Our creativity. Classes and organizational moment.
We have been doing creativity for a long time - we draw, and sculpt, and make crafts. But as soon as I changed my attitude towards the creative process and started organizing the process correctly (convenient for my son and the whole family), things went even better for us.
Therefore, I want to share our experience with you.
First of all, I reconsidered the organizational aspect of our classes. And all because I read the book “Creative Education. Art and Creativity in Your Family” by Jean Van’t Hal. This book helped me a lot. I wrote about her in my diary
And now I decided to show how we apply Jin Van't Hal's advice in practice.
The first thing we did was to allocate a separate corner for creativity.
For the New Year, our dad made a house for Tigran to play, read books and just have evening gatherings.
Now we have taken this house for a creative workshop. Of course, it’s just a corner, it would seem conventional, but my son liked it.
Even if you have little space, you can always allocate 1 sq.m to your child if desired.
But we do creativity not only in the house. We can draw on the floor, on the easel, and on the kitchen table when mom is preparing dinner.
All our entertainment activities take place only at the request of the son. But this does not mean that we engage only when he himself suggests. In fact, I am almost always the instigator of the activities, and this is what I do:
- I just suggest drawing, but my son already chooses what and with what;
- or I just bring something interesting,
for example, a piece of ice and I propose to do something with it. If you don’t like my proposal, then we examine the piece of ice as Tigrash wants:
— I follow Tigran’s wishes, I support all kinds of experiments
For example, I brought a piece of ice and wanted to show Tigrash how ice would behave if mixed with salt. And Tigrash asked to make a volcano in a piece of ice (i.e. add soda with citric acid and add water). It turned out very beautiful:
I suggested drawing Tigrash on ice mixed with salt (I saw many such examples, very beautiful stains are obtained), but my son suggested just dripping paints from different sides and seeing what happens:
and we saw this picture:
- preparing the workplace
. I just leave a large blank sheet of paper and tools (brushes, paints, crayons, gouache) in a visible place. For example, I tape a large sheet of paper to the floor and leave a box of crayons next to it.
— I tell my son about a new drawing technique and, if there is a desire, then we begin to create in a new technique.
In the photo, Tigrash draws in the style of Piet Mondrian, filling the empty space with flashes of color (I saw the idea in the book “Creative Education. Art and Creativity in Your Family” by Jean Van't Hal)
— and I am also all for letting creativity and experimentation into all areas of our lives.
Therefore, if I bake something, my son is always next to me, experiments with the dough, watches me, and we enjoy the process together.
Dad and son were making bread dough. In the photo there is yeast in a glass, and a layer of oil on top. The whole family watched the bubbles that rose from the bottom of the glass, made their way through the layer of oil, and burst on the surface:
And Jean Van't Hal in his book pays great attention to the storage of children's drawings.
So far I have chosen a wall gallery for us:
I will be sharing more ideas with you from this helpful book, Creative Parenting: Art and Creativity in Your Family by Jean Van't Hal.
Creative education. Art and creativity in your family
And I wish you creative success!
I would be glad if you share your ideas for creative activities and organizational issues.
