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kristacecilia
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 7:00am | IP Logged
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I was curious what other people think.
Over the course of my childrens' short lives (my oldest is almost 6) we have accumulated tons of cheap crayons, colored pencils, and markers.
I love good quality art materials. I browse and browse through all your recommendations (since it's been years since I have had any formal art training or exposure!) and drool. I want to buy new crayons, colored pencils, paper....
But I already have so much! I feel like I would be wasting what I have by purchasing new things to replace them before they are used up.
Something else I have considered is buying 1 nice quality art supply a year, like water colors this year, colored pencils next year, etc. THese would be used only for 'school' projects. If the kids just wanted to scribble we would say that was practice and they could use the old things to practice with.
What do you all do?
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 10:06am | IP Logged
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I have things that the kids can get out any time.. and others that we get out for special.. like water colors. But with how many children, space, ages, my temperament etc. I really can't handle even water colors out unless I have time to completely oversee it.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged
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We have tons of everyday art supplies, plus my son's collection of Derwent colored pencils. My dd (the craft queen!) knows she can use anything except the pencils whenever she likes.
Occasionally we'll buy something special for a particular project - I try to use coupons or at least find free shipping on these items - but we tend to focus on the everyday materials and needs. (I am a huge impulse buyer of All Things Crafty, so keeping me out of Michael's is always a good idea...  )
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 3:19pm | IP Logged
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For children the ages of yours, if you have a lot - I would find lots of art projects over the course of the next several months and have FUN! Use what you have, but don't encourage wastefulness either - all art needs to be exploring a concept in a positive way. Get creative with what you can do (side-note: art-pacs and CHA at the early levels are all about crayon usage). Develop basic skills like how to hold each item, what is it good to be used on, staying inside lines, creating one's own lines, etc. etc. etc.
Find something for them to use those markers up and then don't buy anymore.
Then, once it is all gone or getting pretty low, start investing in good quality stuff and since their creative juices will already be flowing, they'll begin being able to focus on their specific interests.
This way, you're being frugal in using what you have; you're encouraging your children to explore; they are learning basic art skills; then as you see where interests lie, you'll be able to invest in higher-quality and fewer items which need to be cared for and utilized properly.
If you dump everything and purchase higher-quality NOW, they won't have had that time to practice quality and care. I'd still have a couple of things on hand for newer upcoming little ones, but the general atmosphere will already have been set and won't require so much :)
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ekbell
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 4:23pm | IP Logged
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I was more or less in the same position a few years back
What I've done is-
Thrown out most of the markers- I was getting tired of uncapped markers so.... (I do have a set hidden away ) I was planning to have the markers more available once my children were being more careful with them but they haven't actually asked for them 
Placed all the cheap crayons and pencil crayons someplace where they are easily accessed (and bought more pencil sharpners)
Gradually bought higher quality items for birthdays and Christmas according to my children's particular intersts (I've found that things last better in our household if they belong to a particular person) .
I've found that my school aged children prefer using their own better quality items even though this requires them to fetch them from where they are kept and put them back rather then use the stuff that is in the common pool (however, my younger children frequently make use of the common pool).
BTW I love, love, love good watercolor pencils and waterbrushes- it's so easy for the children to be neat and tidy.
No cups of water to knock down, I haven't had paint drips or encrusted paint brushes, no paint cakes with a layer muddy color on top .....
I've also found that cutting watercolor paper down to trading card sized sheets has helped greatly. I'm happy that the children are no longer painting small pictures on big sheets of paper and the children are happy that their pictures are looking better (and they can paint lots of them in a short period of time).
And we have so many options
We can use the watercolor pencils purely as pencil crayons, we can play with doing a waterwash after coloring or coloring on wet paper, or we can use the brush to pick paint off a pencil tip and paint. We can even do pictures using pencils or regular pencil crayons and water color crayons (you can get some interesting textured effects).
[I have my own set of watercolor pencil crayons, water color cakes, waterbrushes and good pencil crayons - both for my own use and to model proper care]
I have in the past bought a few items to be saved for 'school projects' or the like- I've found that such items tend to languish unused as my children tend to dislike any hint of doing art on order (they'll happily spend hours on arts and crafts but only if it's their idea) and also I tend to find myself forgetting about anything hidden away. I've had some success with such items being placed out of reach but within reach.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 02 2010 at 4:51pm | IP Logged
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I love CatholicMommy's suggestions!!!!
My children love a variety of different quality art materials here. We prefer Prang to Crayola, but it's still very inexpensive. My older children prefer pencils and crayons and markers with vivid pigments that express smoothly - not choppy - on the page.
I donated a container of Crayolas to our parish CCD class once and that allowed me to donate materials that weren't being used here. (please don't throw tomatoes at me if you like Crayolas - it's just a personal pref thing I'm sure!!!) It definitely WAS NOT necessary, and if our budget hadn't allowed for a few new purchases I never would have done this, but it fit, so I replaced them with a set of Prangs and then slowly added in a few of the nicer materials. I keep *good* materials available for all the kids, and *quality* materials are available for older children that can exercise care in their use.
Another idea is to make a car bag or basket that you can tuck in some of your *ok* color pencils and crayons for errand days along with paper, clipboards and nice coloring books.
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Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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ekbell
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| Posted: March 02 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged
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That reminds me, one set of crayola pencils which we bought on sale are tucked inside our nature bag along with the girls' sketchbooks.
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: March 02 2010 at 7:49pm | IP Logged
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I love your idea, too, CatholicMommy!
Actually, I love it so much that I broke out my ArtPac1 from CHC that wasn't a big hit in the fall and let my kids each do a project. DS1 (almost 6- the intended recipient of the ArtPac) hated it and refused to participate. He went back to playing his keyboard instead.
However, DS2 (just turned 4) adored it and he and I had great fun doing a project together.
I doubt I could ever use up all that I have, but I am going to give it a good try!
I also liked Jennifer's suggestions, too. I think I might be able to donate our big box of crayons to the local playgroup. That would just leave us the "better" of the cheap stuff to work through.
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: To use or to invest?
