Firstly, many probably do remember the little watercolor paint sets that they used in elementary school for the cute art projects and such (Everything seems to be cute to me lately- and it's annoying my dad, haha. I loved my watercolor set though- it was blue, was genuinely cute, and had eight colors and...oh boy ). And that's totally fine- introducing art at a young age is amazing, and the kids seem to enjoy it more or less all of the time. But it's just that these little kids dip their brushes into water, then into the paint, and then with one stroke upon the paper, they suddenly become disappointed as the color bleeds through to forbidden territory.

And that's when I go ARRRGHALSDKJHALWEFJDSFNEEBLEBEELLALDKJFH.

Kids want their work to look nice- but every time they fail to achieve something to their envisioned standard...like all other people, they're kind of let down. And then they complain that they can't paint- and after a few sessions, come to the conclusion that art really wasn't meant for them after all. And then the enthusiasm drops down to sub zero.
I've seen too many kids do that.

SERIOUSLY, if teachers want to develop a lifelong appreciation of creating art (in their words), why do they let the students start with WATERCOLORS out of all the medium choices that they have as an introduction to painting? Sure, maybe it's easy to clean off if one makes a mess- but watercolors require a lot of control. Seven year olds- let along five year olds- are not going to have the control required to please their minds eye with a finished product that meets their expectations. Heck, I wasn't able to paint very well with them either at that age (and I'm still not good, lol)- and I'm surely much older than the kids are as of now. Plus, it requires a lot of patience...and that's just expecting so much.
And so they give up.

What a waste.
/rant


Ok, I just re-read that, and it didn't make much sense overall. I'm on my break though.
But anyway, my blueberries are delish at the moment. And fingerpainting is so delightful.
kaybai.