four-year-old artwork

She loves to color. I gave Hannah her first sketch pad recently. "Thank you for my pad. I love it!!"

When she comes out of quiet time, and Joseph is still napping, she'll pull up a chair next to me in the office and start another creation.

I pulled out the old art school Prismacolor pencils for her to color with. She was beside herself with excitement. Of course I gave her the "these-are-really-nice-and-expensive-colored-pencils-so-please-don't-destroy-them" talk.

She colors every day, going back and forth between crayons, markers and colored pencils. Excited to show me something new to put on the refrigerator. We are now less into coloring books and more into freehand drawing. Lots of stick figures and lots of "marry girls".

She came home from church with this a few Sundays ago:

None of these people are me. I believe she said it was her friend, Katie, her daddy (the one with the spiked black hair, obviously) and herself. I'm not really sure if she was doing the "Who makes you happy?" exercise or just drawing a picture. If so, I'm glad she makes herself happy. That's a healthy place to be. When I asked about it later, she clarified that I make her happy, too.

She colors for family, for friends, and just for no reason at all except to color.

Her first family portrait:

{clockwise from top: Hannah, Mollie, Joe, Chloe, me and Joseph.}

Definitely deserved a spot on the fridge.

For almost three years she brought home cute little preschool works-of-art, ranging from chicken scratches on her first coloring sheets to adorable crafts. I've kept most of the crafts but have started weeding out the colorings and worksheets. With two in preschool bringing home 2-3 things everyday, it was getting to be a bit much. I photograph it all… 

Some of my favorites from her 3- and 4-year-old years:

Her coloring skills have come a long way…

{beginning two-year-old class}

{end two-year-old class}

{three-year-old class}

 {four-year-old class}

Even her watercoloring has improved.

When I get home at noon with the kids, I open folders to see what's been done in school. They love this part of the day, proudly presenting their accomplishments to me. I love it too.

Occasionally Hannah does still bring home colorful pictures. For example, this windmill last week:

But I know she's growing up because lately less crafty stuff and coloring sheets are coming home and we're seeing more worksheets.

She's got her numbers and letters down and asks us questions about words and sounds. She can count pretty high and we recently went through a phase when it seemed that's all she did. {I think to 126 was the most recent counting exercise.} She is learning how to apply at home the things she learns at school and she is so eager to learn. 

She brought home a book from school last week and read her first sight-word "chapter" (just a few pages and just a couple words). She was cute about it. Very proud of herself. This is a fun age.

So… I started this post last week but hadn't gotten around to publishing it. Guess I'll finish it up with this collection of wedding people she drew for me yesterday:

{From top left: "Momma the marry girl, Daddy the groom, Hannah the flower girl, Jackson the ring bearer, Aunt Crystal the bride maid, and Maddie the junior bride maid."}