Open-ended Art: Green & Red

I think we are starting to be lazy. Both Sophie and I could not seem to get our engine started again after our little break. Nevertheless, I still made a point to do some shopping at Art Friend over the weekends. I bought some red and green sand and gravel for Open-ended Art this week. I thought it should not be too tough, considering that Sophie could handle glitter dust well enough last week.

I gave Sophie some dinosaur stencils to work with, thinking that it would be easier than painting freehand. However, sand and gravel were a lot harder to manage than glitter dust. Sophie also found the containers too heavy to lift. And of course, she wanted to paint the glue all over the entire stencil instead of just one dinnosaur.

It took a lot coaching and practice before Sophie understood what to do. Even then, she could not really handle the sand and gravel on her own. And she had to constantly fight the urge to dip her fingers into the excess sand and just play with it.

Still, I think she did a decent job with the given conditions. I could tell that she would probably have enjoyed it better if I could allow her to have her way with the sand and gravel. Unfortunately, I think she could only do it if we had a yard or somewhere outdoors.

Cleaning up was a nightmare. The sand and gravel, unlike glitter dust, could not be picked up by a damp cloth. And since Sophie ran off once our activity ended, she brought some of it with her to other parts of the house. The excess glue made washing a lot tougher too. I guess it was inevitable. Good thing Sophie liked the activity - my only consolation.

Do visit Mommies Little Artist to check out what other mummies have done with their little ones this week.