Quarantine Diaries - New skill - Pencil Sketching

M out of the blue one day used her normal writing pencils to follow a pencil sketching tutorial on YouTube. I was mighty impressed by the end result.

She ofcourse gauging my reaction thought it opportune to ask for proper supplies - a complete kit with all pencils including graphite and charcoal and smudgers and what not. Being the ever encouraging (and too appeasing according to Vish) mom, I agreed. I mean to her point she isn't going for any camps or travel or anything at all in the near future! Anyways Amazon Prime came to rescue and am happy to report she has been painstaking working on sketches ever since. This is her work so far! WHo knows she might just end up inspiring me, though I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Art Classes!

First, I think I have not talked about this before but here it is - we have finally decided to skip enrolling M in a playschool/preschool for the time being. So, most probably we are looking at her start a preschool at 3.5y+, which according to me seems "more right" :) - many reasons - she is eligible only for the toddler programs as of now, and I don't find them interesting or exciting in any way - she does a lot more at home with me - preschool programs looked like something she would enjoy but the criteria is 3y+ and potty trained - both of which are still milestones to be reached for us; and most importantly I think I am not ready, so anyways I am shielding her from one year of institutionalized learning :D.

However, her days are long (and tend to get boring), so we have got her enrolled into a weekly art class. (Mostly because she loves spending her time getting messy with colors, play dough and stuff like that at home too, and nothing seems enough!) We did the preview class today and were thrilled. Exactly what I was looking for - one hour of unlimited paints, colors, unrestricted mess, a story time, song and snack included. I have to accompany her ofcourse (I love it too :p). We will also be doing a kiddie gym class (unstructured), for about an hour everyday. 

I think this along with her park trips (that include lot of sidewalk doodling with chalk), library trips, long hours of storytime with mommy, toys, puzzles, crayons, and stuff at home, and the joy (!) of helping mommy in her household chores like cooking, laundry, her day should be covered - oh and I must also add watching Peppa Pig to that list - this is our latest addiction and more about it in another post!

I must add we get to take all the art work home, so now we'll have more interesting garage walls, if nothing else.