Friday, August 26, 2011

A Big Roll of Drawing Paper

My boys love to draw.
They spend hours at it every day.
That is not an exaggeration.
It's wonderful.
It makes me happy to watch them create whole worlds on a piece of paper.
That, in fact, is one of their favorite kinds of drawing to do.
As they sit side by side, they fill the page with ships, planes, sky scrapers, the Eiffel Tower, construction vehicles and knights in bloody battles.
They narrate as they draw, telling each other the stories that go along with the picture.

All of this art work takes its toll on our paper supply.  
We go through a lot of paper.
They draw on both sides and use scrap paper when we can get it, but still, it's a lot.
Besides, what they really like best is a big piece of paper.
Even bigger than those large pieces of construction paper sold in rainbow colored packs at Target.
I'm talking big enough to fill up all the floor space in our schoolroom, sized paper.
What they want is a big roll of drawing paper.


We've gotten a big roll once before.  
You know those rolls you'll find in schools.
Teachers use huge sheets of it to cover their bulletin boards and ASB uses them to make posters to hang around campus.
The boys loved that paper.
They made life sized drawings of themselves, and filled the long sheets with elaborate renderings.
But those paper rolls are not cheap.
So when I saw this idea on Ohdeedoh, I jumped.
Sturdy, brown builders paper is just right for those big drawings they love.
We headed right down to Loews and bought a roll.
It was in the painting section.
It was $9.99.
They came home and set right to work.




And the next morning they rolled out of bed and got right back to work.
One of life's simple pleasures: a big roll of drawing paper.


Happy Friday to you.
Hope your weekend finds you enjoying some of life's simple pleasures.
Love from,
Greta

10 comments:

Katie @ minivan diva said...

Great idea. My boys would love that.

jessie said...

this is such a timely post for me to read! my little guy and i have used basic copy paper long enough.. today i realized it was largely limiting the size of the huge circles he wanted to draw. thanks for the idea! :)

Jen Worden said...

For what it's worth, newspapers often sell end-of-roll newsprint at pennies per pound.

Caroline said...

Great idea. FYI, Ikea also sells giant rolls of white paper (refills for their awesome and cheap easel) for around $5. They are a great value and last forever.

mandi said...

My kids are the same way! I've bought the rolls of postal wrapping paper. They are not nearly as big though. However, I can get a whole roll at the dollar store, so that's not too shabby!

grey rose (they/them) said...

amen! best gift ever! love that theypve it so much. awesome.
i used to watch the imagination station, on pbs, with mark kistler. his secret city drawing fascinated me and i copied best i could. i haven't drawn in years. and from the looks of my art now, you can sure tell!

Cozy Island said...

So fun! I've just put a chalk board fabric table cloth on my kitchen table for such a thing. We use plenty of paper too but this cuts down on it. Also those magnetic drawing boards and lap sized chalk and white boards. We make use of all of these, especially because my son is a perfectionist and this allows him to "try try again" :)

meg + andy said...

So smart! and your boys are super cute!

emily said...

Love this! so easy and fun! good job Mama

Adrian said...

We love drawing on large paper at our house too. My family owns a construction company so I grab large rolls of extra plans, the ones headed for the trash, flip them over and use the blank side to draw. My son loves it! And it's free paper! Since your boys are a little older than my son, they may even enjoy coloring on the actual drawings. I'm sure you could go to any architect or contractor's office and ask them for plans and they would happily give them to you. They're just throwing them away anyways.