Eye-2-Eye

by Carrie Wells
I decided Lydia & I would make Valentine's Day robots today. I had in mind what I wanted Lydia's robot to look like, but I also wanted to give Lydia the freedom to design her own robot. So I cut out a whole bunch of pieces to build "my" robot, gave them to her with a blank sheet of paper, and allowed her to glue them together as she wished. Here's Lydia's Valentine's Day robot:

Wow, that was not at all what I had in mind! Lydia used the pink piece like a hat and the rectangle as a face. She turned the smile upside-down and made the arms, legs, hands, and feet look all crazy. Here's what I had in mind when I cut the pieces out:

So, the simple lesson learned is that it's great to let your children be creative. We shouldn't set boundaries regarding art and creativity ~ Let them use their imaginations!

But then I thought some more and realized that there is a much greater lesson here. I told Lydia we were making robots. In Lydia's mind, what she created was a robot. I was inclined to tell her where to place each piece to make a "real robot" (according to my definition), but I stopped myself. I was reminded that everything in life is about perspective. From Lydia's perspective, she made a robot. From my perspective, I made a robot. Our robots look very different, but we are calling these works of art the same thing: robots.

I'm sure as she grows and matures, we'll encounter this same situation many times - where my idea of a clean bedroom is different from her idea. My idea of a good birthday gift is different from her idea. My idea of staying out late is different from her idea. My idea of a good college major is different from her idea. But she's her own person with her own ideas...and even when I disagree, I hope I can remember our robots and smile...and find some way to place our ideas alongside one another.

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!

REMINDER: There are no rules to toddler play

I had to remind myself of something today. There are no rules to toddler play. Now, obviously, I don't want my daughter playing with a real stove or running around the house with a pair of scissors. She shouldn't throw her toys or hit people with them. But when it comes to imagination - there should be no limitations.

Let me preface the following by saying I tend to be kinda anal retentive. (My friends are probably thinking "Kinda?!")

So what made me think of this? Well, Lydia was playing with her Duplo blocks today. She had a set with different zoo animals. When she played independently, all she did was stack them all vertically. I sat down to play with her, and we made a zoo together. I got out the flat green base to build on, I placed the entrance to the zoo on one side of the green base, and I began to make different areas for each animal. The elephant had grass, the giraffe had trees, the lion had a tall wall so it couldn't escape, and the polar bear was surrounded by white and blue blocks to look like ice...er...until Lydia put an off-white block, a tan block, an orange block, an eye block, etc. WHAT?! Tan and orange are not ice-looking colors. Polar bears are not found in areas with those colors. What is she doing??

Oh, right, she's 2 years old. She's doing what 2 year-olds are supposed to do - Being creative! She's using her imagination, without limitations. While age may teach us to be more artistic as we learn to draw, paint, sculpt, etc. better, age also limits our imaginative creativity. Lydia doesn't know that polar bears live in the snow and snow is generally white, so the polar bear area in our fictitious plastic zoo should be white. She doesn't have those boundaries. Her play goes beyond what we know to be true. Why should my knowledge of "facts" and "rules" limit her endless imagination? It shouldn't.

So when Lydia laid the cookies on the pan out of "order" (you know, from left to right in rows), I had to stop myself again. Her cookies can go in any order. She doesn't have to worry about them touching one another while cooking or not being able to fit the entire batch on a sheet pan. She's pretending to make cookies. This doesn't even require a pan or objects that even resemble cookies.

For us parents who often limit our thoughts to those that are more concrete...

REMINDER: There are no rules to toddler play!

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!