Grand Finale

This saturday was the last day of the Artprenticeship summer camp. The last day my house would be full of overjoyed toddlers, begging me to read them a book and joining me as I turned my lounge into a paint playground. I was so sorry to see them go that I took bunches and bunches of pictures till the little ones started to find my camera intriguing, “What is that?” “What does it do?” “Why are you taking so many pictures?” Anyway, take pictures I did, so that I could remember that saturday morning we all spent with artists tape …

Early morning Paper doll Craft!

Dealing with one toddler can be pretty crazy. Bring two toddlers into the equation and the craziness multiplies exponentially. You see, two toddlers swear to always have each other’s back. So just as you heave a sigh of relief after putting the second one down to bed, the first one’s eyes snap open. They take their duties very, very seriously. That’s exactly what happened this morning. Rayyan stayed up late, while Manahil was conked out at 8 P.M. So obviously, he slept in late, while she woke up early. Perfectly synchronized. And what’s more, Manahil woke up and made the …

Art Sparked Hope

“I want to be a teacher,” she said. And in the neatness of her braid, the primness of her posture, the clarity of her speech, you could tell she wanted to be a teacher. Every child I met that day, had such hopes and aspirations for their future. They, who would probably leave this room and wander the streets till dusk, braving dangers I could never imagine, never having a home to return to because their parents needed to work every single minute of the day simply for them to survive. Children are so alive with hope, a stethoscope around …

Artprenticeship Day Two

After last session, Manahil and I spent the whole week missing our friends and how lively the house had been last Saturday. So as the weekend approached once again, we couldn’t contain our excitement. We bought chocolates for everyone, hauled and moved furniture to make space, spread plastic all over the floors and fairly hopped in anticipation. Then the bells began to ring as one by one the eager toddlers trickled in. The first thing we did was warm-up. Because warm-ups are essential to getting those creative juices flowing! The toddlers absolutely loved it and it geared them up for …

Artprenticeship Day one– Marble Painting

Toddlers are not difficult to entertain. Even the simplest of art activities will enrapture them. No, what is difficult is entertaining them for a long time. Toddlers have short attention spans and the same activity that enraptured them five minutes ago will spell boredom now. So what does that mean for an art playdate? It means, that in order to spend two constructive hours, you need to have more than one trick up your sleeve. The first thing we did was create cosmic sun catchers (if you want to know more about that, look here: cosmic sun catchers) and though …