Creative Freedom

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.
I thought I would kick off February with a simple but fun painting project with Lydia. I gave her a piece of pink construction paper, I took plates and filled them with pink and red paint, and I grabbed a bunch of different kitchen tools (including a potato masher, meat mallet, flower cookie cutter, heart cookie cutter, and whisk). It began innocently.

I quickly realized this was going to get messy, so I removed Lydia's dress. 

This is her using the cookie cutters in the red and pink paint.

Painting with the potato masher. Still not too messy.

How the heck did that happen all of a sudden??

It gets worse...

Well, here's the final product. It's definitely unique and not at all what I was expecting.

Um, yeah...this looks like something out of a horror movie...only she's still sitting upright.

I never wanted to be one of those parents who limited their children's creativity because I didn't want to clean up a mess. I guess this really proved that. That's what I call creative freedom, toddler-style!

As the carols began playing at the mall...

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.
We decided it was holiday time in our home! One of the first things I do at the start of each month is switch out the books in our bookcase so that they match the new theme.

Then I placed new holiday items in our Discovery Bin. Lydia really loved the small cat dressed as a reindeer that plays music.

Then we made a handprint Christmas tree. This project really got Lydia using a lot of language. She described each pom pom we placed on the tree by telling me the color and size (little/big).

We were supposed to get a tree this weekend, but we got caught up doing other things, so we'll definitely have to get it one day this week. I'm excited to put up all of the decorations...and make some new ones!

Fall Craft #2 ~ Arm Tree w/Fingerprint Leaves

by Carrie Wells, Ed.D.

Our Fall bulletin board is growing!

Materials:

• brown paint
• orange paint
• yellow paint
• red paint
• small bowl
• paintbrush
• piece of construction paper, color of your choice

To make the tree trunk and branches: First, paint your child's forearm and hand with brown paint. Then place on paper.

To make the leaves: Swirl together orange, yellow, and red paint in a small bowl. Encourage your child to dip his/her fingers in the paint and use fingerprints to make leaves on the fall tree.

       

Kinda messy but lots of fun!

Creativity and Child Development

Since Lydia was about a year old, she's been really into Arts & Crafts. I started to think about how her artwork as evolved over the past year, how she has explored different media and materials, how her grasp has improved, etc. I thought I'd arrange some of her creations in chronological order to compare them.

Lydia's first marker drawing at 14 months

Lydia's first painting at 17 months

Lydia's first 'food' collage at 18 months

At 21 months, Lydia painted a picture for daddy for Father's Day - First time painting on a canvas surface.

Lydia's 1st set of finger paints at 22 months. She was hesitant at first, but then dove right in!

At 22 months, this is the first drawing Lydia identified as being something. She said this was Daisy (our dog). You can see where she has drawn the head, body, and legs.

Lydia made these at 22 months. I applied the glue to each piece, but Lydia placed the pieces where they went. She had a model to refer to for the owl, but we talked about where different parts of the face go as she pointed to them on herself and on me.

I think it's pretty fascinating to look back on how her pencil/paint strokes have changed, her interest in creating a variety of projects has expanded, and her desire to work with different textures has increased. I hope she always enjoys being creative and expressing herself through artwork!