It’s time for Part Three in my series on creativity. Here’s a little taste:
Amazing Art Adventures
Image by Holton Rower.
I love that place where Science and Art collide. When truly creative projects focus on the process over the product, they lend themselves to more inquiry, experimentation, and seeing things in a new way. Children are free to wonder, “What would happen if…” and then experiment. It’s the scientific process in action!
Who Needs Creativity?
For the next few Mondays, I’ll be writing a series of posts focusing on creativity – why it’s important for our children and how we can foster it – for the folks over at Willow Creek Pediatrics. It’s a topic I’m very passionate about, so hop on over and check out this week’s installment. Here’s a little taste:
With our country’s current emphasis on standardized test-based education, anyone anywhere can find loads of statistics on how states, districts, schools, even individual children are scoring on math and reading (both important, to be sure). But can anyone know how much creativity is being nurtured and encouraged in any one school or classroom? No one’s following the creativity quotient of every schoolchild in America. But should they? [Read more…]
Art Not Craft
“Arts and crafts” is a common label in the early childhood world. And while the label implies that they are two different but similar categories, it is unfortunately used too often as one overarching label. But the two have subtle differences: the difference between process and product, creativity and the created, following inspiration and following directions. Of course there is rarely a black and white separation of these two, rather a spectrum of sliding degrees. While I would never want to completely exclude one in order to elevate the other, one must be cognizant of the differences in order to be intentional in the creative experiences that are planned for the children we love and teach.
Book of Textures
I’m really excited to share this guest post with you from Rachelle Doorley of Tinker Lab:
Weekend Reads 3.26.11
OK, looks like the switch has been thrown and we’re up and running with the new design, thanks to the amazing work of Brandon at Sunday Ventures! There may be a few kinks to work out on this first run, your patience is appreciated. In the meantime, enjoy these gems from around the blogosphere:
Valentine Art You Can’t Buy
I’ve struggled to find Valentine decorations I like. I’m really trying not to have “stuff” for the sake of “stuff”. Similar to the guide used by Tsh of Simple Mom, I’m trying to choose things for my home that I find beautiful, useful, or meaningful. And the standard decor in the Valentine aisle wasn’t fitting any of those three targets. Inspired by these posts by the Nester and Childhood 101, I decided to make these Valentine canvases with my three boys.
Will You Be My Valentine?
Valentine’s Day is rolling in! I have some Valentine favorites from the past that I often use, like these Five Valentine Treats ,and the sweet math activityValentine Candy Heart Count , and I always bust out my post office dramatic play area to coincide with the season of love letters. But I’m always looking for some new ideas, and so I thought I’d share some of the posts that got me excited lately!
Playdough Play Time
Playdough is a staple of childhood. It always amazes me how long it can keep a child’s interest, squishing, pounding, rolling, and cutting. I personally prefer homemade Classic Playdough, because it’s cheaper, better smelling, a bit softer and easier for little hands to command, and I have a little less to worry about when my son snitches another pinch to eat. (Should I worry about the fact that he’ll often turn his nose up at the dinners I make, but will gladly eat playdough?) [Read more…]
Simple Ways to Keep Little Hands Busy at Christmastime
This is an exciting time of year! And sometimes that excitement, left unchanneled, can wreck havoc on your sanity. If you’re finding that the nervous energy in your house is being directed into whining, fighting, or general destruction, consider ways you can redirect that energy in positive, productive ways. To paraphrase from my e- book, it isn’t enough to tell children to STOP what they’re doing. To be more effective, you need to give them things they CAN do. It’s like trying to stop water from running down a hill. You can’t just tell it to stop, or even try to force it to stop with a dam – it eventually runs over the top. But you can dig a ditch, a channel, to move it in a more constructive direction.
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