A Child's Self-Portrait

Well, I have just completed the first parent-kid school project. It is NOT easy to restrain oneself from taking over. I mean, you really shouldn't because these activities are for your child's imagination and creativity, but MAN did I have to stop myself from arguing with the kid! HAHA!

Let me tell you about the Brodster's process for his first self-portrait.

It started relatively simple: yarn for the hair. I drew his hairline and placed the glue, he put each small piece of yarn to fill the space. Teamwork at its finest!

Then we discussed what was next. I loved how he would run to the mirror to examine his face every time we moved on to the next step. At first, he wanted google eyes but quickly changed his mind because he wanted to draw them. That's when he drew his eyebrows and I was completely confused at his technique.

He called them "thinking eyebrows". Why did he want those? I let it go and we decided to put yarn on the eyebrows as well (after all, those are hair too).

Then he drew his mouth in a windy curve. I was surprised because he is normally so good about his facial features, but this was out of the norm. This is where the actual discussion began. I asked what he was trying to do and he kept saying it was his "thinking mouth". What is happening?

FINALLY, he revealed his plan: He wanted a think bubble at the end! In his self-portrait, the Brodster wanted to be thinking about cheese pizza, his favorite food! I drew the bubble for him and he drew the delicious dish.

After we finished, the Brodster was very proud of his work. He couldn't wait to take it to school today because he knew it would get hung up. Still, I couldn't help but wonder where he got the idea for the "thinking eyebrow" and "thinking mouth".

Hours later, it dawned on me. For his fourth birthday, we had a Wreck-It Ralph birthday party. I had made goodie bags that looked like this:

Pretty good for a kid drawing from memory, right?

This kid never seems to stop surpring me. I'm really looking forward to the school years and how much smarter than me he will turn out to be.