Raptor Dad here, with a post that is a little more philosophical and a little less how to. Little Raptor loves to paint and be creative which makes me smile. I have a degree in art after all, it was what I dedicated my life to for the first 22 years. Unfortunately, Raptor often wants to be creative at times that seem inconvenient or what’s worse, she wants to paint the wrong way! The wrong way?
I know, I should know better. I went to an art school that frowned on illustration and I railed against the “system” insisting on putting illustrative work in the student show on more than one occasion just for the sake of doing it. That said, I grew up without a lot of money and was certainly poor in art school. That’s built-in a strong respect for the tools. It flusters me when Raptor wants to mix paints the wrong way. Today, I decided I would take a step back, have a cocktail, and let her go nuts.
In the end it was easy to just sit back and let her do her thing. There was less stress for everyone and Raptor learned about mixing paint and cleaning brushes. Not just because I told her about it but because she got a practical lesson by seeing what happened when she didn’t clean the brush between strokes. It’s important to learn by doing and I think that we, as first time parents, sometimes have a hard time letting Raptor do that.