Tami Lund Romance Author Guest Blogger Nicola Simpson Discovers Paints are a Parent’s Best Friend

It’s my blog and I can do what I want to… And what I’ve decided to do today is feature a friend who blogs about children’s crafts. Seems appropriate, given it’s summer and many lucky (said tongue-in-cheek) parents are spending the summer with their kids… trying to figure out how to keep them occupied, so that they (the parents) do not go insane/become alcoholics/contemplate justified murder. Just kidding on that last one… Although after the fourth rainy day cooped up with two kids…

Anyway, enough about my thoughts, let’s turn it over to Nicola Simpson, and see what she does in order to maintain her sanity.

A little bit of imagination and a lot of pink paint!

I have been a stay at home mummy for nearly 7 years now. I have two sons aged 6 and 4 and a daughter aged 2. After having my first child I couldn’t wait until he was old enough to start painting, colouring, making and sticking. Thankfully, he along with his two siblings have all shared this passion and we have great fun making and creating our own mini masterpieces each week.

I decided to set up my blog www.mulitcraftingmummy.blogspot.ie as I was struggling to find arts and crafts ideas, which would be suitable for all of my children to enjoy together. My ideas are all simple and easy to achieve. All have been tested and enjoyed by my own children and it is only their own artwork which is displayed on my blog.

Doing arts and crafts with your children can be daunting to some, especially when you are faced with such perfect examples on the huge number of arts and crafts websites now available. However, not all arts and crafts projects take meticulous planning or require lengthy trips to the art and hobby store for specialist materials. Sometimes all you need is a few pots of paint or crayons and a little bit of imagination to get things started.

My 4 year old pre-schooler has a fierce imagination and he loves to make up stories. The other day he was telling us all about some pirates who went to visit dinosaur land. Pirates and dinosaurs are real favourites in our house at the moment. He began by telling us about how the pirates were going to fly in a bright red aeroplane, after sailing their pirate ship to the airport and that they were going to deliver pineapples for the “Pineappleasaurus’s” to eat. Thankfully the story had a happy ending; despite the pirates having to navigate their way past T-rex’s and Stegosaurus’s to get to the Pineappleasaurus’s.

After he had finished his tale we decided to have a go at painting some dinosaurs. My 4 year old of course wanted to paint his “Pineappleasaurus” and my 6 year old decided he would create a “Sillyasaurus”. My sons had great fun helping their little sister name her dinosaur “Pinkieasaurus” after she made a grab for the pink paint pot as soon as we sat down.

We had a great session painting our dinosaurs together. The boys got very animated in deciding what their dinosaurs would look like and what special features they would have. The “Pineappleasaurus” had 3 eyes and 10 legs and his brain was in his tummy. The “Sillyasaurus” was very silly indeed he had 21 eyes and 100 legs, he laughed all day instead of roaring and his favourite food was ice-cream.. The boys then decided that their sister’s dinosaur, which was definitely a girl, only ate pink food, especially pink marshmallows.

Painting with three young children is not without its challenges, but the rewards certainly outweigh the post-paint session clean up operation and the odd temper tantrum that you may have to deal with. Arts and crafts are a great way to help grow your children’s imaginations. So next time your children start to tell you a tale, grab some paper and paint and see what they can create.

By Nicola Simpson