First Art Class

Yesterday I visited an art class for two year olds at Gymboree in the Bellevue Mall, Washington.

Can you believe the class lasted an hour!?


My grandson, Haeden, will be two next month. I have shared his artistic experience finger painting, but this was his FIRST art class.

There were five children in Haeden's class. The first project was painting and he eagerly engaged. Look at the joy on his face!



Keeping an eye on what else is going on.....


Haeden started moving around the room painting with others. As he traveled with paint brush in hand, many of the adults moved away in defense of getting painted.


Next project was chalk on black paper. After a few scribbles, with hands full of chalk, Haeden started running laps around the room while the others were seriously creating chalk masterpieces. Haeden decided to find out what was in the cabinets. He helped himself to musical instruments and danced to the music that was playing.

Story time was next. The children were asked to sit on rugs to listen. Haeden, on the other hand, had to help turn pages and be up close and personal with the teacher. When she asked what sounds the animals made he was very animated. But the best part was when she asked what sound the pig makes. Well, my son has taught Haeden to snort. Of course, this made everyone laugh and Haeden continued to snort throughout the reading of the book.

More art! Tin foil, crayons, and paper were provided for each child. Haeden took off with the tin foil. Then, with crayons in each hand he ran laps around the room. He did stop when the teacher provided foam brayers and paint. This kept his attention for a little while. Last came the play dough. Haeden enjoyed squishing this through his fingers and was not satisfied with a small amount. He dumped the entire bucket and played.

Needless to say, I was exhausted keeping up with his enthusiasm and curiosity. He truly exhibits the joy of life.

I did recommend to Mom that he might enjoy the music class which would give him more physical self-expression. Haeden and I will continue to create art together.

Start Them Early

Finger painting with my grandson at 19 months old!

I introduced Haeden to the big crayons, but finger paints are definitely more fun.

I spent three days babysitting my grandson and decided it is time for finger paints. First, I covered every possible inch of the table and chair. Haeden watched as I opened the four containers of washable finger paints.

I placed a blog of blue, his favorite color, on the paper and he tentatively touch it with his finger. With my encouragement he moved the paint slowly across the paper. I placed another blob of color on the paper and encouraged him to put a finger in it, too. This might have been my first mistake. The artist in me thought he would like all four colors. Maybe I should have stayed with the one color for a while because Haeden kept asking for more paint.

After a few paintings done in this manner, the next thing I knew he had his hand in one of the paint containers. I again encouraged him to spread it around on the paper. He went back for more and seemed to be enjoying the squishy feel of the paint in the container. I was getting nervous about the possible mess danger of allowing him to get his own paint from the container.

By this time Haeden had done several paintings and I thought he was done or I was done as his hands were full of paint........more so than the paper! I juggled him with my painted hands to the sink which was a feat in itself.

Cleaned up and let loose, Haeden headed back to the table to finger paint again. Okay I thought, this time I will put four small blobs of paint on the paper and hide the paint containers. Even with encouragement and help finger painting, Haeden insisted on more and did not fall for my hiding act.

In fact, he got angry and slapped his hands on the paper. "Yes, let's paint with our hands," and helped him to smear paint on the paper with his whole hand. He did like this........for a little while.........and then asked for more paint.

One more time I carefully rationed out the paint and this time I painted with him drawing circles in the paint. I decided it was time to quit as I thought this was plenty for a first lesson. Besides, I was trying hard to keep the mess to a minimum and know it could at any time quickly get out of hand (pun!).

As a good grandma and artist, I left all the painting materials in plain sight so that Haeden would ask Mom to paint again. Oh boy is she in for a treat!

Haeden's art.........and Mom's favorites:




This painting was created with a fist full of paint