Sloppy paint, free woodwork, and hooray for counting in base ten

So, this is my 100th post on this blog, and you'd think as such that I'd bother to line up something appropriately milestoney. Nah, I'm not very good at celebrating stuff based on counting in base ten or trips around the sun (unless it's kid's birthdays!). Business as usual, well, as usual as it gets.

I've got a science related post that needs to be written up, but in the mean time I wanted to share with you some more easel painting fun. The kids wanted to paint yesterday, but it was way too windy outside, so we used a sheet and a big bit of old plywood, held in place with a box of baby wipes in the kitchen.

I blogged about easel painting before here, but thought it was worth bringing up again because it gets a great response every time from the kids.



This picture was taken by me sitting in the sink with an extra wide angle lens. It makes the kitchen look about 10 times bigger than it really is! Maybe I should make some wide angle glasses. No, maybe not. I wouldn't like my cup of tea always looking like it was just out of reach.



I'm really happy that my four year old daughter is still into her crazy, fill the page with colour and shapes thing. She does paint people sometimes, but I really love these vibrant abstract creations and hope that she never gives them up completely for representational art.



My three year old is enjoying the painting equally, but being younger she paints more and faster, so goes through much more of the butcher's block paper than her older sister.





It's nice to ask them a totally open ended question when they are done painting each thing, something like "tell me about your painting" and then write down what they say to tape to the back of the painting when it's dry. This one is apparently caves with paths going between them.



I'm saving a lot of these paintings and put a few of them up at a time in the kitchen. They are done on really cheap butcher block paper that's quite thin though, like fish and chip paper. To not accidentally rip them, I've been edging them with sticky tape once they are dry, before I put them up. It seems to be working.

I've started drawing a colouring in shopping list for us and for you, because grocery shopping with the two girls is somewhat like the running of the bulls in Pamplona (except that you HAVE to go grocery shopping) Quickly drawn picture lists made for my illiterate toddlers have been a life saver for nearly two years. It goes some way to taming the Godzilla and Rodana in Tokyo routine that can errupt when bored children are introduced to a supermarket. Hopefully I'll be able to post that for you over the weekend some time.

We have a preschooler sleepover happening tonight. I'm quite excited, because we have got some glow in the dark paint!

Also, for those readers in the US, we are off to Lowe's build and grow clinic again tomorrow with the kids (I think we have a group of seven going, ranging from three to seven years old). These workshops are wonderful! They happen roughly once or twice a month on a Saturday morning and are totally free. The kids get a workshop apron to take home, an embroidered badge showing what they made (kind of like a guide or scout badge) and they get to make a wooden object from blue prints to take home (often only involves sanding and nails to hammer into predrilled holes). It's a great way to get really little kids using tools and making things. If you've got a Lowes near you then I highly recommend checking for the next workshop and popping along. In the past we've made time capsules, gingerbread houses, birdhouses and more.

Tomorrow is making a treasure chest...

July 25th will be making a helecopter...



Here are a couple of pics of my Fangletronics hero and my biggest kiddo and her best mate making gingerbread houses back in December.



Don't you love the photos when it's really obvious that everyone is saying the word "CHEESE"!