In the world of mom blogs, there are lots of sites that feature creative crafty ideas for kids (Design mom is my favorite, although that may be because I want to buy EVERYTHING on that site). I've lurked around those blogs for a couple of months, eagerly awaiting the day when Anna would be old enough to do something, anything, artsy. Don't get me wrong - I love reading to her and playing with her toys, but it's so wonderful seeing that we may be able to actually start more advanced interactive activities now.
Today was a bit rainy so I decided to take a chance and see how Anna would handle her first box of Crayolas. I've been thinking about this for about a week now. I plotted out where I would do it (the porch - not our kitchen table) and what I would do if she immediately started to eat the crayons (say NO, but maybe give her a couple of tries because I REALLY want this to work) and I figured out just how I would protect the table and our porch that she wouldn't get crayon any place I couldn't live with.
I'm happy to report the morning activity went well. I took a trash bag and covered our porch table so that the surface was protected and then I taped pieces of white construction paper to the trash bag to make one big canvas so to speak.
She seemed to get immediately that these thin sticks could make colors appear on the table. Her little hands weren't really strong enough to make a big bright colors appear so I had to guide her hand until she got the hang of it. Anna prefers to bang them on the table rather than draw, but I'm cool with that. With that being said, she actually preferred to pull them out of the box and stuff them back in the box most of all. Anna did try to eat a couple of the crayons, but didnt' protest when I stopped her and said no. I'm very happy we didn't end up with a death match over whether she could eat green and blue on the first day.
An unexpected highlight is that Anna got really tickled everytime I said the word "purple" and had to stop and let out a few belly laughs. I think she was trying to purse her lips together to make a "p" sound and it made her gigle. Purple is a bit of a silly word when you think about it, but I digress.
I've got great hopes that coloring could be a new activity for us on rainy days or when we just need to stick close to home for a few hours. What do you think? Is she a natural or what ??
Come on, get in there, black...
5 comments:
Wow! Those flowers she drew are amazing. And she can already write her name? In bubble letters?! She's not only a natural, she's brilliant!
ha! yeah, well, it was a collaborative effort :-)
She looks so intrigued. Is the refrigerator door covered with them yet? :) Grandpa T.
How exciting! When you're ready for more exploring I have some fun paint recipes :)
Maggie - Old Town School has an excellent "art" class as soon as Anna turns 2. We did it with Alice last year for 6 months - she LOVED it, and it was a great way to start artsy projects with glue, scissors, clay, paint, textures, etc! We loved Caroline who taught on Friday mornings Best, Beth T.
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