Alan is a funny kid. When he’s tired, he likes to twirl his hair with his finger. But when he’s wide awake, he likes to mush things in his hair with his fingers including peanut butter, sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs. Just when I thought this phase was almost over, we had a major set-back.
Today we spent the morning with Melanie and Ivan finger-painting. Alan eagerly sat in “Louis’s Big Chair” waiting for their arrival, telling me that he wanted to play with “yellow and blue”.…When our guests arrived, I offered Ivan a smock. But Melanie had a better idea. She just took off Ivan’s shirt. (Genius!).
Bare-chested like two cavemen, I plopped a gob of red paint in front of Ivan. He looked at me with his sweet eyes, and then it occurred to me that this was his first finger-painting excursion….boy was he in for a treat! I began illustrating the fine art of finger-painting which I guess to a 3-year-old is antithetical to what has been learned when sitting at the kitchen table. It didn’t take long for him to pick it up! He began making squiggly lines with his finger until all ten were covered in red….
Everything was going as well as expected, (messy but controlled)….but then all of a sudden….Alan scooped a blob of blue paint right from the jar, and began squishing it between his fingers as if wringing his hands to plot out his next move. In the blink of an eye, Alan was scrubbing his hair with “blue” turning the finger-painting into an exercise in performance art!
While some moms would scold him with disgust while grabbing the nearest paper towel, I took a different approach and grabbed the camera. An article I read recently (name escapes me), says that mothers should encourage their children to make messes – to let them explore different sensations (gooey hair). It enhances their creativity (and fine motor skills).
Where else but in childhood, can one have the uninhibited opportunity to happily explore the world (and one’s hair), while creating an enormous mess without the worry of having to clean-up? ….Lucky kid!
Postscript: Roger matter-of-factly asked me why the tub was purple….
Today we spent the morning with Melanie and Ivan finger-painting. Alan eagerly sat in “Louis’s Big Chair” waiting for their arrival, telling me that he wanted to play with “yellow and blue”.…When our guests arrived, I offered Ivan a smock. But Melanie had a better idea. She just took off Ivan’s shirt. (Genius!).
Bare-chested like two cavemen, I plopped a gob of red paint in front of Ivan. He looked at me with his sweet eyes, and then it occurred to me that this was his first finger-painting excursion….boy was he in for a treat! I began illustrating the fine art of finger-painting which I guess to a 3-year-old is antithetical to what has been learned when sitting at the kitchen table. It didn’t take long for him to pick it up! He began making squiggly lines with his finger until all ten were covered in red….
Everything was going as well as expected, (messy but controlled)….but then all of a sudden….Alan scooped a blob of blue paint right from the jar, and began squishing it between his fingers as if wringing his hands to plot out his next move. In the blink of an eye, Alan was scrubbing his hair with “blue” turning the finger-painting into an exercise in performance art!
While some moms would scold him with disgust while grabbing the nearest paper towel, I took a different approach and grabbed the camera. An article I read recently (name escapes me), says that mothers should encourage their children to make messes – to let them explore different sensations (gooey hair). It enhances their creativity (and fine motor skills).
Where else but in childhood, can one have the uninhibited opportunity to happily explore the world (and one’s hair), while creating an enormous mess without the worry of having to clean-up? ….Lucky kid!
Postscript: Roger matter-of-factly asked me why the tub was purple….
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