I spent most of the past several days on the other side of the mountains. I went to watch my grandson play a couple of soccer games, as he has been playing on a YMCA league team this summer. I tell you, if you have never watched a game of soccer played by four-year-olds, you have missed one of life's true delights! It is so much fun - no parent pressure, no real sense of competition yet, no boundaries of any kind! (Who needs field lines, anyway?) The World Cup is way too serious for my tastes now. My grandson loves it, and is actually quite good at it. Just watching these little ones run around a ball like a little tracking herd for almost an hour made me realize how much energy I have lost in my lifetime.
I also got to watch my grand-daughter's gymnastics class, and to dump some apricots, in their various forms, and some piccalilli on my son's family.
One of the other things I did with the grandchildren was to do a little 'art lesson' with them. I had done the first Mona Brookes lesson with the oldest one several years ago, when she was four. The last couple of times I was with them, they asked me to do an art lesson with them, so I went prepared to re-do that first lesson, which was to draw a bird. When my grand-daughter had done the lesson at 4, we had just used some newsprint, and I was so impressed with her bird, I regretted not having had her use better materials. So this time, I took some watercolor paper and brush markers. The painting above is my 6-year-old grand-daughter's painting, and the one below was done by her 4-year-old brother. They gave the pictures to their mom, so I asked my grandson to do me another picture. (His sister was busy doing some craft projects we worked on together.)
Below is his painting of their dog. It is in front of their house (see the three windows?) He included the flowers that grow in front, and the fact that their yard is a bit hilly. I absolutely love that the dog (who loves to run) has five legs! Other than that, it looks a lot like their dog.
If you have any young ones in your life, I highly recommend this book and the lessons from it. It is fun, and look at the incredible results! (Brookes also has a second book for older children, and even adults.)
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