When I ran the ARTrox Imagination Station I was always amazed at the fantastic ideas that children developed on their own.
Children had access to junk modelling, cellotape, glue sticks, glitter, paper punches, patterned and plain scissors and various other scraps and collage materials.
Whenever I collected bits and pieces I had wonderful ideas for what they could make with them, and for the children who needed a slight spark I would happily share my thoughts on what a particular box or offcut could become. But it was the kids who came up with the great ones…
I received so much inspiration from watching how they manipulated things, and smiled as they sometimes became frustrated as they ended up in a cellotape mess or when a particular structure wouldn’t stand up as they had hoped it would – but that is where the real learning began. We could teach them to calm down and take their time with the tape and it wouldn’t get in such a mess, or consider what they were trying to get to stand up and discuss reasons why it couldn’t suport itself and what props we had available to remedy the situation.
Participation in the arts provides so many opportunities for children to learn – visual spacial skills, patience, the ability to see something in their mind and reproduce it, or in many cases the ability to just go with the flow and enjoy the process rather than focus on the outcome, language skills and most importantly the joy of creating something from nothing!
The temptation to step in and steer an art activity towards an outcome should be resisted where possible because it is in creating art that children do some of their best learning. There is certainly a place for outcomes based art, and it builds skills in so many other ways – however please allow your children time to explore, get frustrated, try, fail, review, experiment, and delight in the tactile pleasures of art.