Painting with Bentley

Having fun with our grandson — better than watching pancake art on YouTube

- JAMES MCGREGOR

Our grandson Bentley is great.

With that said, like most children these days, he spends too much of his life staring at a computer screen.

He will come into our house and pick up the remote control, the computer, or phone and enter the world of electronics. Some times this is a great learning activity.

Other times, we are watching people on YouTube making pancake art or just flipping bottles — trying to get them to land standing up.

Then one day, Bentley saw a painting that my wife, Julene, had created at a social painting class.

Social painting classes and other such social hobby classes are very popular today. They involve a teacher teaching an activity to a group of people. The individuals who join these classes are doing so as an activity to escape from the daily life and socialize with others while doing an activity.

Back to Bentley… Bentley saw this painting that his grandma had created and was very interested. Bentley asked, “Can I have it?” While Julene had given him paintings in the past, she was attached to this one.

This created an opportunity. Our thought was that a certificate for Bentley to experience a kid’s painting class would be a great break from the daily electronic overload. What a great gift idea, the three of us going to a painting class.

My thought was, “I get a break from watching pancake art!”