• Tag Archives children’s literature

  • How to Screw Up a Really Great Art Project

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin 3 Comments

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    How to Screw Up a Really Great Art Project

    (In 5 Easy Steps)

    Task: Make an art project about a book with your 6-year-old son for the library summer reading program.

     

    1. Have a fabulous idea.

    Well, he says he wants to do it on a Curious George book. You can work with that.

    Hmm… maybe something artsy from your childhood. Something fun that you remember doing with your mom.

    That’s it! A decoupage project! You can make a model of a hot air balloon like in Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon!

    curious george

    After all, you did a really cool one as a kid. Which means you’re pretty much an expert. And you can save time. You already know how to do it. It isn’t like you’ll need to waste time googling it. After all, it was only, what? 30 years ago. Piece of cake.

    1. Do the project completely wrong.

    Note to self: decoupage is not the same things as paper mache.

    As a child, you used decoupage to make a basket for your grandma for Christmas. As an adult, you once used paper mache to make a piñata (note the “once.” Never. Again.)

    Somehow these two techniques need to become tangled in your brain so that you remember the difference only after you have a mess of napkins and flour water. Yes, for those of you who don’t know decoupage (using a mixture of glue and water) makes things nice and shiny, while paper mache (using a mixture of flour and water) makes things, well, yucky.

    Big difference.

    1. Don’t get enough supplies.

    You really don’t need to buy more supplies. Save money. Just use what you have on hand. You know those birthday napkins that you never used from two years ago? Use those.

    No, it doesn’t matter that no store even carries that same design any more.

    Don’t worry about it. You’ll have enough.

    And if, on the off-chance you don’t, you can send your wonderful husband to the store at 7:00 in the morning before he goes to work, to find some that, well, don’t match and are still unusable anyway.

    1. Try to fix the mess when you remember how to actually do decoupage.

    Go over everything with the decoupage glue wash, so that now you have a shiny mess. Forget those nifty napkins your husband bought and just cover the holes with standard white napkins instead. After all, then you can decorate the white part with marker afterward.

    No, it won’t look like toilet paper. Promise.

    No, it won’t look like dirty toilet paper when the color underneath comes through. Double promise.

    1. Label the Monster.

    Maybe if you name the monster, it won’t be so scary.

    Everything is dried. All the pieces are attached. It doesn’t look great, but it sort of looks like a hot air balloon, and after the hours you and your son have already put into the thing, you’re calling it.

    Last step is to label it with the title of the book.

    You have to do this part. As fantastically smart as your 6-year-old is, you can not trust him to do this right. It needs to be legible. It needs to be spelled correctly.

    Here we go. Permanent black marker in hand. Positioned over the (sort of) white toilet paper at the top of the hot air balloon. Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon. Curious George…

    C-H-U…

    IMG_6953

    Why doesn’t that look right? What’s wrong with it?

    Of course you spell Curious, C-H-U—cue hysterical laughter.

    Then hurriedly draw a hot air balloon over your mistake and get the 6-year-old to come “fix” the rest of it. If anybody asks, he can honestly say that, yes, that part the looks like it was drawn by a 6-year-old was in fact his very own work. Because you’re an awesome mom like that. You let the kids do their own work. Even if it looks bad. Pride of ownership. Make your own mistakes. Clichés all packed and ready. Turn that monster in!

    IMG_6954

     

    And there you have it, the full free tutorial on how to screw up a really great art project. In our next installment, I will be writing about how to screw up licking an envelope. Challenging, I know, but this super-mommy has done it, and will show you how to do it too.

     


    📂This entry was posted in Mommy projects Summer '16 📎and tagged

  • How I Became J. Lasterday

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin Comment

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    I recently published my first children’s book, and I did so under a pen name. Of course, I anticipated the inevitable questions as to why I chose to do that and why the name J. Lasterday.

    I used a pen name because I wanted to have a distinct separation between the vastly different genres. I wanted kids to be able to look up J. Lasterday, and find exactly what they were looking for. The same with my Amanda Tru name. Of course, I have no problem with people knowing both names belong to the same person! Hey, if you enjoy my Amanda Tru books, maybe your kids will like the J. Lasterday ones!

