Buy a tray of cheap, washable watercolor paints for each child and keep them stashed with some heavy weight paper in a handy place. I recommend using shallow, wide-based containers for the water to avoid spills. If you have a toddler, you'd better have a towel handy anyway. ;) Turn on the music, and paint away!
May I recommend "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams? Tell your children the music is about a bird in flight and ask them to paint what they hear. It doesn't have to be a picture, just listen, feel, and paint.
Another musical activity, is to let the children spatter paint on a large staff. If they are learning to read the names of the notes on the staff, labeling them is a great exercise. If they know an instrument, they can try to play what they paint. If they are a toddler and a pre-schooler like mine, they can just enjoy "painting the music".
Spilled watercolors are easy to wipe up with a t-shirt rag and some vinegar in a spray bottle. Don't let the fear of mess keep you from enjoying painting with your children.
And lastly, please don't let my blogs make you feel badly about yourself. I like to share my life and what works for me, and the last thing I want to do in sharing is to stress you out! Live a righteous life to the fullest, and do so free of guilt!
Wishing you a peaceful Friday!
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Have you tried other music types to see the difference in the painting outcome with different music. Painting with Phillip Glass, or even Pink Floyd or Yes. Some of the instrumental rock might give not be conducive to sitting.
ReplyDeleteTHis baffles me. Is it something about water colors in particular? We haven't done water colors. I have two, particularly, who can't sit still and draw to calm classical music without suddenly falling off the chair, expostulating loudly that something didn't come out right, bursting into tears because a drip of water got onto the paper, then 3 sec later maniacally laughing at some random untintelligeable memory, going to the bathroom and falling over her feet in the hallway, crying loudly for 5 seconds, coming back and announcing loudly, "Did you hear somebody crying?? That was me."(oh really?). Loud sudden inhales because the pencil lead broke... and then the other one with such tendencies, who appeared to be well settled, suddenly falls backwards off stool. Maybe there's something about water colors. Or maybe 2 of mine are genetically predisposed to avoid calm and peace at all cost.
ReplyDeleteOh Amy you made me laugh! Maybe your two ARE genetically predisposed... watercolors may be worth a try though. They worked WONDERS with all of the kiddos I taught in school.
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