Painting

After dinner (I use that term loosely - my 3 year-old's "dinner" consisted of cucumber slices, 5 black olives, and half a stick of mozzarella cheese), she painted this picture. At first, I thought she was just going to paint the entire paper green, but then she cleaned her brush and painted a splotch of yellow. "Look, it's the sun." And then she painted a brown splotch and added two strokes. "This bird is flying in the sky." I love it.

By playing at art, she develops fine motor skills, learns about the elements of art through experimentation, and learns to clean her paintbrush before dipping into the next color.

Painting with a preschooler requires a lot of patience. There will be mess. And while it seems like making a mess is the little one's objective, as long as most of the paint is staying on the paper, the grown-ups need to stand back, be patient, and know that our little ones are able to see the world in a way we have lost.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

-Pablo Picasso