I love painting with the children, but I have to be in the right mood, and we haven’t done it for a while.  It’s one of the many things I think we “should” do more often, and wonder how I manage to make life so complicated that we can’t find time to do it.  Isn’t that why we are home educating, after all?  It can seem impossible at times to get organised and make sure everything runs smoothly, including the clearing up, so that everyone has a good time and it is not too stressful.  I often think we need to stop going out so much, so that we have time at home for activities like this, and wonder if I need to plan them to make sure they happen.

However, there are times when everything falls into place without planning, everyone is in the right mood and it seems so simple.  On Sunday after we had been out to lunch at our local Italian restaurant, we came back and sat in the garden while the children played.  They were in a good mood, and we had Granny with us which helped to keep things nice and calm, so we took the easel outside and got the paints out.  The little three were busy for a long time painting on the easel with brushes, finger painting at a low table and painting with their feet on a roll of wallpaper.  Owl didn’t join in this time because he was busy sawing wood using his own tools and daddy’s workbench.

After Sunday’s success, I even managed to get the paints out again today with three extra small children around.  The little ones enjoyed easel painting (including the easel itself as well as the paper), painting cardboard boxes, paper plates and polystyrene cups and painting on themselves (and their clothes), while Owl and Monkey painted on the garage wall.  It was fun, the mess wasn’t too bad, and I WILL do it more often.  It is only fair to add that Suburban Dad has come home from his first day back at work and spent a large part of this evening washing up the paint pots and brushes which got mixed up with the dishes somehow, in a chaotic supper time for seven children, during which water came pouring through the kitchen ceiling – but that’s another story…