Relaxing with art
Our kid loved art — it was her best friend, and helped her relax as well as heal. She loved it so much that we decided to fill an entire wall with art 😉
She liked all types of art — from doodling, cartooning, sketching, and watercolor, to acrylic on canvas. We picked the style and difficulty depending on her energy levels and motor control. We saved acrylic for days with more energy and fine motor control. Otherwise, the more frequent ones were doodles, sketches, and cartoons.
During consolidation, she got a nice lightweight boogie board as a gift. She loved it and started doodling like crazy — she drew doodles of us, her grandparents, her favorite princesses and characters. We also used it to play games like hangman and pictionary. We took that along everywhere, to the clinic visits as well as hospital stays. It became our lightweight companion.
Apart from art, we also tried crafts like big melty beads, stained glass, shrink art and clay charms (beware: some of these involve a bit more of parental help).
This post will be incomplete without emojis. Our kid simply LOVED emojis. Through her several hospital stays during Interim Maintenance in the months of December and January, she spent a lot of time making cards with emojis for the nurses and her hospital friends. Some of the nurses called her the “emoji girl”! This one is my favorite, it took her a couple of days. Guess what she used to draw the faces? Small hospital cups for medicine and mouthwash. 😉 She made this card for the nurses and staff at Kaiser, and they loved it so much that they hung it on their display board for several weeks. She was so touched by their kind gesture, that she drew more emoji cards. Lol!
Overall, art has been super relaxing for our kid, and continues to be her favorite thing to do each day. Did someone say art can be therapeutic? You bet!