I made up a new activity to do with my 5 year old son, Bency this past weekend. Well, I should say, I think I made it up. It’s such a simple concept that it has probably been around for a hundred years and I just never heard of it.
It came about because my 7 year old daughter, Iris had a friend over and they didn’t want to include Bency in their games. Bency was feeling left out so I told him I would play with him.
First we played a very long game of chess which I finally beat him at then I suggested we do some drawing together.
Bency sighed and groaned, “Oh please don’t try to teach me how to draw Superman again.”
Since Bency is my little artist and loves to draw I had tried teaching him how to draw Superman last week. I thought he was ready to advance beyond stick people. He wasn’t. I tried to keep the lesson simple but apparently moving from stick people to Superman is too big of a leap.
So I quick came up with another idea.
I’ll call it Cloud Drawing.
This requires two or more people
One person starts out by drawing a 1-3 inch line on the paper in any direction either straight or with curves (anything goes it just has to be 1-3 inches).
The next person starts off where the last person left off (keep the lines connected) drawing their own 1-3 line or curve.
This continues until the lines finally find their way back to the starting point and you have one large shape.
Now the fun part is trying to decide what it looks like. It’s similar to cloud watching!
We turned the paper every which way and would decide what it most resembled and then I went in and added details to bring what started out as a blob to life!
This was a great activity and would make for an excellent road trip game, some rainy day fun or in our case a cold, winter day with no one to play with except your Mom!
Here are some examples of the ones we made:
Bency and I both saw a tree with a bird perched on it so I went in and added bark for the tree and an eye for the bird!
Bency saw a pirate standing by a tree…I didn’t see it at all so he went in and added the details on this one!
We saw a puppy in this one but I had to add the tail and eyes!
Brilliant parenting and child-ing there!
Thank you Colleen!
How come you weren’t over here guiding me when mine were bored!!? You come up with such brilliant ideas – clever , clever and more cleverer you are? lol
Thank you Jen!
Neat/creative.
Thank you!
I love this idea! I might steal it. I’m always looking for something different for when they get particularly stir crazy!
Stir crazy has particularly been the case in our house lately!!
What a great idea!!
Thank you!
So cool! I’m gonna try this with kae!
That’s great! Thank you!
This idea is GOLD!!!
Thank you Sis!
This is a fantastic idea Melissa! LOVE it!
Thank you!!
Very creative!
Thank you!
I “see” a way to get my son to draw!!! Thanks for sharing your genius!
Thanks for checking it out!!
That is SOOOO cool!!
thank you!
You are amazing. I think even no-artistic-bone-in-my-body me could maybe pull that off. Brilliant!
Exactly! No drawing skills required here!!
what a great idea! this would be fantastic for long waits at restaurants too! brilliant!
Oh yes, I forgot about restaurants and doctor’s offices too!!
Great mother, and child interaction. This is a a very interesting activity, it increases the attention span, keeps the players engaged, great thinking skills, fun, etc. I love i! Thank ou for sharing. Keep sharing your Creative Ideas. Mtetar
Thank you so much Mtetar! I never would have thought that it did all those things but you are so right!!! Every once in awhile new ideas pop into my head so I will definitely share them!
You’re welcome, and I’ll be looking forward to your post. Best, Mtetar
Amazing! And seriously, those pictures beautiful!
Oh, thank you so much!!
Great idea — but I would have to be a MUCH better artist to get my pictures to look like yours and Bency’s! You too are wonderful artists/illustrators — and if you had extra time, you and he could write up a story about them. Fantastic idea!
The story would be fun to add to them too! Great idea! Thank you!
You are so creative
love this!!!
Thank you so much Ingrid!
that is such a cute idea. xxxx
Thank you!!
You need to write a book of activities!
Oh boy! That’s quite a compliment! Thank you Sarah!
I meant it as so!
Love this idea. Actually, I think I play this game by myself at work at lot
This would come so in handy during a lonnnnnggg boring meeting or phone call!!
Those look so cool! I bet he wasn’t bored while playing this “game”!!
We’ve done a similar thing, but with markers. One person draws any shape (only rule is you can’t pick up your marker once it’s touching the paper – you end where you started), then the next person draws something. It turns into something as each person adds to it. Usually some sort of person or creature. We end up working together to make things symmetrical (one of us draws an eye, the other one needs to 
). It’s fun!
Oh, that’s great!!
I’m with Lisa! I could probably do this for a good hour by myself. My daughter would probably never allow it. She would LOVE to participate in a game of cloud drawing! Sheer genius, Melissa!
Thanks Anka!
When did u teach him to play chess, i learned at his age also, does iris play also, please don’t tell me cesar too.
Both of the kids started playing in November but Bency is the one who really likes it. They have chess tournaments occasionally around here and he wants to start competing. He caught on really quick! And no, Cesar is not playing!!! haha!!
Dang melissa your like bon jovi to your followers from these suggestions, if grandma would of put some of her old activities on a blog, they might think she’s Einstein, all of you mom also are very creative parents.
I keep telling her and Grandpa they need to start a blog!
What a great Idea you guys are so creative and imaginative. LOVE IT YOU ROCK
Thanks Pam!!
As many before me have stated, this is a really awesome and creative idea! I am a 28yr old bachelor, so take extra special pride in one of us thinking that this is really cool! I can’t wait to try it with my niece and nephew, well nephew…my niece would just eat the paper…
This is the ultimate compliment…a 28 year old bachelor…you made my day! Thanks!
Love this! What a wonderful idea
Bency is so creative too!
Thank you!!
Very innovative, Melissa ! Let me try it with my son… may be when he’s grown a little.
Thank you so much!