Art

I found a book called I Love to Fingerpaint for $2.00 online at Barnes & Noble's after-Christmas sale. It finally arrived a couple of days ago so the kids and I had a painting adventure this morning. Now, I honestly can't remember the last time I fingerpainted - maybe when I was Kaia's age? And if left only to my own resources, I don't think it's something I would enjoy very much. I really like using patterns; for example, as a kid I loved playing with Legos but only if I had a pattern that I could use to build something step by step. That was extremely satisfying to me, whereas Peter has fond memories of building all sorts of things as a kid with his brother, just using his imagination and a tub of Legos. So if you're the type that also likes patterns, you may enjoy this book. It provides illustrations and basic instructions for fingerpainting all sorts of things.

We made flour paint - 1 cup water, 1 cup flour and a spoonful of salt mixed together; then add a few drops of tempera paint and mix. (We put ours in egg cartons and mixed with popsicle sticks.) I figured using this type of paint would be less expensive since it uses so little paint, and I hoped it would be easy to clean up (it was). The only problem is that when it dried, it looked a little faded.

Here's Kaia's work partway through (I helped with the trunk of the tree but she did everything else on her own, just looking at the book):

Asher at first told me he was painting Snow White, but by the end it had become "sharptooth abominable snow monster!"

And, I know you've all been waiting for this; here is my masterpiece: