Creative Kid Trent
Creative Catalyst encourages families to do art together and to get kids started, loving art, as early as possible. Here is one story of how Tanya and Trent used us as a catalyst for a creative experience. (Send us your experiences and we will consider publishing them.)
Creative Kid Trent – The Creative Catalyst Guinea Pig
My name is Tanya Shobe. I’m a 28 year old hard working Administrative Assistant, a wife of an unforgettable eight years, and a proud mother of the most interesting person I’ve ever met.
Never been much of an artist myself, but have always wanted to learn such a satisfying talent”¦if only I could find the time. Any spare time I do have, is spent with my little man, Trent. As an only child, Trent craves attention from me constantly, and loves to be the center of attention. These traits of his work well to my advantage, especially because I dread the day he no longer needs me (which I’m told is just around the corner). These moments right here and now, are so precious, and finding a lasting connection between us is more important now than ever.
Trent loves to sing most of all”¦you should hear him when he makes up his own songs. His second favorite thing to do is arts and crafts (drawing, pasting, cutting, stencils, you name it). Since I’m no Celine Dion, art is the next best thing to explore to create a long lasting bond with my growing little man. There’s no reason not to, we would both only gain from the experience.
A family member turned me onto the Creative Catalyst website. At first glance I felt intimidated. So many different techniques, most of which I had never heard of. With my intimidation, how was I ever going to get my son interested in something that I knew hardly anything about? Then I called him over”¦ (more coming soon).
Trent & Tanya’s Creative Journal - Continued
Trent is definitely a visual learner (especially since he can’t fully read yet and still has a pretty short attention span). Watching the mini movies posted on the site, was the best way to get his attention.
The first Creative Catalyst Preview we watched was by Claudine Hellmuth – Collage Textures & Techniques. To my surprise, Trent immediately announced “I could do that!” In his mind, he truly believed his little hands could create anything he set his mind to. It reminded me of the time he told me he could do back flips after watching the Olympic gymnastics.
Here’s our dialog afterwards: 
Mom: What was your favorite part of the mini movie?
Trent: The pie making oven.
Mom: What did you like most about the project?
Trent: The pie (again of course), because it makes me think of a great day, like at grandmas.
Mom: What did you like least about the project?
Trent: Building the box that the pie oven and girl was in”¦it looked too easy for me, not the fun part.
On Trent’s scale of 1 to 10, he gives it an 9.
The second CCP Preview we watched was by Hugh Greer – Creating Mood & Atmosphere (Landscapes). I was almost positive that he’d be less interested in this type of art, due to the amount of work involved and level of expertise needed. Boy was I wrong. “That’s easy Mom,” he said. What a lesson I’ve learned. Never again will I doubt his ability. Even though his finished projects may look like chicken scratch or his coloring may not be in the lines, it’s a masterpiece to him, which is how I need to see it as well.
Here’s our dialog afterwards:
Mom: What was your favorite part of the mini movie?
Trent: The nice house, but I want to draw our house.
Mom: What did you like most about the project?
Trent: I like that it’s a house painting because it would be a lot of work that I like, let’s get busy!
Mom: What did you like least about the project?
Trent: The pencil drawing beforehand because that’s a lot of work for a 6 year old mom. I can draw it without the pencil.
On Trent’s scale of 1 to 10, he gives it a 8.
The third mini movie we watched was also by Hugh Greer – Landscape Studies in Acrylic (Tools & Techniques). By this point, I’m beginning to think that I’ve doubted my own abilities”¦why can’t I do this stuff too? My 6 year old believes he can, why shouldn’t I?
Here’s our dialog afterwards:
Mom: What was your favorite part of the mini movie?
Trent: When he picked up the paint (that appeared dry), that was so cool.
Mom: What did you like most about the project?
Trent: I liked the trees a lot, they reminded me of Hawaii or Paris (your guess is as good as mine”¦he’s never seen Paris).
Mom: What did you like least about the project?
