Kaitlyn's favorite activity is art. And of art, her absolute favorite thing to do is paint. She asks to paint practically every day. It's hard to keep something new and interesting when it gets brought out all-the-time! And so, I have discovered a million different ways to paint. Maybe that's a trifle exaggerated. We paint with brushes, fingers, toothpick dots, pieces of styrofoam, stamps, we do relief painting, canvas painting, oh my at the painting.
If she wants to paint her hands, I let her. If she paints the table, so be it. Some paint on the carpet, well it's old and needs replacing anyhow! About the only thing I refuse to let her do is hit the paintbrush on the table because I really don't want to be getting paint off the ceiling. I think sometime soon we'll go out front with some paper and I'll let her really just throw the paint on it. I can always hose her the yard down afterwards!
Today we painted on contact paper, a double fun activity. You get the sticky awesomeness of contact paper and the satisfying goop of paint, plus a see-through end product that we like to hold up to the light and admire. She absolutely loves her art wall. At least five times a day, I get to hear "Art! Mama I paint!" Yes, Kaitlyn made that art. You painted it. "Watee!" Yes, you painted that one with water. Etc, etc. I don't know why she doesn't tire of having the same conversation over and over!
Since we do some sort of art every day (usually painting), I end up having to take down projects to display her newer pieces. It breaks my heart to throw things away, so I end up saving many. This is a giant cheerios box of art. I think I'm going to get a tote for each of the girls and keep some of their art in them. There's so much, though. The task of deciding what's worth keeping is not one I want. It's all worth keeping if you ask me. Every single piece is a fun memory, how do you toss them out.
Ah, if only my storage space was infinite.
After awhile she told me she was done, so I plopped a second piece of contact paper over the first, took it off the table and taped a big sheet of easel paper down for her. I like to let her tell me when she is done with her art rather than deciding for her usually. I don't really think art is something that has to completely fill a surface and if I don't want to give her that idea by requiring she fill the paper with color. Blank spaces can be just as expressive, if you ask me. If she only partially uses a piece of paper, I set it aside and use it later for showing her letters and numbers or for when she wants me to draw things for her... I hate to just waste it.
Today she decided to paint her hand (something I showed her to do so she could make handprints) and also tried painting with the "wrong" side of the brush. It was so funny when she realized it wasn't working out so well. "OH NO! MAMA! OH NO!"
Pretty soon I'll be doing this with two of them! When I am reminded of Kaitlyn's first art experiences, I both look forward to and dread Peyton getting started with it. Who's to say she will even take to it the way Kaitlyn did, but I'll definitely try to get her interested. Oh my, Kaitlyn would be covered head to toe in paint very early on. I suppose I'll be going back to the homemade paints until I can trust Peyton not to put a brush in her mouth. Even with the nontoxic Crayola paints, I don't want them eating the stuff! Edible paint it is. I have a few months yet, at least.
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