Bringing Out the Paint

Last week at our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting, our guest speaker was the owner of an art shop and talked about ways to introduce our preschoolers to art. Other than a scrapbooked Valentine card we made a few weeks ago that I let Jacob glue together, I don't do much with him. Coloring is about it. Actually, I hated art class in elementary school and probably just received a "Satisfactory" on my report card because of effort.

The speaker said that you could give your children an appreciation for art by exposing them early. I suggested to my twin sister that maybe we were so bad at art because we didn't go to the art museums or "do art" at home, but she disagreed with "No, I just don't think we had the talent." Probably true.

But, I did buy a Crayola easel last summer at a yardsale for $5 and bought three huge bottles of washable paint and art paper at Michaels. Jacob loved painting outside during warmer weather, and he's been pestering me to let him do it again, but it's been so cold. We had a warm day last week and invited a neighbor boy over to play.

I took a roll of old wrapping paper, strung it across the brick courtyard (back side of the paper facing up), and let them go at it. Jacob mostly wanted to paint with his feet and use it as a "paint slip and slide". A good portion of the paint ended up on the brick, but thankfully, washed off with the next rain.

Both boys had a good visit, and I somehow felt like a "good mommy" for trying to inspire the young "artists" and let them make a mess.