I love to engage my children in art. When my bigs were all little, it was a daily routine in the summertime to eat breakfast, than paint in our pajamas. Now I get to do it all over again with my fourth daughter. I’m very thankful for that. And I’m grateful to stay home with her and spend these times together. Having a basement that you can get paint all over the floor really helps too.
A community art studio here called The Basement Art Studio, has been a wonderful catalyst for relighting my inspiration for art with littles. They offer a weekly Messy Baby art class as well as one for pre-school age children. We have been going on a regular basis since September. Now we are taking all that we’ve learned to our own basement.
The teacher and co-owner Jen, at The Basement Art Studio, is Montessori trained as well as in the Reggio Emilia approach. She is also a mother. I cannot say enough awesome things about what they do at The Basement Art Studio.
Here’s a timeline of photos from Monday morning in our own basement art studio, as we painted using techniques including tape for texture, different brushes, sponges, a ball and ultimately the hands. I taped down an up-cycled piece of packing paper to the table and my toddler rotated around the edges of every side, painting for long enough that I picked up all the toys in my basement and vacuumed. It kept her engaged and focused for a while! When she was done, she washed out all her supplies. She always enjoys doing that and you can tell by all the paint on the sink that it happens a lot here. Lastly she wanted to clean her face off. She got her mirror from her room and hung it up in the bathroom, where we keep wash clothes for her baths. She cleaned her face then hung her mirror back on the side of her bed, where she prefers to keep it these days.
Here we go…
