Creative beginnings for tiny tots

Posts tagged ‘parenting’

“A leaf man’s got to go where the wind blows…”

Truer words were never spoken here on the east coast today, as we brace for the worst of Hurricane Sandy, yet to come.  The rain has been coming down steadily, the wind is picking up, and all the schools and government offices are closed.  So much for our autumn project planned for the first half of this week, collages made from real leaves, inspired by Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man.

Since I may not have the opportunity to blog about this project after all (the leaf piles and the leaf men hidden therein may all have blown away by the time all is said and done), I’m going to link you to an interview I did with one of my favorite bloggers, Jean Van’t Hul of The Artful Parent, so you can get to know a bit more about my background, the origins and philosophy of the ART IN HAND program, and art therapy in general.  Here’s hoping we all get to keep our power on!  (realistically speaking, that’s fairly unlikely in these parts in the next day or so…)

Happy reading!

Julie Liddle:  An Art Therapist’s Perspective

Category:

art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development, Art and creativity at home, Art therapy perspective, Parenting, About Julie

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Awakenings

The most powerful tactic…to awaken the curiosity of a child…is simply to head for the hands.
– Frank Wilson (1998)

Category:

ART IN HAND classes in action, art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development

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Gallery

Nature AND Nurture

Nothing like baby animals to bring out the nurturing side in us humans, and toddlers and preschoolers are no exception.  The essence of that nurturing spirit is captured literally and symbolically in the concept of the nest.   And the act of nesting itself, creating a warm, protective environment in which a new life can grow and emerge enveloped by its parents and the safe haven they so carefully crafted, is truly captivating for young children, as they identify with the babies in the scenario and also get to try the parental role on for size.

Toddlers and preschoolers are natural collectors…

… and gluers…

And as you can see, highly invested in creating their own unique nests.

An ambitious five year old got busy with scissors to create his own chipmunk from construction paper and flower petals (for eyes) to live in his nest.

I just love these nests, and look forward to seeing them emerge each spring!

Written

on April 14, 2012

The Art of Springtime

As we kick off another spring session, I wanted to share with you all an article I wrote for Washington Parent magazine a few years back.  I hope it inspires you to make the most of the creative possibilities that surround your wherever you are.

Washington Parent: The Art of Springtime

Category:

Art and creativity at home, art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development

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Helping Kids Cope when a Loved One has Cancer

As a fan of quality children’s literature, I want to encourage parents, teachers, and therapists out there who are dealing with this issue to visit Randi Rentz’ “Why Buy A Wig…” blog for a great children’s book recommendation on the subject for kids aged 3 – 10.

Randi is a seasoned special education teacher and consultant, a breast cancer survivor, and a dear friend with a razor sharp wit and excellent taste, so I trust her judgement!

Category:

Early Childhood Education and Development, Uncategorized

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Everybody needs a hand once in a while…

We were on sick day number 4 over here today, and by this afternoon were hit hard with the boredom and crankiness that always seems to accompany that point in the recuperation when the sick kid has enough energy to be antsy, but still feels lousy enough to be irritable.  Once again, the plaster casting material came to our rescue, when I was certain there would be no redeeming this gloomy afternoon.

I was immediately reminded of a phrase from a workshop I recently attended with Kirk Martin of Celebrate Calm:  “Motion changes emotion.”

In other words, when your child is melting down, get him to a change of scenery, get him involved in doing something, don’t just stand there trying to talk him out of it.

Thankfully, in our case, the plaster material and my son’s earlier projects were still set up on the table on our enclosed porch (a nice sunny spot to work) for him to notice, which eliminated the need for me to suggest he work with the materials (I’m sure he would have said “NO!” to anything I suggested at that point).  He has gone out there twice in the last few days to expand on his previous experiences with hand casting, and has had some fun getting more inventive and expressive!

Based on these recent positive experiences working with this medium, he was able to make the choice on his own to go for it this afternoon.

Within seconds, he shifted from, “I hate you! I hate everything!” to “Mom, stay here and do this with me.”  And his energy immediately shifted from tense and agitated to calm and engaging.  In my previous posts (like this one, and this one, and this one, and this one) I have spoken about the therapeutic impact of the sense of touch that is elicited through various art media.  For my son and me, the process of casting each other’s hands in clay and in plaster, has become a valuable tool.  My nine year old has discovered that he can use this process to bring about a sense of calm for himself, and it is also something that he can control and use to create a concrete and predictable outcome, which gives him a feeling of mastery and success.  It is also a wonderful way for the two of us to connect.

And today, he took the process a step further with a new idea he came up with for decorating the extra thick cast that we had built around his hand.  He used pipettes to squirt liquid watercolors on the cast, creating a colorful splattered effect.  What a turnaround from gloom and doom to bright and fun and whimsical.

You don’t have to have complicated art materials at your disposal to apply these principals in your own home.  Think about what hooks your child.  It could be anything from building with legos, to playing with playdough, to tossing bean bags, to whipping up a recipe in the kitchen…anything that gets them moving and doing and using their senses while connecting with you in a relaxed and fun way.  Over time these experiences help them learn that they can make choices to help calm themselves and learn self-control.

