Friday, September 17, 2010

Quality Matters

My middle one tip-toed downstairs.  He's the first one up from nap-time.  In his usual tiny voice, he asks to paint.

I smile big as I remember new watercolors tucked away.  My mom had purchased some quality watercolors for each set of grand kids.  My previous experience has been with walmart watercolors, but I know what a difference quality art supplies makes.  We had a taste of it last year...
We both perched on our chairs and took a deep breath as he tried them out.  Eyes grew big with wonder.  The result: bright, bold and effortless color.  Previous experiences had been fun - smearing faint color over a blank sheet. 

But now...
...the possibilities were endless.

Biggest bit soon joined us - sleep still in his eyes.  At 6, shockingly, he is my most faithful napper.  It takes several minutes of blank stares from me and a gentle but firm reminder before he realizes that whining won't get him anywhere nearer some paper and a brush of his own. 

Manners are remembered and painting soon commences.
(He's still holding on to the idea of boomerangs and pointillism!)

We're hooked.  A few, high quality art supplies go such a long way.

We love our Prang water colors and real water-color paper!
Other staples in our home are our Lyra Ferby pencils.  I talked about them last year.  We are more in love with them than ever.  If I could have only one coloring tool in my home, it would be these.  In fact, I probably use them as much as the kids since I'm always snagging them when I do my Bible study marking!

While our Stockmar crayons didn't quite live up to my expectations, part of that had to do with how much we love our lyra pencils.  The block crayons are still an essential member in our art supplies!

What are some of your favorite art supplies?  I'd love to hear what you and your children have enjoyed using or even what's on your 'wish list'!

(I was in no way compensated for any reviews in this post or on this blog.  All opinions are solely mine.)
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4 comments:

  1. DanielleSeptember 17, 2010 at 10:11 PM

    After using the kiddie paint brushes, we made the switch to artist quality paint brushes. It makes a big difference.

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  2. HeatherSeptember 20, 2010 at 12:51 PM

    I love Prang too, although we're using up all of our other stuff as well. As Danielle said, and I agree, the quality of the paint brushes is important. Prang also had soy crayons that were fantastic and glided on so smoothly. Haven't seen those in awhile. I MUST have Mr. Sketch scented markers every year too because they make the room smell amazing!

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  3. Mama MonkeySeptember 25, 2010 at 1:16 PM

    First off, you have a 6 year old that still naps??? WOW!! :) Our oldest (4 years old) stopped when he was 2.

    We love painting at our house! It keeps the girls busy for quite a while, as does play doh :)

    Thanks for the nice comment on my blog :)

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  4. Heather@Cultivated LivesSeptember 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM

    Danielle and Heather - I definitely want to check out some better brushes and those scented markers sound intriguing!

    MM, yes,my 6 yo still naps. It's pretty amazing. He can skip if we are doing something, but put him near a bed in the afternoon and he's down. :) My 2 yo has been trying to skip naps for the last couple of weeks and it has me scared... Funny how each kids is so different.

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