I was a mom to a toddler and worked at a museum where I trained docents and gallery teachers. After a long day of teaching, finding time to make playdough and dinner and do the laundry left me overwhelmed and exhausted.

We also lived in a tiny house, filled with far too many things. When anything new came in the front door (I’m looking at you, watercolor box), my husband would unleash his anxiety around all the stuff.

On top of this, while I had tons of experience teaching art to children over the age of five, I didn’t know where to begin with my toddler. While I was training gallery teachers to teach printmaking techniques to adult visitors, it was clear that my toddler might have to start with something more simple than that. But what?

I wanted to support my child’s creativity with developmentally appropriate, high quality arts experiences but I had so little time, and it wasn’t clear where to begin.