What happens when you give a 2 year old a paintbrush!

Starts off nicely enough. Focused and playing with colour.

I don't ever remember a time when my mother put down a load of washing or pushed the house cleaning aside to sit down and play a game with me because she felt guilty that we weren't doing enough activities together. Not that I have a bad mother, that's just the way it worked then. Your mother said "get out from under my feet and go outside and play" and you did. So why is it that mother's today suffer from this guilt? You feel bad if you don't get down to their level and play enough. You feel bad if your kid isn't signed up to enough activities because he might be missing out, or worse falling behind. You feel bad that you are not interacting enough with them. Perhaps you should be making flash cards or homemade playdough or cities from old shoe boxes! I personally blame those overly organised people who make everything look effortless and look like they are always doing worthwhile, fun, yet organised stuff with their kids, including making flash cards. I wonder if there's a class to become one .....

Anyhoo, in an effort to do more with the kiddies (as opposed to just cleaning up after them) I set up some paints, a small canvas and a paint smock for my 2 year old. I thought I was thoroughly prepared. Great idea you'd think..... not so, but at least he enjoyed it. So I guess we reached our objective even if the National Art Gallery is not beating a trail to my door any time soon.

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Wow, how did that get there?!

I missed a spot, I'll just fix that up there.

So there are other things to use than the brush and this is what happens.

The take away lesson I got from that was that I should only give him one colour at a time. Too many colours were just too much to handle at once - and clearly all colours are supposed to be mixed into one disgusting colourless mess if that's what you are given.

Just so you know, I also had a paint shirt on - just in case messy little hands started to get a bit too touchy feely and it did take quite some time to clean up after. So, not only did I take time away from cleaning up to participate in the activity but it also created more work.... but that's how it goes with kids. That's how they roll.... 

So, what sorts of activities are you participating in with your little people and how have you fared with yours?

The finished "work of art"

I also wanted to let you know that Mother Load has now joined Facebook so come and say hi!! On reading an article about social media overload recently, it got me thinking about  my blog challenge and what I would like to achieve with my blog, so I have decided to make a few changes from blogging everyday to blogging every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and on special occassions.  I want Mother Load to continue to be fun and fresh and I don't ever want to get to a point where I am repeating myself and it's not fun for me (or you!). I will also be around on facebook every other day, posting away.

Have a wonderful Weekend and see you on Monday!!

Cheers,


Lee