Palm and Finger Painting

Maria 1y.8m.

Perhaps, the first tools to use for kids, when painting, are own fingers and palms because it is much easier than to draw with a pencil or a brush and of course it is a FUN for both child and adult!

I suggested Maria finger painting when she was 8 month old. It was cool! but the duration of the painting process was quite short as she couldn’t concentrate for long. Besides, she didn’t like her hands to be dirty :).

Few weeks ago she herself proposed finger painting and now almost every morning she takes out her paints and starts creating masterpieces; she adores when her parents also take part in it. Since then we have quite a lot of things which Maria created with her colourful palms: butterflies, dinosaurs, Santa, fish, flowers, fireworks etc.

Fairy Tale and Geometry

Maria 1y.7m.

Maria knows geometric shapes relatively well thanks to the poster which was once hanging on the wall as well as the sorter puzzle. Not to forget things once learned, I try to repeatedly speak about them. So, I cut the shapes of different colours (for repeating colours as well) and size and told Maria a story, which was supposed to motivate her to visualize it with the help of available shapes. Of course, one can think of more complex story, involving many more shapes and colours. Ours was the following:

The Sun was shining high in the sky. Just under, the small squared house with triangular roof was built. In the garden near the house in the oval blue pond there were lots of fish. A cow named Annabel was walking on the rectangular piece of grass. Once she fell ill and didn’t have any milk. She was treated with medicines in the rectangular packages, but all was in vain. The only thing which helped were the oranges brought by little girl, Kate. Actually, not the oranges themselves but the loving and caring attitude of the little girl helped. Annabel and Kate became friends soon. Annabel got well pretty fast and treated Kate with the milk every day.

I must say that Maria selected shapes on her own and though at first it was not very fast, the most rewarding was that she liked the thing a lot. Every time she did it better and better. Now, she can do it without any fairy tale. =)))