backyard therapy: reinventing the (color)wheel

As your friend and encourager in this crazy journey of special needs mommyhood...  

I am urging you

DO NOT READ HOMESCHOOLING MOMMY BLOGS

Trust me on this.  I'm an addict.  I know what's in your best interest.

Don't do it.  

unless

you want to click away feeling like a big, fat, lazy slob of a mom (or dad).  Who spends entirely too much time watching meaningless television.  Eating too many cookies.  Sleeping too many hours.  Googling too many things.  Wasting too much time.  Spending too many days in jammies.

Also.  Maybe.  Just maybe. 

you might actually stumble on an idea or two that inspires you.  Lights a fire under your creative(ly challenged) bootay.

Which is what happened to me when I stumbled onto one blog (don't ask me which though...I couldn't tell ya.  I visit too many.  I'm an addict, remember?) with a color wheel project that was positively Trevy Perfect.

All I needed to do was:

Buy tempera paints...easy

Purchase one white poster board...easy peasy 

Perfectly divide a large bowl traced circle into a pie of whatever number of colors I wanted to work on...stretching my creative limits but I'm still game

Paint clothes pins to match...See, I am totally not a hoarder.  I knew it was right to save those old wooden ones when I replaced them with plastic! 

Lose 50 pounds in 2 weeks...where did I hide away those Weight Watchers thingies? 

Carve at least 15 hours of child free project time into my schedule because Trevy (and/or one of his siblings) and tempera paint just can't happen in the same room...Crap!  Maybe I should sign up for Dish tv?

Lastly, take the perfectly cut out, divided and brilliantly painted too large for my laminator circle to Staples for lamination...wait a minute.  Hold up.  You mean I have to get dressed?  And schlep the kids?  Ugh!  I knew I was a failure of a mom! 

But maybe I'm not...

Also, I deliberately added the lose 50 lbs one.  Because putting this project together felt just about as possible.  

I needed a way to cheat?  To make it easier?  More my style?  More your style?  More living in reality with three kids one who happens to have significant neurological challenges requiring more energy to parent than I ever imagined I had and all of which keep me too busy to carve out 15 minutes of me time never mind hours style? 

Which is why I decided to Reinvent the Color Wheel?

Trevy's Color Not A Wheel 

Materials Needed:

• Piece of printer paper (Don't have printer paper? No worries...any white paper will do!)
• Multicolored markers  (If you have kids - you have these.  The trick is finding them!)
• Ruler (Unless you're more artistic and don't mind crooked lines.  I'm too OCD.) 
• Wooden clothespins (although plastic might work too?) 
• Clear nail polish (I have gobs since my other bad habit is biting mine to nubs.)
• Laminator (Have I mentioned how much I love her?)
  

I decided on 6 colors. I may pare it down if it seems too much for Trevy to handle.  Divide the paper of your choice into the number of sections of your choice. 

Color each square a different shade.  I tried to make sure close colors were separated.  I thought it looked more artistic with a little white showing.  Also, I'm lazy.  :)  Oh, and I had to get it done before Trevy got home from school.  It's like magic how quickly 4 hours flies! 

I enlisted Bristel's help coloring the clothespins.  I love incorporating the big kids into Trevy's therapy.  Also, because I used markers instead of paint, I found that color smudged off on my fingers.  Then I had the brilliant idea to give em' a once over with clear nail polish.  Seems to be working!

She's totally gonna grow up and be a pediatric neurologist, a therapist of some sort or a special ed teacher and moonlight as a ballerina

Have I mentioned how much I love my laminator? 

You know you think the finished product is super cute too!

Wah-Lah!  A cute and easy to create project!  Targeting: Fine Motor; Colors; Matching; Shapes; and because I'll enlist the sibs into the play time Socialization!