    As far as the pen name itself, it is very sentimental. J. stands for Jane, and is in honor of the imaginary friend who stayed with us for a very long time. In fact, he still shows up every once in a while. (Yes, Jane is a boy.) My oldest son first introduced us to Jane when he was about three. Many kids have imaginary friends, but Caleb had an imaginary town, complete with a large population of friends. Jane, however, was our most frequent visitor. So much so that he was somehow adopted by my second son. We played with Jane a lot. When my boys would run races around the house, I would call the races as they competed against Jane and others. That poor Jane. He wasn’t very fast. I don’t know that he ever won a single race.

    If you look at the dedication for my book, “The Dragon’s Escape,” you will see that it is dedicated to my boys, “in memory of all of your lasterdays.” The following is a blog post I wrote a couple of years ago, around New Year’s. I think it clearly explains the origin of Lasterday.

    When I chose a pen name, it was a name which, to me, captured the essence of childhood. I want my books to spark imagination and revel in the joy of being a kid. So for my wonderful “grown up” readers who love my unexpected stories, I will be Amanda Tru, but for the children, I will be J. Lasterday.

    Lasterday

    Blog Post from January 2013

    Whew!  I’m running behind!  I’ve been busy finishing writing my new book and also getting some big projects done for my family.  So, I know it’s late, but this is my New Year’s post.

    I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions.  Of course, I have some things I would like to accomplish this year.  I have a list of books to write, and I have the standard ‘get into a good exercise routine’ goal.  I’d also like to revamp my Bible reading and devotional time.

    However, I tend to be a very goal-oriented, stubborn person anyway, so I don’t necessarily need the pressure of a resolution to accomplish my goals.  If anything, I tend to get too focused on the things I need to accomplish.  I can get so caught up in the details that I lose the beauty of the big picture.  I think it’s actually a pretty common problem with moms.  There’s so many expectations put on us by others and ourselves that it’s hard to remember to breathe let alone take a moment to stop and enjoy the view.

    So maybe what I need is an anti-resolution . . .

    My 3 year old uses the term ‘lasterday.’  I think it’s a combination of ‘yesterday’ and ‘last night.’  He frequently asks in his cute voice if we did something lasterday.  And I never correct him as to the proper term.  Why?  Because I know that he will eventually realize it on his own, and his lasterdays will forever cease.  And what really bothers me is that I don’t know when the last time is that he will say it.  If I did know, I would try to find a way to record it.  Or maybe I would just hold him and savor the sound of his cute voice telling me about lasterday.

    So that got me thinking . . .

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You asked me to play with you.

    I’d stop everything I was doing

    And we’d get every toy out and play with it twice.

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You wanted me to pretend.

    I’d crawl after you and the other ‘kitties’

    And answer you in meow.

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You sang the wrong lyrics to a song.

    I’d belt out the wrong words with you

    And dance you around the room

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You asked me to read you a story.

    I would find the child’s version of ‘War and Peace’

    So it would last forever.

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You wanted me to ‘tuckle’ you in bed.

    I’d crawl in beside you, pray away the nightmares, sing lullabies,

    And fall asleep with you in my arms

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You let me kiss and hug you goodbye

    I’d making it embarrassingly long

    Then watch until you were long out of sight

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You asked me to kiss your owie.

    I’d put extra magic into the kiss

    So it would cover all future hurts.

    If I knew it would be the last time

    You crawled into my bed in the morning.

    I would snuggle you close, smell your hair,

    And remember my little baby

    Time goes so fast.

    So many lasts.

    And I know not when.

    So I’ll savor each time as a last.

    I’ll close my eyes, hold you close,

    Take a picture in my mind.

    Keep that one moment to last forever.

    Then I’ll let you go.  Smile through my tears.

    And follow you into tomorrow.

    I have an impossibly long list of things I should accomplish this year.  But this is my anti-resolution:  I’m going to try to work on the things I really want to remember in twenty years or more.  I’m going to try to live in the moments of my children being young.

    So, if you come into my house, you may have to excuse the clean laundry pile the size of Mount Everest and the pretend kitties crawling around the furniture.  We’re busy making memories and enjoying whatever lasterdays we have today.

    Poem and Post by Amanda Tru


    📂This entry was posted in J. Lasterday 📎and tagged