A few days ago we had a go at "painting" with shaving cream in the bath tub. I thought she would love it! She loves finger painting with the stuff I make on the stove, so why not in the tub where she can make all the mess she wants? Well, a mess must not be what she's after, because she promptly freaked out once the shaving cream got on her arms, belly, and legs. Thankfully we turned the water on and all was well.
Oh, that's a California Raisin from Art's childhood hanging out in the tub with her, not a, um, surprise.
Also, a few days prior to that, I had the crazy notion that she would enjoy gluing paper shapes onto plain white paper. Oh, the ideas I had for birthday cards, valentines, and completed works we could hang on the fridge. I carefully cut shapes out of construction paper and found a glue stick and let her have at it after showing her the process. She immediately freaked out that the shapes got glued to the paper and proceeded to rip them off, which was less than successful. Cue additional freaking out, and I tried bringing in markers to save the day. That lasted for all of 10 seconds.
Note the serious face. She was ticked after the gluing incident. I probably should have called it quits.
I guess I'm just eager for the day that she'll actually seek out these activities and want to have a go at them for more than 3 minutes. Then again, there's not much that she wants to have at for more than 3 minutes right now. Mentally I've already placed her at two years old for a while now, and that's not very fair of me. I guess once the less-than-pleasant toddler-y behavior set in around one and a half I just lumped it into the "normal two year old behavior" category and it stuck.
So, here's to an artistic *future*, and plenty of casual opportunities to explore in the meantime.
(And, as always, don't forget about my snack bag giveaway this week! Entries close Sunday noon!)
Don't be discouraged. One of the things I did when I was a nursery school teacher, in addition to my regular classes, was a "Mom and Me" type class called "Nurturing Nature." Some children would dive into the art materials that were offered, while others preferred to work at the sensory table or with the manipulatives. Some moms became so frustrated that their children were not producing art that they would start projects themselves. They would just have the child add a crayon line or brush stroke to it so that they could say their child made it.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you are offering art experiences to Lily. Keep them open ended so that she can do what she likes with the materials. If she enjoyed arranging the cut pieces of paper without gluing them, that's actually a great activity. Picking up the small pieces of paper and moving them to another surface is great for her fine motor skills. Do you have any easy puzzles for her? It sounds as though she would enjoy that type of activity.
I'm sorry my comments are always so long. I love hearing about what you're doing.
I like your long comments, don't worry :)
ReplyDeleteI try not to take it personally. I realize she just really isn't into creating things just yet. This afternoon we took out an oversized coloring book and crayons, and while I enjoyed coloring, she enjoyed putting the crayons in the box and dumping them back out. At least she was occupied for 7 minutes!