Picasso

I rarely let my kids do any art projects.  I should let them do more, but honestly it's just a pain in the butt.  Elli is constantly eating crayons or sucking the juice out of markers.  Michael is yelling at her not to do it.  Ethan isn't content to sit and watch from his high chair.  One or more kids needs a nap.  One or more kids is hungry.  Half the time they need a bath right after.  I have to strip them down so they don't ruin their clothes, but they scream about not wearing anything.  You get the idea.  It's suddenly not fun and more of a chore for everyone involved.

A while ago I posted about how I didn't let Elli color for a long time.  I've let her color more, to the detriment of multiple markers.  We've had fun.  Really, we have.  Especially the next day when I change her diaper and discover she must have ate another crayon when I ran to get more paper.  Thank goodness Crayola is non-toxic.

I'm gearing up to start Michael in Preschool really soon (this is a post for another day though) and decided he needed a little more work with artistic things before I start doing crafts all day long.  So I let him paint.  I bought a ten pack of paints and found a day where Michael woke up from his nap before Elli.   He did great.  He loved painting and even got the concept of dipping the paint brush in water between colors.

His favorite thing to paint was Mike Wazowski.  As you can see he had me paint one in the corner.  He did have a problem with painting so much in the same area that the paper ripped.  Hopefully that will get better.

After he got the concept I decided to let Elli try the next day.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but there is a streak of brown paint coming out the side of her mouth.  Ten minutes later her paper wasn't painted any more than pictured, her face was yellow, and her paper plate had some pretty rainbow swirls.  How do I get this child to stop eating markers/crayons/paint/dirt??

Now the kids ask to paint every day.  Maybe I should have thought this through a little more first, but I like my wall covered in Picasso's of Mike Wazowski.