Creative Juices
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Robbie loves creatining things. He is always asking to do a "project". It's often hard for me to give him a project that will hold his interest... and that is suitable to have around his little sister.
The other week, I found the perfect project and it only required me admitting to myself that I was never going to get around to scrapbooking those Disney photos... and if I even do, I can reprint them. I gave Robbie the book of photos, a package of 8x8 color paper, a bucket of chipboard shapes, some decorative paper and some glue sticks.
He has been working on his scrapbook pages off and on for the past few weeks. And I think I've done a pretty good job staying out of it. I often feel obligated to tell him that the words he chooses doesn't necessarily go with the photo - and then I remind myself... it doesn't matter. I'm sure he has different ideas than I do of how things should be done and I have no right pushing my ideas on to him. So, I've left him alone... and the results have been great.
He's proud of his pages... the pictures are getting used... his sister loves to help him (she's even made a few of her own) and I get a little time to myself. We still need to sit down together to add some journaling in the spots he has reserved... but he hasn't been in a rush - preferring to make yet another page.
Sometimes it's hard to not guide their creativity. It's hard to let go of my ideas and to be open to theirs. It's a constant fight that I battle... I also battle the need for them to not make a mess when they are creating. I am working on both these things to allow them their own freedom to explore their ideas and to give them more opportunities for creative outlets. My mom was always great at this. I'm glad she allowed me the freedom and I hope I can give my kids the same thing. Inspiring creative juices... that's what I'm working toward with both of them.
1 comments:
kayce, i struggle with the exact same thing - especially the mess. i think i've gotten pretty good at staying out of the way while eva's creating - but sometimes it's hard to let go of how I was hoping it would turn out, or how I envisioned it. I have a harder time with some materials - like glitter glue, elmers glue and sharpies - my type A tendencies pop up all the time.
When I taught Kindergarten (right near your house, I think) I had something called Creation Station. I had a caddy with glue sticks (NO ELMERS), tape, a stapler, string, crayons, markers and scissors. Along with that was a large size cardboard box (about the size of a file box.) In the box was paper pieces, fabric and ribbon scraps, empty spools, film canisters (remember those! ha!) empty food boxes, lids - really what ever was around. The kids then got to create whatever they wanted from those materials. IT WAS THEIR FAVORITE STATION!! They loved that there was always some new treasure in the materials box -
Robbie is at the perfect age for something like that. I hope to start one with my kids too, eventually.
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