January 18, 2012
little miss creative
Noah called me into Liliana’s room yesterday and I walked in and saw this:
(There are actually nine people there, but five of them were drawn with a very light-colored marker. You can see them if you tilt your screen.)
“Who drew on the wall, Liliana?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you draw on the wall?”
“Because I wanted to be creative! I wanted to make you guys happy!”
Oh, goodness. There were lots of words said. We encouraged her, told her that we loved her artwork, but also told her that drawing on the walls was inappropriate and that her drawing would have to be removed. She was UP. SET. “BUT I WANT MY ROOM TO BE CREATIVE!!!”
Liliana had just brought home some artwork from school, so we got some sticky tack and put that up on her wall, and Noah told her that he was going to bring home a roll of paper from work and that she could color it and we could put it up on her wall. I know that she knows that drawing on the walls is wrong, but I also know that she loves art and crafts and her walls are very empty.
This is one of those rare circumstances where we didn’t dish out a consequence, besides removing the markers from her room and removing her picture from the wall. Thankfully, she drew the picture with washable markers. I’d been letting her color during her afternoon quiet time, as she’d been showing she could handle it — keeping the makers on the paper only — but we’ll keep the markers at the table from now on.
How cool would it be, though, to have walls that she could color on? I may have to look into that.
I grew up in a very old house and knew that not many people in my family liked or respected our house beyond it was shelter. I drew on my walls. I started when I will about 14ish or maybe a little earlier and continued until we moved out. I had signatures music lyrics and such. I liked it and knew my parents didn’t care. My dad kept it actually. He took the drywall down and kept it, he said, for my wedding, but it never made it there.
If my kids ever wanted to they could do it on the conditon that they were older, and that they would repair or paint it when I asked them too. Paint is easy…not in a rental tho. lol
There is paint you can get that turns the wall into a chalkboard or you can get cheap whiteboards at Wal-Mart.
That is a fabulous drawing and the way you handled it is simply perfect, in my opinion!
I think Liliana NEEDS the book “Purple, Green and Yellow” by Robert Munsch!! I wonder if Kaylie would ever remember me reading it to her and Reece a zillion times!!! Reece still asks me to read it from time to time…and he’s 10! So go get that book NOW, she will love it.
Oh…I think her artwork is amazing, and you guys are the perfect parents for her!!!
We let our girls paint and draw on their walls. I am not really sure why, as I wasn’t on board with it as much as my husband. They know that it can only happen in their rooms and now that they are teenagers, I really like what they are doing. I think how you handled it was quite appropriate and I am sure that she will enjoy the paper that she can make her room more creative with!
Have you seen this wallpaper?
http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/24066179228242424_ExbRNocf_c.jpg
I hope you can see that link…it’s colouring book wallpaper that i found on Pinterest a while ago. Probably not a very practical option, but still cool!
Thank God for washable markers – wax crayons are another story as paint does not adhere to wax….and wax is so difficult to remove….from any surface.
My walls were papered with photos of other countries from a dutch magazine, de Spiegel, before Dad (your Grandpa) painted the old house inside….
I was going to say what Kami said! I love creative kids. :)
We painted our daughter’s closet door with chalkboard paint (on top of magnet paint) so they can draw on that to their heart’s content. Also thinking of hanging empty frames in their room so they can hang their own artwork whenever they feel like it. Lastly, in our “rec room” we have two curtain rods hanging with clips that are full of the girls’ projects. Hopefully keeping them from drawing on the wall…:)
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