Getting creative with kids

I often find that I set up art and craft for the kids, get them started and then quietly disappear to do something super-exciting like washing the dishes. I like to draw and paint too... why do they get to have all the fun!!! After all, I desperately want to find the time to draw and create. If I wait until the kids are tucked into bed I am just too tired to do much of anything.

So lately I have been setting up projects that I want to do and amazingly enough the kids love it. This is one of those projects. I felt the need for some simple watercolour painting. Out came the brushes, paint and paper. Out came two small children eager to see what I was doing.

Unlike my children my imagination is old and tired. Visions of unicorns, rainbows and fairies don't come easily to me, I need a little bit of inspiration to get me started. For this project I raided the fruit bowl for some unsuspecting fruit for a still life.

Cakey's banana, capscium and potato

Boo's fruit and veg

Cakey's strawberries and eggplant

The three of us sat very happily painting fruit. It wasn't long before their imaginations let loose, painting fruits and vegetables that we did not have (ie. strawberries and eggplant) and then moving to rainbow rain and beyond. I stuck with the fruit. When they got hungry little bite marks started appearing in the still life!

I have done this many times now and the kids always want to join in. Sometimes they want to do exactly what I am doing and sometimes they use the materials in their own way. So I say 'let those dishes pile up'.

Visit Tinkerlab and the Artful Genius if you would like some motivation to get a little bit creative every day. Visit the House that Lars built and Geninne's Art blog if you would like some inspiration.

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