painting for little ones/ what if? game/ pastel and paint swirl paintings

Dressing up in daddys hat... such fun :)

Today, I felt flat for most of the day.. too much to do, not enough time, not enough energy, not enough ME to do it all. But my kids were all for a chillout day and so it was.


Amahli and I did some Christmas painting... well red and green painting although she seemed to turn rather Vampirish after eating the paint brush. Still she is loving paint activities and "ohh!" the whole way through this every time her brush touched the paper with vibrant colour :)

I always use food colouring when painting with under twos. You just can never tell when something is going to look too good to resist a chew on. And for Amahli at the moment, pretty much everything is getting taste tested to some degree. Its a great way for them to learn about things if they are able to do that safely.

Jumeirah and I did some swirls paintings which are incredibly relaxing and just pain fun to do!

Draw on a piece of paper with a pastel lots of swirls and loops. Then carefully paint in each section of the loops. We used food colouring and the colours are really vibrant.

How cool is that!
Jared and I played a matching "what if?" game, using his city blocks.


I set it up for him with all the vehicles matching the right buildings they belong to e.g. police car in front of the police station, ambulance at the hospital, school bus at the school... then I took the vehicles away and got him to match it up again. He did it and so I began to play the "What if?" game. This game involves getting the child to think about what would happen in certain situations. I use to play it with Jumeirah all the time in the car... "what would happen if I dont use the brake?" "what will happen if we drive straight instead of turning?" "what would we do if we didnt have a car?" and she loved it. With the city blocks I asked Jared " what would happen if the ambulance went to the shops?" "what would happen if the school bus went to the police station?" I could see him thinking about it, but Jumeirah answered for him mostly saying " if the school kids went to the police station, they could try all the sirens and play dress ups!"



Its a fun and limitless game that can be played in lost of places but it was fun doing it with blocks today. Great for imagination, cause and effect and "thinking outside the square".