Monday, August 15, 2011

painting with a twist

Last week got a bit busy towards the end am I found myself slipping from sanity to stress.
I have found that the best way to deal with t his is to drop everything and just spend time with my kids. I am quickly recentered, my breathing calms down, crazy thoughts are stilled.

So when this began to happen I grabbed an art activity I had in my head for a few days and headed outside to join the nutbags :)

Whilst in Sydney, Jared found some water pistols and was desperate to buy them. We had rules about not pointing them at anyone and all the rest and hes had a ball with them, shooting only the wall and occasionally the poor dog.
Today though, instead of filling them with water, I filled them with food colouring, hoping to encourage him to want to use them to paint with!



I set it up, showed them what it was, and then stood well back and watched. We had lined the retaining wall with paper so they were all set. Jared was in straight away, careful not to get it on himself but enjoying shooting at the wall. Amahli was also quick to start, and with only a few reminders, managed to get it on the wall ( mostly).




They enjoyed doing this until the paint ran out so I refilled them but this time just with water and showed them they could still " paint" but the paint the wood of the fence with just water, which had a similar effect.


Its not an activity that had a lot of point, which is half the fun sometimes. Open ended, no instructions (except not to squirt anyone) no way in which its "supposed" to turn out, no time frame. Just the joy of colour and experimentation.


Cute fun and easy painty fun :) I just had to make sure I didnt turn my back for too long.... ;)






4 comments:

  1. What a great exercise. I love open ended activities for the kids and this is also a great fine motor activity.

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  2. Awesome!!! Did you find that the paint on the wall stained for long or does it wash off in a rain or two? I'd love to try this one! Yet another post of yours I'm pinning :)

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  3. This is very cool! I love the look on Jared's face. I bet he would have squirted you if he had the opportunity. lol

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  4. @angie: thanks! yes its great for strengthening those little finger muscles :)

    @ amanda: Um... the ink is still the wall.. whoops.. it will fade though :)

    @ Kim: he did shoot me :) right in the face. As soon as I put my camera down :)

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