The Twinadoes are sick. They are not sick enough to justify doing nothing but sitting on the couch watching DVDs all day, but they are too sick for kinder. So that means that they have been home all week, stuck inside, not well enough to even go to the library, wanting me to entertain them…so by today it was all wearing a bit thin.
I needed something easy but a bit new and different to catch their attention and imaginations and give me fifteen minutes peace to get Muski to sleep. Fifteen minutes of doing something together without fighting. Fifteen minutes of activity that wouldn’t take me an hour to clean up….
Drawing perhaps?
Hmm how can I make drawing a little bit different and interesting? Then I got an idea…
Draw Big!!
I got out the boring old crayons and the roll of paper and then I rooolllleeed it out into a looooong piece that ran the whole length of the table. I set up chairs side by side, put the crayons in the middle and told them to draw me a really BIG, really LONG, picture.
I wandered off to get the small boy to sleep and part of me wondered how long it would be until I had to break up a fight over someone drawing on someone’s bit of the paper…. but to my surprise when I came back ten minutes later they were both drawing side by side making a combined picture of a ‘city’ and ‘roads with a round-a-bout’ It kept them busy for about 30 minutes all up!
Using a BIG piece of paper is such a simple change to the regular drawing routine, but it has a big impact. It encouraged my girls to work together, gave them a different space and a different perspective for their drawing. And most importantly it was quick and easy to set up… so why not give it a try!
Stitch Sista says
My kids would absolutely love that!! One reason I like having a patio…you should have seen the size of the robot Finn drew on it with chalk yesterday LOL, almost went the whole length…
We are just overflowing with artwork here though! I have nowhere to put it all!
Jodie says
Gorgeous drawing by those two gorgeous twinadoes. My kids also love drawing a “map”…. roads, train trucks, river, pond, paddocks for the animals… and then setting up toy cars, trains, farm animals etc on top of it, can build lego buildings to make a town, or create buildings out of old boxes. Great way to fill in a rainy morning or if you have room to leave it out it can last for days.
Rach says
Awesome idea! Can you please tell me where to find the big rolls of paper?? Thanks! :D
kylie says
What a great idea – must try this.
tiff says
Kate, I sorry to hear that your kiddos are sick. Hope you all feel better soon.
We used to do this with the bigger kids. I haven’t been there with Ivy and Noah yet, although Ivy loves to draw. I used to get huge bits of paper and hang them on the fence, put coloured (edicol) water into spray guns and let them go. Of course it was much warmer weather but they had a ball. To this day, they still talk about it. I was so much more creative back then… Will have to get out all my old ideas and run with them.
katef says
We got our roll of paper from Ikea for those wanting to know… I loathe having to pay for drawing/art paper for the kids after years of getting freebies when I was teaching – but the ikea rolls are pretty cheap, useful for lots of things and are recycled paper too.
Tiff – oh we loved doing that spray gun thing when I was teaching kinder… must break that out for the girls this summer!
PlanningQueen says
Beautiful photo of a gorgeous idea. With holidays starting I think I might be making a quick trip to Ikea to get a rll of paper!
Nic says
Oh good idea ! Im definately going to try the painting against the fence idea !
Susan says
Great idea. This is my first time reading your blog, and I laughed out loud at the term “twinadoes”. That is too cute.
Katie says
So funny after a long week stuck in the house I came up with the same afternoon activity today! Love the city and roads they drew, could be a great floor drawing!