Paint away!

It is behind the back of my mind to immerse our children in a myriad of activities within our means.  Give them as many opportunities to learn and find out where their strengths lie and their hobbies are.  Give them experiences that they will not look back later as grown-ups to ponder why they have not been given chances.

Yen had bought some painting pieces (B5-sized) for children to paint with.  Sunday, 8.30pm.  Looking at the clock, she lamented that it would have to wait another day as it was late and near bed time for our trio.  I thought for a while and asked, "But the children have such packed schedules already...  If we do not let them do it (paint) now, when are we going to let them do it?"  She probably saw some sense in my words and conceded.

So started the children's excitement.  From the unwrapping of the boxes...  the emergence of the pictures...  the sight of the paints and the holding of brushes...  I swear I saw the glimmer in their eyes that this was going to be a fun thing for them to do.

I guided Felix and Rachel (being older, I had actually gave her instructions verbally and let her discover things herself), whilst Yen gave full attention to our youngest jewel, Kayleen.  I started off being uptight about Felix not holding the paint brush correctly, not using the correct strokes when painting, creating blotches while he painted and leaving big patches of dried, uneven paint on the picture...

"Kayleen, no!" screeched Yen beside us.  It was then that I thought, "Why are we so uptight, seeking perfection in their work?  Perhaps I should let them try and have fun, learning through experiences!"  That was when I let Felix have more fun in painting, choosing only to touch up the painting in between the switches of paint for him.

Yen, on the other hand, did things her way.  She let Kayleen hold the brush and paint the bigger pieces while taking over and completing the work for the fine patches.  Rachel ended up being very frustrated with her work when she painted out of line and used a piece of tissue to 'erase' the errors.  She found out that her actions had not helped her clean things up, and almost ended up teary-eyed when she was the last to complete her painting.  She is quite a perfectionist when it came to some things!

Our children were quite glad with their work in the end and insisted on bringing their masterpieces along to play-school the following day to show their teachers.  It spurred Yen to purchase a new set of work for them, this time, pieces of a bigger dimension so that they can handle the painting of the pictures better.  Now when is the next best time for them to paint?