“Is it a house?” “Is it a flower?” “What’s it supposed to BE?”, his teachers asked.
We briefly (like 1-2 minutes) discussed the book and the difference in the art Kandinsky was trying to create. He wanted his paintings to make you feel something, not just be a reproduction of something he saw. And then we got to work.
I turned on some music and set out the paint and paintbrushes. We used a small, and probably very old, set of acrylic polymer paints that my husband picked up for me secondhand from our local university. (If you have a university close by you should find out if they have a surplus sale. We’ve purchased a number of very cheap and high quality art supplies there).
I also try to ask the kids questions about the book we read, sort of an informal narration, so I can make sure they understood and absorbed a little bit of what we read. This is not a quiz or a test, by any means. Just a little bit of guided conversation centered around what we read.
All in all this took us about 30 minutes, and if the baby had kept sleeping we’d probably have continued painting for a while. But paint plus a very destructive 16 month old do not mix.