One of my favorite, most simple joys is watching the children discover their own creativity. And uncovering it through touch and texture and color. It is very interesting to me, because much personality and insight into perspective comes out through the hands.
I am learning how my kids are creative, as I watch them. And as their fine motor skills grow and develop.
Anna- loves to draw and paint and is able to translate pictures in her mind onto paper.
I could never do that, so am thankful she can interpret her imagination’s leanings. She loves to sing and dance. She enjoys music and can identify tone and pitch and even some composers with relative ease.
Josh- loves to paint and mixes colors well.
He is especially interested in building. I always scout out building toys at the thrift store for him. Tinker-toys, magnetix, blocks, Lego.
Anything that can be manipulated and created from pieces, is what captures his attention. He can click, click, click and create something out of nothing in minutes- again, something I could never do as a child. I recently bought him Sculpey- a modeling clay- which is great fun to work with. Comes in many colors too.
Emma- loves to paint and sculpt. Most of her master-pieces involve me as a central character. See, there I am. A mere vast head, left to wander life without a torso. Poor me!
Anything the older kids pursue, she will jump to experience for herself. She is another tree-killer -like Anna- doodling and painting by the hour. Many times, dinner-prep is made easier by allowing her free reign to her art supplies. Washable, of course.
I recently spent an evening un-lidding each marker and testing each crayon and colored pencil for workability, throwing out an entire container of “bads”. There is no telling how much money we have spent on markers and paints over the years.
But, I am thankful for the experience of their creating, although sometimes the mess to clean up IS overwhelming. Montessori says it like this:
Because of the feelings that art can evoke – feelings that usually cannot be brought on by other means – art is indispensable to human existence. Art meets our needs for self-expression, communication, and our desire for connection with other humans across centuries and cultures. It’s important that children know art is important.
The kids give me words and language- for better and for worse. I think I “get” most of what they are telling me. But because they are small and cannot always express nor pin-point exactly what they mean as they communicate, creating give ME another glimpse into them.
And any way I can gain access to what is swirling around inside of them, I will take.
