decided that most of it was stuff he was done with and thew it in the trash! There were a couple of things that he saved, but 95% of the contents went straight into the trash can without any input from me. I was floored. All this time I have been secretly purging artwork and feeling VERY guilty doing it and had even felt too guilty to trash this box of art scraps, and he just came along and did it himself. It was amazing.