Do Art!

Jonah enjoys art projects, like most kids his age probably do. We're lucky in that he engages in some sort of art project nearly every day at day care. I have no idea how they manage to keep him as neat and clean as they do, but those that we do here at home usually result in large messes. While those are certainly fun and have their place, there are also times when one wants to provide artistic experiences without having to expend a lot of effort in the clean-up process. While he enjoys playing with the homemade playdough I made for him, Jonah mostly "shreds" it into small pieces with his hands, rather than using the various rollers, cutters, and other fun tools we make available to him. Over the past couple of months, we've found some new activities to let Jonah "do art" (his label for these activities) that have been lower on the messiness scale:

"Painting" with the paints inside a plastic bag. Here he had the opportunity to do some color-mixing that ties in really nicely with Leo Lionni's book, Little Blue and Little Yellow, which is in regular rotation in our house.

"Painting" with bingo daubers, though he enjoyed putting his finger on the tip and getting ink on his hands. (Note: bingo daubers can be cheaply acquired at the Dollar Store.)

Hmm ... what happens when I touch this?

Using a paintbrush and watercolors from the paintbox.

Playing in the water is really as much, if not more fun than painting!

The paintbox itself is a learning experience!

It's always fun to do these art experiences together and I hope we can be better about doing them more regularly. I've lots of ideas, but don't always seem to be very good about pulling out materials for him. We've been actively saving egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, and other supplies, and I try to put Jo-Ann's coupons to good use stocking up on tissue paper and the like. Now I just need to get them out and encourage play and discovery!