Monday, June 4, 2012

Painting with Littles

The littles or should I say K has been very good at keeping herself and B entertained while E and A do their lessons.  On this particular day the littles wanted to paint and I said "sure why not? Let me get it all set up for you."  Now follow along to see what goes from a great idea to a complete mess. I realize between the playdough post and shots of K painting her own finger and toe nails that I look like I handle messes well and could seem to be completely unscathed by them but let me reassure you that nothing could be further from the truth.  Messes make me very grumpy and my children unhappy when I slip into ranting over the clean up.  However, I realize that sometimes, okay it should be a lot of times, my children's happiness and our relationships are more important than the mess. So to quote a popular commercial "life's messy, clean it up!"

Isn't this sweet, they are painting so nicely together sharing the paints and the paper.

I really liked using the muffin pan to put the paints in and then putting  it on an old baking sheet can keep messes to a minimum--right?

Blue, glorious blue--she is doing so great!

Oh look, he is painting so nicely on the paper and doesn't have any paint on his body, clothes or the floor.
Oh what's that--just a bit of paint on the hands--oh yeah," go ahead and make handprints, great idea!"

"Of course, you can make handprints too."

"Oh, yes, yes, yes let's get the stamp pads out too."
Now the fun has begun--Paint on the face, all over the hands and forget it, the floor is so much more fun to paint than the paper.


"Everybody now"--paint on the hands, legs and the floor is so much fun.

Oh, now it is time to clean up, note that K is scrubbing paint off the wall, not to mention the floor, bathroom stool, the bathroom counter and oh yeah--their bodies!
So go ahead, join the craziness, make a mess and let your small children paint unattended just do it outside on the grass so the grass can be cut to hide the mess and they can run through the sprinklers to clean their bodies.

Have a great week!

 I'm linking up with Montessori Monday and the Preschool Corner.

2 comments:

Mommy to the Princesses said...

Your kids are cute! Wish I could let go and let my kids paint more often! Thanks for the reminder!

Deb Chitwood said...

I love that you have your kids help with cleanup after painting! And I totally agree with your idea of letting them paint outside if at all possible! Thanks for linking up with Montessori Monday. I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow