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Patience is a virtue. Unfortunately, it’s a virtue I don’t possess very much of. Because of this little fact I have managed to come up with plenty of ways to occupy my time in waiting rooms, on car trips, in airports….you get it. As promised, I dug through my mental stockpile and pulled a few ways that I have incorporated art into that time. Trust me, I’ve done some doozies, not the least of which was carrying a tackle box full of beads and findings in my lap all the way from Attalla Alabama to Gatlinburg Tennessee so that I could make earrings while my husband drove.  That one was a bit extreme (See Exhibit A Below), but productive!

Here are a few more practical ways to pass the time in a creative way, both for your own sanity and to help teach the kiddos some great art skills.

1. Try writing over reading…Yep, writing…that’s an art form too. All of us have arrived armed with a book or magazine from home in preparation for the long wait. Next time, pass over the 17 month old copy of your least favorite magazine in the waiting room and grab a note pad and pen. I have used the back of envelopes and old scrap paper, anything you can write on is fine. I’m not talking about your to-do list, your grocery list, or a note to pick up your dry cleaning. I am talking about full on fiction. What’s the worst that could happen…you end up embarrassed in front of yourself? No way. Don’t over think it, just start writing. Imagine someone walking up to you and saying “Hey, write me a story and I’ll give you a million bucks!” That would get anyone writing, good or bad, right? And when you leave, if you don’t like it, toss it. No one has to read it or even know about it. I have been writing in my spare time for quite a while now (which I’ve never really shared) But I surprised myself. I always loved visual arts but had never tried much writing and now I adore it…yep, adore it. Anyway…I have recently gotten to a sticky point in the first novel I started writing, which will probably never be published, where I just couldn’t make the pieces fit. And one day, sitting in the doctor’s office, it all hit me. I filled a full sheet of paper (front and back) with tiny scribble notes to tie it all together. Maybe it was the quiet of the room, which I don’t get at home, or maybe it was having nothing to do but think, but it all came out right there. Give it a try, and if you don’t catch the writing bug yourself, then try it with your kids one day. Help them write out a story they make up. Kids are fearless with that stuff! We could learn from them.

2. Try being random…Everything in life is so planned. If you find yourself in a waiting room with your child, and 9 times out of 10 I do, keep a pencil or crayons and some kind of paper with you so you can play a little game that I play with my students. It doesn’t really have a name, we just call them our warm-ups and we do them at the beginning of every class. Give your child a shape and ask them to make something completely different out of it. I usually give my class about four shapes to combine and work with. I am particularly fond of letters and number but any familliar shape is fine. My students, mostly little girls, seem to fancy peace signs in the warm-ups. You can find some examples below.

Today, during a different office visit, my youngest daughter  actually put her spin on this by making it a game. She drew half of something and I had to guess what she was drawing. It would be an awesome family game night too. Put your random shapes in a cup on slips of paper. Pull a shape from the cup and have a contest to see who can use the shape in the most ways. This is a great way to teach your child, and yourself for that matter, to stretch the limits of what you see in front of you and think creatively out of the box.

3. Play “I Spy”….I know this may sound like a “Duh” kind of thing. Lots of people play “I Spy” with their kids, it’s a classic after all. But “I Spy” teaches children the very important skill of observation and looking at details. As an art instructor to adults and children, I can tell you this is one of the hardest things to break through, the difference between what you actually see and opposed to what you think is there. My example is this, we know zebras have stripes but does the zebra your looking at actually have stripes on his nose or did you just draw a bunch of random stripes and let them land where ever they fall? Now more than ever it is important for children to pay attention to their surrounding for more than artistic reasons, so break out the old school game and have at it. I like to expand it past just colors as well. We search the room for shapes and textures (I spy something fuzzy…etc.). I have used a variation of the game to see who could find all the circles or all the squares. This encourages kiddos to see the basic shapes that make up our surroundings. Then when they sit down to draw they will have an idea of where to start.

These are just a few of the stunts I’ve pulled to pass the time. Give them a try! Of course sometimes, when you have sick baby, no matter how old, they just want you to comfort them and that’s fine too. Parenthood is an art form in and of itself and I am still trying to perfect it.