art

For most of his preschool year, Sam didn't seem to like to paint, or color, or do most any kind of art. Art was almost always one of the activity options, but Sam would choose to build or model or just about anything else. Other kids' cubbies would be stuffed with colorings and paintings and drawings, but Sam rarely had any in his when I picked him up-- and when I did my parent-help shifts, I could rarely convince him to do whatever art project was available. Then for some reason in late summer he started painting when it was an option. I didn't get to see most of these as he did them because they disappeared into his "portfolio"... which we then received at the end of the preschool year. Here's one of the paintings:



We put all our favorites on the wall:



When he started kindergarten, Sam started painting right away. Here's an oogabooga monster:


And a slug carrying grapes in the rain (black slug, purple grapes, purple rain):



We had markers and crayons here, but no Sam-friendly paint (well, we have some fingerpaints, but neither Sam nor I really like finger painting... the smell, the mess, the ooky hands). So the other night when J. was heading to an office supply store for a binder, I asked him to pick up a set of watercolors for a rainy day. Today was that rainy day. Sam painted 10 watercolors, and is still going now with the markers (only because I stopped putting pieces of paper in front of him)... I think he's drawn about 15 spiders to decorate with for halloween. Here are some highlights. I don't even need to tell you what most of these are, but the brown one is an owl, and the abstract one is people dancing at a party. (Note too the stripe of blue sky in almost every one.)











I don't know if it's because his fine motor control finally got good enough that he's not frustrated by his efforts, or because we went so wild over the portfolio full of recent paintings, but it's like a painting bonanza around here (he did mention today that he likes to make me happy by painting, so we had to have a whole carefully-casual conversation about how I hope he paints because he wants to, not because it makes me happy, though if it makes him happy to paint then that makes me happy too; he said it makes him happy AND it makes me happy).

He's also declared that in addition to being a paleontologist, he will be an artist when he grows up. He can paint the bones that he digs up, he says with the "I've got it!" tone we hear a lot around here these days.

Also: first group piano lesson yesterday. Teaching 4 4-year-olds to play piano is a bit like herding cats, but he had fun and I think it will be a nice non-stressful way to get an introduction to making music. And: he's actually liking swimming classes this fall, as opposed to protesting about them and then just sort of going through them. Which is good, because swimming is the only non-negotiable lesson, at least until he can keep his head above water on his own for a minute or so (safety issue; soccer, gymnastics, piano, whatever-- it's all negotiable and dependent on his interest and motivation, just not swimming).

Nothing about the Bean this post; she's getting more sociable and filling out, and the swing we bought through Craig's List is a lifesaver... she will happily nap in it for hours at a time, which allows me to, you know, do a few dishes even if J. isn't home, and also to paint with Sam.

Happy New Year to those who are celebrating (and atoning).