Should Have Used the Bean Dip

I've introduced her to finger painting! I was given some finger paints from a fellow mommy I met a couple of weeks back. Of course, Little One kept eating the paint and her poo was blue for the next two days. I tried again today and, of course, she still tried eating it. I was tempted to pack it up but I'm reading this really great book, "Young at Art" which tells you, "don't pack it up!" Instead, just use safe paint or something edible.

It was then that I remembered I made black bean dip this morning. Perfect! I washed her hands, gave her a fresh new piece of paper and put a spoonful of bean dip on her paper! She didn't eat it... Meany.

I've learned a lot from this book already -- I'm only on the intro. I always thought I was great at encouraging children's artistic talents but it turns out I was stifling the poor children. With drawing, I've learned;

~never ever write on the children's drawings (I'm guilty)
~save every piece of art ever made (oops)
~let them draw every single day
~to introduce scribbling (scribbling is positive, meaningful work -- I knew that) to a toddler, use one large piece of quality paper (oops) and one black crayon with the paper taken off.

I thought it was interesting to use one crayon rather than every colour in the rainbow. Now, every morning when we wake up I tape one large piece of flimsy paper (cuz that's all I've got) to the little table (that Grammy bought for her) and lay out one black crayon. When the mood strikes, she picks up the crayon and starts scribbling away. Every morning she spends more and more time working on her paper -- today she hit the one minute mark!

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So I'm working on getting some income. Childcare really doesn't pay enough. I decided to stop turning down families and just take the next one that contacts me. I put out some more ads and sure enough I have a mother who's interested. What's really great is that she only needs care until 2 in the afternoon!! Holla!! To supplement my pathetic childcare income I've become a Discovery Toys consultant! My kit arrives in 8 days. Who wants to throw a toy party!? I'm also learning different ways that I can make money through my blog. You wouldn't believe it but the blogging community (yes, there is a community) is quite dorky. I'll just give all you loyal Holistic Mommy readers a heads up -- if I suddenly sound like an infomercial, just disregard it, keep reading and remember... A mother's gotta do what a mother's gotta do!