Trent: The wall wasn’t very exciting. It wasn’t very hard to make, way too easy.
On Trent’s scale of 1 to 10, he gives it a 7.
The fourth mini movie we watched was by Carrie Burns Brown – Watermedia Collage Workshop. Here’s our dialog afterwards:
Mom: What was your favorite part of the mini movie?
Trent: The rollers.
Mom: What did you like most about the project?
Trent: Everything that she did with rollers, and the stamping was my second favorite.
Mom: What did you like least about the project?
Trent: I’m worried that I might mess it up by using too much glue”¦I would want it to be perfect.
Mom: There is no reason to worry about that. This project looks better when you mess up!
On Trent’s scale of 1 to 10, he gives it a 7.
The fifth and final mini movie that we watched was by Cheng- Khee Chee. I should’ve stopped at Carrie Burns Brown, or even Hugh Greer. His attention span was shot at this point and he had lost interest in the project altogether. He started to gaze elsewhere. We still talked about it afterwards anyway, here was our dialog:
Mom: What was your favorite part of the mini movie?
Trent: There was a lot of colors.
Mom: What did you like most about the project?
Trent: I liked it when he did the drawing first and then colored it in like a coloring book.
Mom: What did you like least about the project?
Trent: I saw a lot of painting that didn’t really make anything. Looks like a lot of work for nothing (out of the mouth of babes).
On Trent’s scale of 1 to 10, he gives it a 6 (remember, it was late).
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We’ve now started to watch the videos that can be purchased through the Creative Catalyst website. Our first video that we watched was Collage: Textures & Techniques by Claudine Hellmuth. Trent seemed to be very fond of her work the first time around, so I thought it would be a great start.
First, let me start by saying, if you have a 6 year old (almost 7) or younger, that’s anything like my little man, you won’t get away with watching more that 2 technique segments in one sitting. We watched 3 techniques our first time around and he was playing with playing with his toes before the 3rd technique began.
First Technique: Peeled Paper Background
To Trent, this looked like fun”¦I worried we would have to go out and buy a bunch of supplies.
Second Technique: Peeling Paint Background 
Trent loved the idea of peeling paint, but was not so excited when he realized exactly what this involved.
Third Technique: Textured Paint Background
Besides the fact that Trent was slightly distracted, he did pay attention. Was intrigued enough to talk about all 3 segments afterwards.
A few days later, we found some time to work on the techniques we had learned. I didn’t think it was a good idea to watch any other techniques before working on what we had watched already. My husband and I both worked on the project with him, so he was sure to see our excitement.
The best part of working on a project like this with a toddler is that our version didn’t appear any better or worse than his. He never turned to me and said “Yours looks better than mine mom.” This has happened before when we work on art projects or coloring books in the past.
Instead of using the paper (can’t recall the name) Claudine had used; we worked with construction paper and pages from a book that we bought at a garage sale a while back (and never read). Instead of using the Gel Medium, we used Elmer’s Glue to paste the two pieces of paper together. Instead of using Petroleum Jelly, we used Icy Hot (don’t ask”¦we were really improvising) to create the textured paint background.
With all of these improvisations, how could our projects even come close to Claudine’s version? We nailed it! Even the Icy Hot worked like a charm (as long as we washed our hands immediately afterwards). It was exciting to discover what materials we could instead. Cheap, easy and fun!
On Mom’s scale from 1 to 10, I give it a 10!
Trent agrees!
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Our next time around with Claudine’s video, we watched only 2 techniques, which worked much better than before.
Fourth Technique: Heat Transfer 
Looks like fun but we’ll probably need to purchase a heating tool for this. Might be too dangerous to try with Trent. He wouldn’t be able to work on it himself
Fifth Technique: Caulking Image Transfer
Claudine mentioned that white caulking should be used instead of any other substance, so we would need to purchase this as well.
Both of these techniques might have to be worked on at a later time, when we have upgraded our art supplies.
