Simply Busy

If you’re like me, then you understand that one of the blessings of summer is the ability to be flexible.  If there’s a 45-minute window between activity #1 of the day and lunch, sometimes all you need to do is open the screen door and let the kids roam the great green outdoors.  Or hand them each a watering can, station yourself next to the hose, and watch as they “water” the lawn, walkway, shed, stairs, rocks and keep coming back for more.  These simple activities dispel the driving need that I feel in winter to have organized activities planned for days spent indoors.  Surviving winter is about conquering boredom–for them and for me.  The glory of summer is that there rarely is boredom.  Even something small can turn into something spontaneously memorable.

Since I haven’t been crafting much these last few months, Em is really an amateur crafter.  She wouldn’t know a pipe cleaner if her brother used one to jab her in the eye.  Jax is an old pro and has just the right amount of sweet enthusiasm for our crafty ventures to motivate me to provide them.  I’ve realized that while the weather is warm and the kids’ layers are few, now may be a good time to introduce Em to the messy nature of crafts, especially paint.  Time to be less rigid and more spur-of-the-moment.  More embracing and less restricting.  I’m working on it.  It’s hard with two!  So I figured I’d start small.

I got this idea from my blog hop two weeks ago; it was my favorite post of the week.  If you’re not familiar with the Nurture Store, please let me introduce you.  The subtitle, “passionate about play and early learning,” should clue you in that it is a blog worth following, especially on Facebook.  I love seeing their creative ideas pop up on my Newsfeed, reminding me to get my butt in gear for the day.  And since this craft is remarkably easy and requries next to no preparation, keep it in your back pocket for a rainy day, or that pesky 45-minute window when you need something to get you through to the next meal.

The reason I loved this post from Nurture Store is how they emphasize that “the process of painting (or any kind of art or play) is just as (more?) important for children as the end product.”  Since my kids are so young and generally just need to feel comforable in this medium of expression rather than pressure to produce, I find that sentiment to be very compelling.  What they produce isn’t going to be frame-worthy every time.  But becoming comforable with, and loving, art and its forms, is becoming surprisingly important to me as they grow.  Even at this stage.  Call me crazy, or a bohemain, or a humanities girl at heart.  But something inside me says that getting their hands dirty with paint is just as valuable as getting them dirty at the playground.  C’est vrai, non?

Okay, a little less talk.  A lot more action.  How do I do this darn craft?

I’m glad you asked.

Materials: Just add paper.

The Nurture Store was attempting to teach actual art technique through this craft, and the idea of doing something so less-than-ordinary is wonderful.  My kids don’t really understand the idea of Georges Seurat or pointillism yet, but we’ll get there.  Maybe.  But what we did do is talk about color while trying to make shapes and repeating patterns using the Q-tip for our instrument.  Attempting to be deliberate.

Riiiiiiight. How about just try not to eat it, okay kids?

Yes, Em, I know I didn’t specifically say no paint in the hair, but let’s just consider that understood, okay?

So, you take your paint, and using the Q-tips, dab away.

This is a great opportunity to talk about colors, patterns, and shapes, all joking aside.  I was just too busy trying to keep them from shoving paint-laden cotton swabs into their ears to have a scholarly discussion on form.  Save that for another day.  Plus, painting with anything other than brushes or their hands was enough to make them sit up and pay attention.  Something unique tends to be interesting to little ones.

For now, an activity that is miraculously not-that-messy, creative, and different enough to be intriguing to toddlers is about all I need.  I’ll save all that hard core stuff for January, and just enjoy these moments of being simply busy with my kids in the summer sun.  It’s all we need.

Click on the Links & Hops tab above to see the many places I’ve linked this craft!