14 month old Pablo Picasso

 

This post is a little late; I have been meaning to write it, but something else always popped up first.  Anyway, a few weeks ago, my son and I had the privilege of visiting "Make a Messterpiece" in Glenview for a day of creativity, painting, bubbles, cooking and appreciating art in different forms.  I really wish he wouldn't have fallen asleep 2 minutes before we parked because he had a blast and we certainly could have stayed longer, but I could see the need for sleep twinkling in his eyes after 2 hours.  If you have the opportunity to visit "Make a Messterpiece" GO!

We explored the art center with the messiest package, meaning we had access to all of the activities.  Learn more about it here:  Make a Messterpiece

 

 

Some of the activities were geared towards older children, 3-4 years old and up, but that didn’t stop our little guy from participating!  The first activity we visited was a mini cooking class where he learned about plants and what they need in order to grow while making his own dirt pudding.  He got a kick out of crushing the graham crackers!  From there we moved onto the Science experiment.  My girlfriends jokingly say that all my years teaching 3^rd and 5^th grade Science have turned me into a female Bill Nye so initially I may have been a little more excited for this activity than he was, but in the end I think there was equal enthusiasm!  Maybe I have a future scientist on my hands?!  The young girl conducting the experiment was energetic and patient while the little learners explored what an oil spill would do to a bird’s feathers and how to clean them.  Our little scientist just didn’t want to stop!  In between the scheduled activities we visited the bubble machines to make bubble art.  This was really neat, but I was disappointed so many of the shorter bubble stations were out of order.  Our little guy LOVES bubbles (we currently have 15+ bottles of bubbles in our home!) and watching them pop on his paper to make artwork was exciting to him, but it was difficult to get a variety of colors because of the machines not working.  This was a bummer!

 

The open art area- easels, painting at the table, creation station (recycled materials), and play-doh were the biggest hit with him!  In fact, it has prompted us to order an easel for our home!  He was so content and focused when painting at the table and easel.  It was darling to see our Pablo Picasso in the making hard-at-work!  We spent so much time in this area we never made it to the play area.  There was also a room called “Drum Roll.”  I am not sure what takes place here because during our visit there were older kids playing in there and I didn’t want to put a damper on their fun by bringing our munchkin in there. 

 

   

 

Overall, we had a fantastic day of painting and getting messy!  If you take a trip there, make sure you were clothing that can get messy without a fuss!   

A bonus to military families: they offer a military discount! 

 

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