Letting my elementary age kids paint the inside of the coop

[bobbieschicks]

What am I thinking! I'm sure it will be a paint battle - but time is running out and I'm desperate. We have to move forward with painting - even in this humidity. So yes, I'll let my 8 & 10 yr old DD & DS take over the job I prefer to do b/c I need to do the run wiring this morning. We have a new hatch about to happen with 4 chicks hopefully going to the brooder and our 5 WL will be 4 weeks old this Saturday so they are needing to move into the coop. We're about 95% finished with the coop (just painting and a few decorative things left to do) and 50% finished with the run.

Here's our progress so far - it won't win any prizes for straight or pretty, but it will function:




And my luxury item - it will be solar powered shortly

I used metal drawer slides off an old drawer and 3/4" plywood I found lying around our house. DH installed it yesterday and it works great.

 

[greenpeeps]

I let my kids paint the inside of a coop we made. They ended up painting a blue sky with clouds on the ceiling and bubble gum pink and white on the walls. I couldn't of done it any better.

 

[weeders n feeders]

What a blast!!!! My 7 and 3 year olds (now20 & 16) helped paint their own bedrooms so of course I'll think yours painting the coop is gonna be perfect. My sons bedroom has blue sky on the top half of his room and green grass on the bottom with a dark blue river of shoe molding. The 3 year old did a great job painting blades of grass. In her room there's sky and shooting stars which glow in the dark even after all these years and an ocean scene on the bottom half. We used sponge stamps to do the fish. It was great fun. Just be sure to use water based paint and have the water hose and some soap and towels ready for an outside shower when it is all done. Let them have fun. It is just paint, doesn't have to be perfect,chickens aren't gonna care. You're not gonna try to win a contest with it and the kids will grow up way too fast anyway and you'll be left with only their "wonderful job" before you know it.
One other piece of advice though- STAY OUTTA THEIR WAY.

Coop looks good.

 

[Elphaba2140]

Pictures????

 

[justbugged]

It sounds like a very reasonable thing to do. All kids should learn how to paint. It is a very handy life skill. I was about 14 when I started doing most of the painting, during the remodeling of my parent's home. Nearly 40 years later, I wouldn't dream of letting anyone else paint at my house.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. I hope your using animal safe paint. It's about the same price but less toxic. Have fun.

 

[gale65]

My 12 yo helped me paint the coop. For about 10 minutes, and then he was tired of painting. Hopefully yours will hold out longer. Luckily dh ended up helping so it was done in pretty good time.

 

[bobbieschicks]

My kids haven't painted anything more then art projects before so this was a first for them. After bribing him with DSi dollars - I finally got my 10yo son to agree to help. My 8yo daugther was very eager to paint. Today was just the priming day. So, he disregarded all of my suggestions and instructions, rushed and got more paint on himself then on the walls & she did a great (albeit very slow) job. It was difficult for me to do it, but I stayed out of the way and let them do the job. I just told them to paint anything "brown" in there.

And even though they both were covered with paint and complaining that they were NEVER getting that primer off themselves and out of their hair - I am happy they helped as it saves me the 3+ hours of priming tomorrow & I got done with most of the hardware cloth on the run.

Tomorrow I will need to do some touch up spots they missed and then we can move forward with the "real" paint job. I doubt they will want to help with that part - but I will ask them. They may not believe me when I tell them how that paint will wash off of them easier then the primer.

 

[mrkpero]

When we did our coop, I let my daughter put the palm of her hand in paint then stick it on the walls making a handprints. Then she used craft paint to make "feathers" on the fingers and smiley faces on the thumbs. Lots of cute little chickens! Now that our coop is a few years older, I really get a kick out of them since she is so much bigger now. Course I do remember not watching her while she was doing it and later that evening I noticed she had painted her FULL name over the door! Ah kids! Let 'em have fun-that's what they'll remember. Good luck-it looks beautiful so far!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Quote:
love the pics on your BYC page of the inside clouds