painting rocks :: kid project

yesterday morning, "the monster" and i had a picnic on the lake.  of course, instead of eating lunch, all he wanted to do was throw rocks in the water.  that was fun for a while, but i finally talked him into collecting a few so we could take them home and paint them.  i've said before that "the monster" really isn't into art projects, but because this involved rocks, he was very excited to partake!  after collecting them, we painted each rock just one color and then we had to wait for this base color to dry before painting on the faces.  this taught patience, which this 4-year-old could always use a lesson in.  this morning, we took the rocks in to his preschool teachers as a "thank you" gift for all their hard work.  "the monster" was so proud to choose a rock for each particular teacher...  what fun!