From crayons. Ava is grounded from the pleasure of scribbling colors on paper because she invariably colors on non-paper objects such as walls, doors, furniture, toys, and even appliances. No matter how I lecture her before giving her crayons, how I stress "paper only," and how I discipline her for coloring elsewhere, Ava still colors on inappropriate things. I guess the big blank canvas of a wall is tempting. I guess Ava has poor short-term memory and forgets my warnings.
Why don't I just keep her under watch while she colors? I've tried keeping her next to me on the floor coloring on paper while I was occupied with email, chores, etc but I forget and become so preoccupied that I don't notice that Ava had disappeared with a crayon in her hand. Sometimes I find her with a sheepish, guilty grin on her face and I know immediately that she's colored on something. Sometimes I catch her in the act. Sometimes I have to look for the graffiti. Luckily, the crayons are washable so it's easy to wash off Ava's masterpieces.
Why don't I just color with her? It defeats the purpose of Ava learning to play alone and entertain herself - and defeats the purpose of my getting stuff done around the house. Besides that, Ava ends up snatching every crayon from my hand when I color with her.
Ava seems more and more into mischief. Mischief doesn't seem to be the right word because it implies intention to be annoying. I don't think Ava is mischievous generally. She's very curious and probably bored most of the time so it leads her into...trouble, I guess, is the word. It only takes a few seconds of my not watching Ava for her to pour water from her cup on her books, pour milk on her portable DVD player (thereby ruining it for good), etc.
Anyway, Ava isn't grounded indefinitely from crayons. Just for a little while.
Ava and Darcy
I think she gets bored with her small space and things to do so she invents the action. I remember seeing some of my art work on my Mama's bedroom wall before it was repainted years ago. Send her to Grandma's, she can write on my walls, some of the other kids have already. Paint covers all! Love you and look forward to seeing you in a week!!. Mom
ReplyDeleteI went to the Y this morning and put Ava in childcare while I worked out. When I finished, I picked Ava up and saw that a childcare worker was scrubbing crayon marks off this standing play kitchen thing. Ava was right next to it. I asked if Ava'd done that and sure enough, Ava did.
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