One of the things that makes the kids happiest is if I let them mess around on my computer. Anyone who knows me also knows that I do not let anyone mess around on my computer! So, even for Vir and Tara, messing around is basically watching me while I write sight words for them to read out on a blank PowerPoint slide and getting to choose colors and clip art to make the words more fun or coloring shapes on MS Paint or on a really lucky day, playing some badly designed game on chotabheem.com!
It was only recently that Vir was introduced to MS Paint...as with painting and coloring in real life, he really seems to have a sense for color, design, perspective and all that good stuff. Already more than me, I'm afraid. It's a little embarrassing actually...because sometimes he asks me to draw stuff for him and I can actually see his confusion trying to figure out what it is that I'm making. Sometimes I use my executive privilege to decree that the 2-dimensional, 4-legged, disproportionately figured creature spreadeagled on the page is really a dog/cat/ant/duck/some creature that was once alive and I know these things because I'm mom. Mostly though, I just back off and ask them to wait for dad to come home if they want something realistic on a page.
Anyway, back to MS Paint. Vir loved it! He wanted a cityscape, kind of like New York city and since he wasn't being able to handle the mouse very well, he gave me very clear step-by-step instructions about what to draw, what colors to use, what size to make stuff, etc. Here is the first creation:
Once we had the night sky with a bit of lightning, he instructed me to change a few things, and voila - a rainy evening in New York!
From night sky to rainy evening, to sunny day - the weather is unpredictable in the city:
I just love how this kid's brain works. His instructions were so specific for each change - choose a lighter color here, remove that speck there, change the color of sun a little because it doesn't seem right, make the background lighter than the sun, fix the grey outline on the wheel of the first car, now zoom in to check that it's actually fixed. All this on his first exposure to MS Paint. I might be taking design advice from him for my PowerPoints for work soon.
Tara, of course, could not be left behind in this all new all exciting activity. She waited, not too patiently, while Vir was directing the creation of his stuff, and when she finally got her turn, this is what she created:
Of course it's pink! Other colors are nice and all, but we all know that pink is the queen of all colors and others exist to serve her and make her look even better.
Of course, I've created two little MS Paint monsters now - every time I switch on the computer, they come running and derail my plans of focused productivity. So more art work on it's way in the next few days!