The Mom Crowd

I was going to write a post on Co-sleepers for this week but I had such a spontaneous art afternoon with my 5 year old that I had to share!It is now officially fall and here in Pennsylvania the leaves are turning beautiful colors of orange, pink, red, and yellow.  Driving through the valleys makes me wish I had a convertible so I could take in the beauty.  Every time I look out the window in the backyard I see leaves falling and drifting down to find a place to land in the grass.My 5 year old, Ewan, had an idea to go out and rake the leaves in the backyard–so he could jump in them, of course.  The other 2 boys were napping and I like to use that time to spend some quality time with Ewan.  In my head I could do several things at once (us moms  are so good at multi-tasking, aren’t we?)–I could spend time with Ewan, AND get the leaves raked, AND burn some calories too.  Score!We finished the backyard and moved into the front yard.  We have a beautiful Maple tree in the front yard that is also shedding its beautiful red leaves.  As we were finishing our raking, Ewan suggested that we pick some leaves so we could paint around them and make a collage.I couldn’t believe that my son was suggesting we do an art project together!  He isn’t necessarily a crafty kid.  I told him we could do whatever he wanted.  So he picked out some leaves of different sizes and we brought them in.Here is what you need for the project:

• Washable Tempera Paints
• Paint Brushes
• Paper
• Flat leaves of various sizes  (you don’t want them curled too much because it makes them harder to paint over)
• Paper towels
• A cup with water for rinsing the paint brush
• A plate (paper or plastic) for a pallet

As we were working on our project, Ewan shared that he had read about this project in a book at school and thought it would be fun to try.  It was so fun for him to tell me his idea and how to do the project!1. We used extra large 12″X18″ finger painting paper for our project.2. We set the paper on the table and then placed the leaves in a random pattern on the paper.3. We got our paint brushes loaded with paint and got ready to paint over the leaves.4. I helped Ewan hold down the leaves on his paper so he could paint around them leaving a white spot in the shape of the leaf.5. When he was done painting around the leaf we took the leaf off of the paper and set it on a paper towel to keep the table clean.When we were done, I thought the pictures came out great and it was a very simple project.  I was having so much fun with it that I wanted try some different variations with the paints. Even though Ewan was excited about his idea, it didn’t mean that he wanted to spend an hour doing it! So, I didn’t make a lot of them but i did have fun. We did take the leftover leaves that were covered in paint and made prints of them too.I think that this project would be great for kids 2 years and older.  Obviously, the younger the child, the more help he/she will need.  Two year olds will love going on a leaf hunt, picking up leaves, and trying to paint over them.  Just be prepared with a wet towel nearby for paint spills!I hope that you enjoy making this project with your kids as much as I did!  If you decide to make this project, take a picture of it, post it on your blog and leave a comment with a link so we can see your own budding artists at work!