My Artists

I was a little hesitant to read Betsy Tacy to BOYS, but we plan to go visit the Betsy Tacy homes soon so I read the first book to them. In the first book Betsy and Tacy start a store selling colored sand. Their friends paid them in pins but a neighbor lady paid them real money in coins that were worth a lot of money to them back then. Lamb 1 immediately wanted to start a sand store and make some money. I discouraged this because of the mess it would make using food coloring to color sand and filling bottles. Betsy and Tacy used sand leftover from building an addition to their house and colors leftover from Easter eggs. So I thought I got out of this idea because the Lambs didn't have any coloring left over from Easter eggs nor any sand besides what was in their sand table.

Lamb 1 spent several days after we read that chapter thinking of what he could do to make some money. Several ideas were thought of and then for various reasons they wouldn't work. I'm not sure how he came up with the idea, but he decided to draw and color pictures and sell them. They worked on their art for several days. We then talked about how sometimes artists will be commissioned to do a work. So recently I commissioned Lamb 1 to draw some pictures that I can add a note to and send as thank you notes. Lamb 2 and 3 got into this too and they now have an art store. Here they are working in their store:

Lamb 2 was having a difficult time coming up with his own ideas for his own art work. Lamb 1 was getting upset that Lamb 2 was copying his art work. So I commissioned Lamb 1 to draw our family and Lamb 2 to draw Ram and Ewe (I thought our family would be too much for him.) Both Lambs did pretty well on one of their first times drawing people when asked to. Lamb 1's photo is one for me to put in the scrapbook-he drew Ram's scar on his stomach and chest hair on Ram under his clothes. They have spent a lot of their time at their art store when they weren't playing outside. Yesterday they decided to hang their best photos on the wall so customers can see their choices. Lamb 1 is also working on adding simple (paper) frames to his best photos and charging more for those. I'm thankful that Betsy and Tacy didn't make too much money on their sand store so the Lambs accept coins for payment!
So grandparents, bring your nickels and dimes and quarters when you come visit us. Plain pictures cost 5-10 cents, commissioned works cost 25 cents, and framed photos are 20-25 cents. The art store continually is adding more items as the Lambs have more ideas, but I think these prices will stick for awhile. The art store has hours that work with the Lambs schedule-it closes before their bedtime, but after it closes you can still commission work for them to do the next day.
I never would have guessed reading Betsy Tacy would turn into an art store that has kept the Lambs busy for several days! And I think both Lamb 1 and 2 are ready for some drawing lessons this fall from Drawing with Children. Yesterday Lamb 3 spent some of the time vacuuming while the other Lambs were working on art. I don't think he's ready for drawing lessons or being commissioned to do art work yet. Lamb 1 is begging for more read alouds from the Betsy Tacy series. I am not reading more to them-he can read it himself if he really wants to. Plus one of the next books has Betsy and Tacy pretending to fly like a bird-I don't want to encourage that when we live 7 miles from the ER!