Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A Grave Situation

This project was the result of boredom. Namely that of Victoria (12) and her gaggle of tweeny friends. Half wanted to go to the park, the other half said, "boring" and I said, "let's go to the cemetary". I grabbed a large pad of ancient tracing paper, a cigar box of peeled crayons (undressing crayons is Rebecca's favorite past time) and piled 7 people into a car that should only hold 5 people safely. It's a small town and I was only driving 7 blocks. And it was an emergency. I had girls dying of boredom!I gave them the assignment to write out their names (first and last) by rubbing the letters off of different headstones. I jokingly told them that they would be graded. Neatness counted. I wanted the outing to last more than 5 minutes. One girl asked, "are you a teacher?". I replied, "no, I'm a MOM".
Two girls really got into it and would have stayed another hour rubbing and collecting headstone designs. The other three (one being my daughter) were bored again and wanted to leave. They did their little assignment and had enough. I personally had a great time and was excited to see that some of the girls thought it was a cool idea.

So go load up your kids and visit your dead relatives.
Take some tracing paper and crayons.

GO MAKE SOME ART!


7 comments:

Jeanie said...

What a great idea! I did brass rubbings when I was in England, but I never thought to come here and do it!

Donna said...

HAHAhahaaa....only you!! It IS a great idea!! I'll try it on my grandkids the Next time they say "I'm bored!" hughugs

Anna said...

ok - mom of the year award......goes to nathalie!!! :) that sounds like FUN..... only my boys would probably end up diggin up worms and playing scary skeleton...... they love all things spooky...... (as little boys should - i think?) I love graveyards for photo ops... guess i like all things spooky too? xo, anna

Ashlyn said...

Bring on the NEW favorite past-time.....Grave Rubbing. Come one, come all! Bring your crayons, bring your paper and let's all do some grave rubbing! ;) And BEST of all it's FREE!! Lol
Hugs, Ashlyn

~*~Patty S said...

you're so funny Nathalie and very inventive in your ideas for the kids :)
I really like visiting cemeteries, and always look for stone angel statues

Margaret said...

How very original and creative of you!! they won't forget hanging out at yours for a while! Love the hands.

Bella McBride said...

Oh! I'm jealous! I love cemeteries and have been known to take my nieces and nephews out to many an old cemetery to take pictures! I had similar reactions... some enjoyed it, others were bored... oh well, I enjoyed it!