messy play :: making colour and occupying young minds

I am on a mission to find pre-school activities for Shrek that he can do at home, alongside his siblings.

It's tricky.

He seems to have a deep mistrust of any activity purposefully set up for him. It's almost as though he can't see the fun in doing some thing if he isn't crashing some one else's party.

I have been watching him closely, and following the advice once again of Lori from Camp Creek Blog. I followed him around the house with a notepad, which he found distracting to start with (lots of "whatcha doings?" and peering at my writing.) When he finally got bored, I learnt alot about him.

He likes numbers, order and labelling
He already asks Why? A million times a day
He needs some one to bounce ideas off, to think out loud to
He wants to challenged mentally

He has many moments a day of running around like a nutcase, letting off steam and shouting loudly but he will happily spend a lot of time in deep, thoughtful concentration.

So I did a trial, and set up a colour mixing experiment for him.

On a piece of thick card, I painted the primary colours in watercolour paint, and then gave him a brush and some water to blend them.


He found this quite amazing. He found it even more amazing when he downed the brush and started using his fingers.

He ended up with hands like this:
He was so thrilled with this very messy play, that he was soon demanding more water, more cardboard, and more paints.


(Linked to Nurturestore Play Academy)