When Kieran came into the kitchen the other morning and spotted Aidan the first thing he said was, “Aidan, did you paint yet??” They are on a painting kick of late. We have painted paper plates that grace the fridge door and we have painted notebook pages and painted for no reason at all. These are totally freestyle sessions as you can likely tell. They are less interested in the finished product right now than in mixing the paints and trying different types of paper. And that is fine by me.

It is something close to magic when 5 kids sit spellbound and nearly silent, elbow to elbow sharing a tray of paint. At least that is how it struck me watching them engrossed in color and water one morning. We have been trying to stay on task and it was tempting to gather all the supplies away and get out the books. I rightly determined to let them be for a bit. I figured it was counter-productive to interrupt their concentration and calm. They worked all the better afterwards for the time spent in quiet collection earlier.

So, did you paint yet? Do!