Going in Circles

One thing I love about reading other people's blogs is that I get to benefit from all the creativity out there.  I'm not so great at coming up with productive activities for my kids to do, so it thrills me to find easy, fun projects out there that I can reproduce here.  Recently I saw a painting project on a blog that I love to read, Whatever..., which is a reference to Philippians 4:8; Meg is a mom of five, she is very creative, and very real about her life.  I love her blog because it's both cheerful and honest.  Anyway, she saw this idea on the Frugal Family Fun Blog and shared her own kids' experience.  Like I said, it was easy and fun...what else could I want?

The project was stamping out circles with a styrofoam cup and black paint...

and then painting in the circles.

I told the kids to color in the circles however they wanted.  I don't usually give them specific directions when they paint, I just tell them to go for it.  They can keep themselves entertained and busy for a very long time.  But this was something different, and they had a lot of fun with it.

Well, Christian did once I stamped his circles out and they had time to dry overnight...he did his painting the following day since the first attempt met with some smudges and tears.  (Tears that stream down your face, not tears like in a paper...got it?)  Once he had nice, dry circles, though, he was good to go.  (The above picture is with the wet circles...it started out so well!)

Michaela worked meticulously.  I was impressed with her precision, since she also had wet circles.  They just couldn't wait for them to dry, and the great plan-ahead person that I am (NOT) had not done the stamping the night before.  I have to come up with more of this kind of thing, because she really enjoyed it.  They both love to paint, and having a particular thing to paint, something with purpose in a way, gave their task some weight or importance that it doesn't usually have.  Although I should say they are very proud of whatever they have done! 

Christian got to work after school the next day, and he too was very careful and particular about his painting.  I loved to see how they chose differently in the coloring of the circles and the overlapping areas.

Suddenly he wants me to take his picture for the blog all of the time! 

Christian took a couple of days to finish, which was fine with me.  It was time-consuming to take such care with his strokes.  But worth every minute!

Michaela finished hers that same afternoon she started it, maybe in an hour and a half.  I think it's beautiful.  We're going to frame them and find a fun place to display them in the house. 

I loved this project and highly recommend it.  I actually found myself wanting to stamp out circles for me and paint them in! 

By the way, if you have any good websites for art/paint projects for kids I'd love to hear about them!  I've searched a little, but I don't ever seem to get very far, or to the right places.