Kid (?) Art

I L-O-V-E kid art. I am particularly fond of MY kid's art. My second favorite kid art is kid art that I (as teacher) managed to elicit from kids. In other words, art that I inspire. (I'll take my glory where I can get it...) I don't especially miss my old job, but I acknowledge it will be hard to replace whenever I do re-enter the work force. I do, however, miss the child-centered philosophy of my old school. I miss the freedom of expression inherent in the Regio Emilia based curriculum. I miss kid art that looks like kids did it.

This is the art Nicco brought home this week:

Nicco said of this blue and red creation "This is my train. See? The engine is blue and it is not as big as the caboose, but the caboose is red because cabooses should be red. Remember the red caboose we saw at Grandma and Grandpa's mountain house? It was red and it was huge. That is why the caboose is bigger than the engine. Small engines can pull big cars. Really. They can."
Nicco did not say anything about his gingerbread man. Can you blame him? Boring snoring! Besides, what can he say about something he did not do? I want a gingerbread man with lopsided eyes, a crooked smile, and buttons on its face. I want piles of glitter randomly strewn about its body. I want its nose where one might imagine a belly-button would be! Why would I want an unrecognizable mess of glitter, glue, scribbles and construction paper? Because that is what a KID would do. I don't want Nicco's teacher's art. Blech.