Last Sunday, in an effort to break the post-nap play away from crashing, roaring, banging, jumping, I set up the easel in the living room with baby jars full of tempera. And to my surprise there was a serious flurry of painting that ensued. Usually our painting sessions are laughably short. But this time, before I could look up, a page would be filled with color and on the floor and another would be halfway done. It was funny. It was almost like little boy aggression therapy.
And we quickly ended up with a pile like this:
So to give them a little direction, I put some music on and said, "Now, just paint what you hear." I fully expected them to ignore me. But amazingly, they. slowed. down.
And Sigur Ros' song "Se Lest" became this (Nico):
And this from Mateo, who when I asked him what was in the middle of the circle, told me it was "an angel running":
It helped that it was a song they knew and love. It has long been one of Mateo's favorites, and that day he asked me to repeat it about 5 times after he had finished painting it. And each time he would sit almost still next to the speakers, just listening. After the last time, he got up and said, "Mama, hey Mama, that song makes tears." I told him it does the same for me.
