My adult niece, Alyssa comes over for a visit right before nap time. Loving the children the way she does, she tucks them in for their afternoon nap. Before she leaves she says, “I like MacGyver’s wall art.” I give her a puzzled look. She explains that MacGyver used a pencil to draw a little airplane by his pillow. As she walks out the door we give each other a “I’m not surprised!” look.
Well, an hour passes and MacGyver stumbles from his room inquiring if nap-time is over. “Sure.” I proceed to his room to collect dirty laundry. I enter the room, stop dead in my tracks and think, “Oh my gosh, this can’t be what Alyssa was talking about!!!” With big blue marker, MacGyver has drawn a 4 foot submarine, complete with stick figures and action shots of bullets. If the wall space had been bigger the scene would have been bigger. Thank goodness, MacGyver was off in another room making mischief of one kind and another, because I just laughed out loud. I couldn’t help myself, I was impressed.
I was impressed that he had the guts to do it. I was impressed by the scale and the proportion.
I was impressed by the story line. I was just amazed by the way his mind is always “thinking.”
Later that night, we praised him for his creativity and imagination but scolded him for his poor choice of the wall and explained next time he needed to ask for paper or a large piece of cardboard. We told him that he would have to pay for the paint to repaint the wall. Yes, he does have a little bank with money.
Well, two years have passed, MacGyver is now seven, and the blue sub is still covering his wall. Family and friends have insisted that we cannot paint over his work of art. Even my strict, Strict, STRICT parents think it would be shameful to paint over our little Picasso’s wall art. I would have NEVER lived to tell of such a feat!
Have you painted over your little Picasso’s wall art?
Life with Jeannine
In our “at school section” we are GIVING AWAY the one book we recommend to ALL teachers and parents: Your Child’s Strengths by Jenifer Fox. We encourage you to win and read this book. Who knows you may have a little gifted Picasso on your hands! 
We’re also GIVING AWAY: Ping Pong Pig, a fun book about a pig that follows his dream and learns how to fly. Yes, pigs can fly!
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Oh my! If either of my kids ever do something like that I think I’d be hard pressed to paint over it too. So far we’ve only had the occasional scribble and I just go at it with a magic eraser.
This is my favorite MacGyver moment! This is also probably why someone invented the chalkboard paint.
This sounds like a story out of “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. If you have not read it, I would put it on your list.
This is great. Grandparents are such softies though they may not have been as parents!! Lol. Thanks for your comment on my blog. I love your website and your books. Very sweet! Thank you.
I’m so glad you kept it on the wall – it is a work of art!
Although, I did wash off the scribbles Johnny scrawled all over the dining room wall yesterday during the twenty seconds it took me to answer the telephone…
That is wonderful, but I really don’t know how I would have reacted if I had walked into a room to find that on the walls! OMG!!!
I’m thinking now he’s older it could be colored in to make a real sea scape, go on you can do it
Oh what a fabulous picture and I LOVE that you have left it there!
I have this wild dream of a small room (perhaps a toilet?) where all the family and visitors are not only allowed but are encouraged to draw on the walls… I reckon it would look awesome!
I m glad you have left it up. It’s precious. My kids’ wall art never progressed beyond scribbles, so Magic Erasers and alcohol wipes took care of them. But, now, we cover the walls with their drawn on paper art.
We haven’t had any Picasso pics on the walls….yet! Your MacGyver was very brave to attempt something so big without you knowing about it. It’s an amazing work of art.
Your son is really talented, I hope he still does lots of drawing. I love that you have kept it. My son pimped up his little tikes car (the big ones that kids can sit in) using crayon. I was ok about it, but then one day the Grand parents cleaned it all off.
What a great big canvas for a child to paint on
We live in rental properties so wall art is banned. However my sister in law is knocking down her house ready to build a new one on the land and she has let all the children loose on the walls with a pens and crayons.