Rain, rain, go away...or on second thought

It's raining...again! My grass is sighing in watery bliss. My three year old...not so much!

We're headed to the beach tomorrow, so we were out picking up a few last minute things before the storms rolled in this afternoon. More on fun "projects" to do at the beach when we get back... but I knew from the rumbles of thunder and dark clouds on the horizon that we were going to be in for a long afternoon. So, as we were scouring the aisles for beach craft necessities, I decided to grab a new art supply to help entertain Belle while I worked on my LONG to do list.

I've been visiting the oil pastels at our local "projects store," for several weeks now, but the prices seemed a little hefty for a 3 year old's art box. So, today when I saw that Crayola now has oil pastels (28 colors for less than $6), I tossed a pack in the cart. I wasn't certain that they were going to be the same quality as the more expensive ones, but she is three after all.

Once we were home, Bee was tucked cozily into her crib for a nap, and the thunder was rolling we opened up the new medium. I brought out some watercolor paper because I thought the texture would make a nice combo with the new pastels, and off we went. Belle is really into drawing things that she can make out of basic shapes, so to start off I showed her some different ways to make flowers. [She's turning into a bit of a perfectionist, so I have to be careful or she ends up just wanting me to do it for her.] Since watercolor paper comes with its own fairly hefty price tag, we switched to colored construction paper after the first drawing. We went on the draw ocean animals {jellyfish, octopi, fish, and even a dolphin all from circles and lines). We practiced blending...Belle loves to blend because it's a great excuse to get the colors all over her fingers. Then we made some more flowers and letters for Daddy.

Most art supplies occupy Belle for 2-3 pieces of paper before she is bored and wants to move on. These lasted for 10 drawings! She just didn't want to stop. The colors are brilliant and go on super smoothly. The traditional "crayon" shape was familiar, but the results they produced were pretty fantastic. The set even has gold and silver! I would highly recommend these for the preschool crowd! We didn't even mind a little rain!