The Art of Being a "Good Mom"

I always feel like a really good mom when I let my kids do something that's messy, but fun. I'm talking about Play Doh, painting, glitter, the sandbox--all those kinds of things that less-uptight mothers probably don't think twice about. As the kids get older, though, the messes don't seem so bad, and as I do it more, I remember that the pay-off is so much greater than any mess.

So it was a few Mondays ago when we pulled out the watercolors after the girls got home from school. (The Play Doh is also on the table which is making me wonder if Gunnar had been doing that before school got out. He can sit at the table for hours with Play Doh. He loves it and it's definitely worth the sweeping afterwards.)

Adah has been learning about different artists during "Friday Art" at school. They spend one week learning about a new artist and viewing his/her work; then the next week they get to create some of their own pieces in that artist's style. When we had this painting session Adah had just been learning about Picasso. She introduced us to a fun website http://www.picassohead.com/ where you can create your own Picasso-styled pictures. Try it out!

Maggie has always been a good painter, excelling more in that medium than Adah whose strength is in pencil drawing. Maggie even likes watching that dry instructional painting show on PBS that comes on right after the kid shows end in the late morning. One time she watched the host create an ocean scene and she immediately pulled out the paints to create her own version.

Gunnar just loves color--everywhere. Many of his paintings turn out to be mostly brown. This one was a cheerful blue (no oxymoron intended).

Here's to more "good mom" messes.