Swish, Wipe, Paint, Repeat

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In the past, I've always let painting be completely open-ended for my preschool aged kiddos.  By open-ended I mean that I give them little-to-no instruction or prompts at all.  I just let them explore and enjoy.  There's so much fun and learning that happens when they can create art that way.  But the mixed paints and muddy pictures are starting to drive me a little nuts.  And I realize that cleaning their paintbrush between paint colors is an essential skill for them to learn.  So we've been practicing "Swish, Wipe, Paint..."  We swish our paint brush, wipe it on the paper towel to see if it's clean, (swish again if it's not) and paint, then repeat.  We make it like a fun chant while we paint.  It was going pretty well...

...until I walked away to take care of the baby for a few minutes.  Then the colors were just BEGGING to be mixed and muddied.  It's just too fun!  We'll keep practicing.

Excited to be linking to For the Kids Friday and Fun for Kids Friday.