E and V love to watch me paint. They also want to participate. If I need to work on a project, I will give them cardboard and a wet brush. Then they are able to mimic me (cardboard being my favourite painting surface) while I finish my work and they are able to join while keeping it a ‘yes’ activity.
If you ask my husband what his favourite colour is, he’ll tell you it’s the colour of a sunset. So with his birthday and Father’s Day coming up, I wanted to give him just that. Or rather the girls were.
They’ve done ice painting with natural colouring and, enjoying the colours, I’ve been wanted to try natural watercolouring myself. In Montessori, we would traditional start with a tray that contained a single watercolour cake, paper, brush, and small cup of water. But following their lead, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to watercolour together. We had three different colours; beet for pink, turmeric for yellow, and lavender (which was saved from our wedding) for a barely visible green.
We used scrap wood that would absorb the watercolours, making for a less messy experience. The girls would point to a colour and I would dip their brush for them. V started to want to dip her own brush, so I would bring the cup to her, enabling her to do so.
I love the way their paintings turned out and I can’t wait for the girls to gift them to Daddy.
Have you used natural watercolouring? What are your plans for Father’s Day?