Snowy Art inspired by this Picture Book Poem

As I write this in Indiana, it is January, it is cold, and it is snowing. I love that! I much prefer the beauty of snow to the gray and colorlessness of no snow in winter. How about you? Do you like snowy weather? Do you get excited and take your kids sledding? Or do you prefer to stay inside with a good book? Or both?When it snowed after Christmas, I had fun watching my kids drag their kids around the yard in the snow.
Award winning Illustrator Susan Jeffers says, “There is only one thing more majestic than a Robert Frost poem about snow--a snowstorm itself.” His poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening captures a feeling all parents can relate to: that of the tension of wanting to slow down and appreciate the beauty in front of us, and at the same time needing to do urgent tasks that are also in front of us. 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep."

Doesn’t that just sum up the way we feel a lot of the time? 

This is one of my favorite winter picture books because it captures the wonder of a winter snowy evening that kids can relate to as well as the poignancy of the human experience that adults know so well.  It is both beautifully written and beautifully illustrated. 
You can impact your child’s life in less than 15 minutes with this read aloud poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. Ironically, you can also do two things at once: you can slow down and appreciate the beauty in front of you by spending time with a child and a beautiful poem, and you can also be accomplishing a great parenting task at the same time: helping them grow and learn and loving them with your attention. That doesn’t even count the beauty of doing art after you read! If you set aside some time to draw or paint, you will be amazed at the creativity that will come out of your child. Try this and you will have enriched your child’s learning in at least 5 ways…all by reading a picture book!

• -you will have increased their vocabulary
• -you will have introduced them to a famous American poet and poem
• -you will have increased their sense of wonder
• -you will have spurred a conversation about all kinds of things…where animals go in the snow, the pop of color against a backdrop of brown and white, what might be happening in the poem, what promises do I have to keep…do you have to keep…what it means to have miles to go before I sleep
• -you will have inspired your child to create their own beautiful picture and in creating, will connect the memory of the poem and the conversation with the art to help your child remember and learn

Read the book Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

Then try this idea:

1. Get out the watercolors and a piece of paper. (either watercolor or plain white construction paper)

2. Draw a horizon line with crayons.

3. Draw a forest using vertical lines and diagonal lines with dark colors. Dot the paper with white dots.

4. Optional-draw some birds or bunnies or whatever animals in the trees.

5. Cover everything above the horizon line with 2 friendly colors: either blues/reds, blues/purples, reds/ oranges, red/yellows, orange/yellows. Lightly paint blues and purples over a few places below the horizon line. 
Do you have miles to go before you sleep tonight? Miles of driving? Miles of homework? Miles of laundry? Whatever it is, I pray you can pause, enjoy the wonder of your children today, and read or create with them. If you can't take time today, promise yourself you will do it sometime this week. Pause. Read. Create. It's a promise you will never regret keeping!

Enriching kids' lives with stories and art,

Jennifer 

P.S. Don't have time to get the book? Watch it on YouTube here.

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