Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Budding artists

I have a confession to make: Last week I gave the Fab Four crayons—for the first time ever. Yes, I, the girl who once dreamed of becoming an artist, waited almost 20 months to introduce my own children to the joys of coloring. My only excuses are that (a) until recently it's been difficult to fit anything "extra" into our schedule, and (b) I was afraid of the mess. I mean, think about it: four toddlers indiscriminately wielding multicolored sticks of wax? Shudder!

But it turns out that adding the occasional après-snack coloring session has been a great way to inject some much-needed variety into our routine. The kids love it, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing them explore their newfound ability to scribble. And with the proper precautions—kids strapped into the feeding table, oversize sheets of paper taped down in front of them, and washable crayons—the mess is minimal!

First time coloring(l to r: Lucy, Isaac, Jude, Dahlia)

Naturally, I saved samples of the Fab Four's first artistic endeavors—in my eyes, these scribbles are irreplaceable works of art:

Clockwise from top left:
Isaac, Lucy, Dahlia, Jude
(smiley faces courtesy of Daddy)

9 comments:

Megan said...

I love the pics of the kids coloring - so cute! They really look like they got into it!

Oversize sheets of paper taped down! Brilliant!

William, Megan and Avery said...

Coloring is Avery's FAVORITE activity!

My favorite things to let her use are the Color Wonder products... They have markers and fingerpaints that ONLY work on the special paper! no colored marks on skin or furniture! So fun!

And Jude's is pretty amazing. You might be able to frame and sell that somewhere.

William, Megan and Avery said...

aaaaaand I read your caption wrong... I meant Dahlia's.

But really, they're all great!

Suzy said...

Megan H., I was pretty impressed with Dahlia's, too ... the pic doesn't do justice to the fantastic textures she applied. :) I am hoping at least one of these kids is an artist ...

Beth said...

So cute!! I'm just as bad. We went out to lunch a couple of months ago and they gave the kids crayons. I realized that was their first time coloring- At Big Boy's!!! I was so ashamed. It's just a much bigger undertaking with eight little hands to watch.

Glad they enjoyed it so much. You will definitely need to save those pictures. You really could frame them and hang them somewhere.

Suzy said...

Beth, that is hilarious!! I admit that what spurred me to give them crayons was the fact that they let them color in Sunday school ... and my kids had no idea what to do. Glad I'm not the only one!

Bethany said...

Don't feel too bad, I occasionally would try with Brooke and she would just (and mostly still) eat the crayons.
Actually one day I was changing a poopy diaper and panicked, "OH MY GOSH, my child is dying! Her poop is all bloody!" But then I remembered she ate a magenta crayon the day before. Thank goodness!

Beth said...

I didn't know that you lived in Indiana! I don't know why I was certain you lived out west somewhere. Yeah, the Reds should have tipped me off. Where are you in Indiana? We want to take a long weekend and visit Indianapolis. See the children's museum and the zoo.

quadmom said...

OMG these pictures melted my heart!! They look so psyched to have crayons! And those masterpieces are amazing. Your stories always make me so excited for when my kids do those things. =)

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