Open-ended Art (Yellow & Paint)

Click here to check it out!

I saw the suggested art activity "Open-ended Art: Yellow and Paint" from the above blog and quickly did it with Sophie on Friday, but I hesitated about posting it in someone else's blog. Honestly, I would like to learn from these SAHMs and adopt their homeschooling ideas because I feel that Singapore is quite lacking in early childhood education. However, I am worried that they may not like a total stranger posting in their blog. After some internal struggle, I still went ahead with it. After all, I am trying to be a better mum and learn from others. I will encourage my friends to visit some of the blogs featured. It has been a humbling experience for me and I am very inspired to do more for my Sophie.

Although I am not new to the idea, I wanted to make sure I do not interfere with Sophie's artistic process. I took out only yellow paint of various kinds (dot paint, finger paint and poster paint) and laid out all the different brushes, rubber stamps and sponge I have got.

Sophie is still not ready to do art at her table without running all over and smearing paint everywhere, so I put her in her highchair at our dining table. She started with dot painting. I think she has become quite proficient in using the bottled paint. I was glad I could sit back and just take video clips of her doing what she enjoys best.

My moment of bliss ended abruptly as Sophie decided that she had enough of dot painting and demanded for poster paint and her sponge brush. After squeezing some paint on her "palette", I handed it to her thinking that she would start painting with her sponge brush. Who was I kidding? Of course she had to turn the "palette" over and pour the paint onto the paper instead! I had to hold back from stopping her... DO NOT INTERFERE! THE ARTIST IS AT WORK! (lots of self-talk here).

Sophie could identify the shape "star" almost immediately when she got her hands on the sponge next. In fact, I only realised that she was trying to "draw" a circle when I watched the video clip after the session. Maybe she is really learning how to draw, I guess I have to wait and see.

Sophie could play with the paint, sponge, brushes and rubber stamps forever, but I had to end the session. I usually try not to take longer than 30 minutes for each session because I know she would soon become restless and start throwing everything on the floor. In fact, I think she was drifting as she fiddled around with the paint and the rubber stamps. Having said that, she did put up a good fight when she could not play with her paint anymore.

End Product

As usual, I let Sophie play with the remaining paint after we were "done" with the task. I think she enjoyed this part of the session the most. She could do anything she liked with the paint and she was not limited by any sheet of paper. I must admit, I enjoyed watching her too. I do not really know if this helps with developing her creativity. I guess I am trying to strike a balance here. Singapore is a very result-driven society and the process is really not important if the product is not deemed to be good. I am so sorry to say this..