Category:

Art and creativity at home, art projects and media, Art therapy perspective

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Gallery

Simple Words of Wisdom

…for anyone who knows, loves, teaches, cares for, or spends time with young children.  Compliments of Explorations Early Learning LLC, which I stumbled upon on Facebook.

Written

on March 18, 2012

I’ve gotta HAND it to him…

…the kid knows what he needs to turn a blah afternoon into a great one.

After last weekend’s satisfying foray with clay, this weekend, my nine year old requested another sculptural medium that I just happened to have on hand as well…an industrial sized roll of plaster wrap cloth (like they used to use for plaster casts when you broke a bone in the old days, when I was a kid).

He independently set about cutting the plaster wrap into one-inch strips, then decided he wanted to wrap a clay bowl that we made last weekend with it.  He thoroughly enjoyed the process of dipping the strips in water and smoothing them around the solid piece of clay.

Next, he surprised me by asking to make a cast of MY hand.  In my many years as an art therapist, I spent many a session painstakingly and gingerly applying these plaster strips to my students, most often creating face masks, occasionally covering their hands in various positions.  It was always considered a great moment in the therapeutic relationship, when a client felt safe and trusting enough to allow for this kind of interaction.  And for some of the kids with whom I worked who had experienced all kinds of deprivation or abuse, this kind of nurturing, gentle attention filled a very basic need.  After all those years as a therapist, and now all my years as a mom, it was novel and welcome to be on the receiving end of this process!

For just a little while, my boy was in charge and in control, but at the same time so gentle and careful as he meticulously (and I should mention that meticulous is not a word I would use to describe his approach to most tasks) formed the strips of plaster around my hand.  I felt taken care of, kind of like having a spa treatment, and was delighted that he was intent on adding several layers to make sure it was nice and sturdy.

Feeling full mastery over this process now, he then embarked on his final project for the day, a cast of his own foot.  Without any supervision from me (I went in the house to clean up), he completed this piece from start to finish and was thoroughly impressed with the results.  He added, “It felt warm and cold and soooo soothing.”  I hope that in the near future he will let me make a mask of his face…or perhaps he’ll offer to make a mask of mine!

I wonder if he’ll be interested in decorating these….with paint, collage, or by gluing other objects or materials to them.  For now, his interest seems to be more in the process of building the casts themselves, whether from clay or plaster, than in turning them into something decorative or expressive.  I believe he engages in these types of projects to fulfill a sensory need.

He has always been a sensory guy.  See?

 

 

Category:

art projects and media

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Process Focused Art – NOT Just for Toddlers

Yesterday was one of those Saturdays.  My nine year old was bored, so his inclination was to flip-flop from computer to tv and back again.  Enter parental intervention:  imposed outside time (which was only moderately successful due to bad allergies) and a no more screen time for the rest of the afternoon! policy, which as you can imagine, was met with a less than enthusiastic response.  It wasn’t pretty, and I came darn close to caving in the face of the relentless “but there’s nothing to do” protests. Then, out of the blue, a beautiful thing happened.  He asked “Do we have any clay?”  which was just about the best question a kid could ask this particular mama at this particular moment.  And yes, yes I did happen to have a 25 lb. bag of it laying around, just waiting to be summoned…

What transpired during the next hour or so was a lovely combination of contented “play” with the clay–rolling, cutting, shaping, forming, moistening, squishing, smoothing, slicing, dicing, destroying, rebuilding, etc., etc.  There was independent exploration, as well as genuine mother-son bonding, as he asked me to form the clay around his hand and forearm, and we experienced the physical connection involved in this process, a soothing sensory experience for both of us.

So, to the point of this post:

Often times, children’s interest in art materials is sensory, kinesthetic, and expressive, which is counter to the adult notion of art as primarily an asthetic pursuit.  And this inclination persists beyond early childhood (where we typically hear talk about the imperative for process over product focused art).  Especially in our achievement-driven culture, children need opportunities to just “be” with materials and not feel the need to perform to a certain standard or outcome.  Time and again, I have seen this play out in my classes for toddlers, when an older sibling tags along for a visit to the class.  Often they are the most enthusiastic participants in our process-oriented art projects, revelling in the opportunity to finger paint, or slosh liquid watercolors, or delve up to their elbows in the sensory media tray.  This “hunger” for these types of activities tells us that they probably are not getting enough of this sort of thing in their daily lives.  And some children need this sort of thing more than others.

So next time your school aged child is eager to “mess around” with materials, don’t be too quick to ask “What are you going to make?”  And don’t get caught up in whether what they are doing looks particularly attractive.  They may just need a chance to roll up their sleeves and play without any particular end result in mind.  You may find, as I did yesterday, that time to explore and get messy can completely turn around your child’s mood and the tone for the rest of the day!

P.S.  You might consider giving it a try yourself too!

Category:

art projects and media

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