What's all this you ask? Well, I'll tell you. My sons never cease to amaze me. The artistic ability of Timothy especially is demonstrated over and over ... all over the house! Remember the wall mural that he drew over a year ago? Well, he decided to add to his portfolio. I ran upstairs to the boys' room for something and I just couldn't stop the scream escaping from my mouth! Timothy had decided to play a giant-sized game of tic-tac-toe ON THE FLOOR of their room IN CRAYON! He explained to me that he even used two different colors so that he knew whose turn it was. When I asked him who played, he told me that he was playing ... ME!
I pulled out a brush, a rag and the Watkins All-Purpose cleaner and made him start scrubbing! It was a LARGE version of tic-tac-toe and it took a LONG time to clean up, but he finally finished and the carpet looks great! Whew! The only problem now is that it doesn't seem like there is much regret for what he had done. It honestly seems as if he doesn't understand that drawing a tic-tac-toe game with crayon on the carpet was something that he shouldn't have done.
I love my little artist. For a four-year-old, he really does have a talent for drawing, but I see that we still need to work on teaching him WHERE he is allowed to draw! I'm also thankful that you can hardly tell where that huge game was drawn. It was right in the middle of the room, too, so I couldn't have even hid it with a piece of furniture or anything. As one of my friends (who has no kids!!!) asked, "Well, why did you let him have a crayon to begin with?" Ha! Just wait a few years and I want to see what happens in HER house!
9 comments:
I have to HIDE permanent markers all day long from my little artist. The older artists of the house only prefer permanent markers, (they work the best) but when the little artist gets at them...then I have permanent problems!
I agree with Karen. I have to hide Sharpies from the young'uns.
How about an old roll of wrapping paper that is sort of wrinkled? I put one on the floor for my boys and they thought it was lovely! You could put it on the wall... but Christopher might have trouble discerning 'paper' from 'wall' ...
Luckily your cleaner worked AND the little boy doing the cleaning worked! Yeah Watkins!!! Keep the pictures for your product portfolio
Megan colored a one foot patch of our living room carpet in purple crayon once. I was so MAD!!! It did take a long time to get out. I can sympathize with you! I probably spent a good hour cleaning it up!
I have our permanent markers hidden, too, for the same reason as Karen. Butcher paper taped to one wall has helped that problem (although Daddy has more fun coloring and drawing on that than the kids....).
Mar, I'm still wondering why you got light colored carpet when you have three boys!!!
But YAY Watkins!!! (and I love that little ones can clean up their own mess with no worries about chemicals)
It is funny the perspective time and distance gives when it comes to works of art.
Glad to hear your carpet cleaned up well.
Thumbs up for Watkins! It's great!
Try giving Timothy his own sketch book, or getting news print. It's inexpensive and you can get a huge roll of it...most publishers have end of rolls they're willing to get rid of. Also, kraft paper works well, as does shelf paper, butcher paper, etc.
(regarding your friends comment, Gramp once asked Gram why she never told Aunt J and I not to put chopped onions down the cold air return register (after the act was done). Gram calmly replied she had no idea we would ever try it. She learned fast, and always told us not to even think about doing something. Spoiled all our fun!
Oh, it's not like Timothy doesn't have anything else to draw on! No sir! He has plenty of paper, rolls of paper, chalkboards, MagnaDoodles, etc, etc! And it's not like I'm not hiding all those permanant markers, ball point pens, or glitter pens! Even the washable markers are stashed out of reach! The problem is that he views ANY blank area as a canvas and will use ANYTHING to create a picture! Just tonight he was upstairs drawing another tic-tac-toe game on the same floor, but with his finger, informing me that he was not using crayons this time, but just his finger!! He just loves, loves, loves to draw! That's all!
LindaSue, we got light colored carpet because we moved in here before we had kids and somehow thought that we'd be able to keep this house spotless should we ever have children. HA! And again I say with gusto ... HA!!! Who were we kidding?! :)
Hey, Mar,
If it's warm enough for the boys to go outside, give them a squirt bottle of food-colored water to squirt onto the snow to make a picture. Maybe that'll get his attention elsewhere.
How about making an art room for them that is the only place they can do art? (like under the front porch.)
OK, Mar, if Timothy uses blank (empty) spaces to draw on the only solution is to not have any blank spaces. Like you could just let the kids scatter their toys all over the floor and not pick them up. Then you could tell your childless friend she has no idea why the toys are all over. She'd never believe you anyway if you explained it all to her.
On the bright side, at least he used his finger and not a crayon. Just a good thing he wasn't finger painting at the time. Keep enjoying your boys!
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