I don't know what you're talking about...

Vintage children

These old photos are really lovely!

Children, to bring a smile to our faces

Helpful little guy!

Questionable art project

I love children's pictures and was naturally drawn to the article that accompanied them. It's a thing called "The Monster Project," where they pair each child with an artist who then produces a version of the child's picture of a monster in their own style. The idea behind it is to encourage the children's creativity.

Uh???

I am passionate about art and firmly believe that children should be free to express themselves and to be proud of their creations without having them "improved" by well-meaning, but misguided adults. All this kind of project achieves is to leave talented, creative children with a feeling of not being good enough... Give them the best quality materials and let their imaginations fly. Their pictures don't need to be reproduced in some adult artist's style! Some of the results are mediocre, to say the least.

Here are a couple of quotes by Picasso that make a lot of sense to me and help explain my frustration with this monstrous project:

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

I'm sure Picasso would never, in a million years, agree to do this to a child!

Super cute story

A dad from County Durham, in the north of England, helped his five year-old daughter write a letter to the police chief after a conversation about police dogs.

Eliza must have been really happy when she received this:

Chief Constable Michael Barton is a nice guy, don't you think?

Uh-oh... But they're fast learners!

Psychologists say messy children learn faster than their tidier counterparts. That's some consolation to the parents of these children: