Saturday, March 9, 2013

Families That Doodle Together Stay Together

Daytime & Nighttime Dancers

Ok, doodling in and of itself is not the secret that binds families together.  However, this week, I was reminded of just how important shared interests and family fun are in encouraging strong bonds.  A friend of mine was talking on Facebook about a cool free site that she loves to use for doodle breaks: Pixlr.com.  After seeing some of her beautiful drawings, I HAD to check it out for myself.

Although not the most talented, I am an artist at heart.  Years ago, I regularly painted and sketched as hobbies.  But with the chaos of motherhood, I’ve sidestepped these interests for now.  This site seemed like a small, much less expensive way to appease my creative desires (much like my recent discovery of the joys of amateur movie making last month).  So I eagerly punched in the web address and set to work at figuring out the many tools of the Pixlr Editor.

Curious to see what I was doing, my 5-year-old daughter came to watch.  Seeing all the beautiful colors and neat designs I could make on the screen, she immediately started spouting ideas for things that I could draw.  As I was randomly doodling, a face started to appear in my drawing, and my little girl exclaimed, “Mommy, we HAVE to make a girl!”

As I let inspiration and her suggestions guide my hand, in time our shared project took shape and we decided to make it a doodle of daytime and nighttime dancers.  It’s not a masterpiece, but the smiles it brought to our faces were.  It was so incredibly fun to do something randomly creative with my little one and to see where our combined ideas could take us!  Within a half an hour, we had created something new and unique—something that neither of us would have been able to make without the other.  In this little drawing, I still see my princess’s excitement and enthusiasm and I can still hear her giggles and squeals of delight.

We have already made plans to print this doodle out, frame it, and then start our own wall of family art.  With a simple site, we have ignited a common family interest and years from now, we will have these memories and art to share.  There is something about hands united in a mutual activity that reminds us of how lucky we are to have our family and of why we work so hard every week to keep our family happy, healthy, and provided for.

What do you do with your children to help keep your family strong and connected?

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