Veronika is entering such a fun stage of development. No longer are projects and crafts simply things I make for her, but she’s old enough now to get involved in the process. To wit, today I gave her a crayon for the first time. The moment was, quite simply, beautiful.

I laid a long piece of craft paper down in the playroom, securely taping it at all four corners. If you prefer, or worry that your little one will rip up paper, use cardboard instead.

I set out a box of jumbo crayons, the perfect first crayon for the under-age-one set. She took to it more immediately than I ever imagined, not putting the crayon in her mouth, but instead testing out a few scribbles.

I thought I might need to guide her hand..

…but nope! She delightedly began scribbling all over the paper, and even stayed on it instead of wandering to the floor by accident.

As she “drew”, I drew along with her, including a few simple shapes I pointed out.

I added a few simple patterns like black, green, black, green, or square, circle, square, circle. I chatted about these shapes to her as she continued to scribble.

Then I laid her down on her back and traced her! This got giggles.

I guided her hand to show her where eyes, a nose, and a mouth would go on the resulting outline. As I drew on a purple shirt, she happily scribbled over this first “self-portrait.”

For additional art fun, I drew a second human outline on cardboard and cut out a few clothes from construction paper.

I let her help me glue these down with a glue stick, a slightly sticky but delightful process. Clearly she enjoyed this first art class!