When Kids and Crayons Meet
When kids and crayons meet it’s not always a work of art. Writing on walls, table tops and other “illegal” surfaces, can be a bummer as far as the parent cleaning “art” (mess) is concerned. For kids, though, every bit of scribble is important and holds a world of meaning, it helps them develop their creativity and imagination. However, as much as we want them to explore their inner Dali, it’s not always fun when you have abstract art everywhere you rest your eyes. Luckily for us, Sofie has learned early on that we only write on paper or activity books. I buy her rolls of Manila paper and other art materials enough to supply a pre-school, so she gets to release her artistic energy there. Other books and surfaces are a big no-no, unless she doesn’t want to see her crayons again.
When she first made an attempt to create a mural, we considered giving her a wall and covering it with Manila paper, but I read somewhere that it sends mixed signals to kids. God forbid we visit a place with wall paper! Although we had a bumpy start with this rule, once she learned it, she stuck to it without fail . . . until a few weeks ago. I was doing the laundry and after a couple of minutes, I was amazed by how awfully quiet she was. When I went to the living room, lo and behold, I came upon Picasso’s Blue Period and a little tyke grinning at me. “Look, look, Mommy I colored blue, I’m great!!!”
Sofie smiling – Good
Can identify colors – Good
Well developed self-esteem – Very Good
Streaks of blue on wooden floor – Bad. . . Extremely BAAAADDD!
Sofie + Blue Crayon + Wooden Floors = Disaster!
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| Sometimes, they just seem possessed , don’t they?! |
I don’t want to take away the crayons since she really loves to color and it helps her fine motor skills. Spanking definitely will not work and ignoring it will only make it worse. I could only think of Cinderella. Yup, I resorted to physical labor. I told her I liked her art, but we do not color on floors only on paper. Then I gave her a damp rag with a little soap and asked her to scrub, while repeatedly saying “We only write on paper”. I wasn’t sure if she was taking me seriously since she seemed to have enjoyed her punishment a little too much. We haven’t seen any wall or floor art since then, so it seems to have worked 😉
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| A fun activity WE DON’T want to do AGAIN! |
**I did this with potty training too, I asked her to help me wipe her “accident” off the floor until she eventually got tired of it and began using the potty.
3 Comments
michi
lucky you,i did this before and it didn't work. tuwang tuwa din siya sa paglinis lagi… hmmm…ano kaya magwork sa son ko, hehe! it's easy to clean the floors, furniture and appliances but cleaning walls is not easy. hehe!
The Pepperrific Life
It's very clever how you got her to clean up after making a mess. I don't want to even start with how my daughter used to have a love affair with crayons too. She even went as far as scribbling on the TV set! She eventually just outgrew that phase.
anney
Naku kami pati walls namin may puro sulat at kulay! lol!