IT all began with my taking a lesson in drawing with block crayons, trying to blend the three primary colours to make a rainbow. Rudimentary though the finished picture was, the colours were really quite beautiful. That got me noticing rainbows all around, and we've spent a fun week finding and creating rainbows of our own.
The hose was a great place to start on a hot, hot day, and delighted squeals accompanied a small thumb over the end of the hose as Emma
sprayed all those in her path. Once the novelty of this wore off, she was intrigued to see a rainbow in the spray. The next afternoon we found rainbows in bubbles. At other times, we had fun dressing up with an item of every colour and chalked rainbow coloured paths on the patio to run on. The original crayon rainbow and a wet-on-wet watercolour painting of a rainbow became backdrops for a new colourful nature table, and we heard a lovely Native American tale
"How The First Rainbow Was Made". At the end of the week, believe it or not it rained - while the sun shone bright in the sky. We were driving, and as I craned my neck at each traffic light, all Emma's response was: "You
still looking for a rainbow, Mama?"
THE project began so serenely. We were decorating a large terracotta saucer to make a bathing and drinking dish for birds and butterflies. First we glued some glass marbles around the perimeter for a little sparkle, then painted the base of the dish. We had fun mixing colours to get the shades we wanted, and tried not to let them get too murky. Working with a three-year-old is an excellent way to cure perfectionism. It's just not going to happen. So once I'd let that go, a fun time was had by all.
What to do with the leftover paint? Body painting, of course! Serene was left in the dust, mown down by hilarious preschooler silliness. What a lovely afternoon.
