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Creativity, Elizabeth-style
Feb. 16th, 2006 07:37 pmA few minutes ago, I was eating my broth at the table when Elizabeth came into the kitchen. She started wiggling her hips, moving her arms, and occasionally getting down on the floor and rolling around. "What are you doing, hon?" I asked.
"I'm dancing, Mommy!" Then she proceeded to make a triangle by standing on arms and feet and pointing her bum upwards, which she complicated further by sticking first one leg, then the other, straight out behind her. "Dance with me, Mommy!"
Mommy is just barely able to stand and walk this evening, so I volunteered to sing for her instead. I chose "I Got Rhythm," and she immediately adjusted the rhythm of her dance to match the rhythm of the song.
Earlier, she asked if she could do some cutting. For her, that means getting out her dollar-store scissors, construction paper, and glue stick, and making a two-colour collage. She sat absorbed for more than half an hour, cutting her red paper into smaller and smaller bits. Occasionally, she'd hold one up and say, "Look, Mommy, a kite!" or "Look, Mommy, a heart!" She found about fifteen different common shapes that way, and she's really improving at using the scissors. I was impressed with her general dexterity, not to mention her perseverance and ability to see shapes.
She didn't want to glue, tonight, so the end result was little bits of red construction paper in a fairly neat pile on the livingroom rug. I figured that was what dustpans and brooms had been invented for, and let her go.
One day last week, we went to Aunty Heather's for supper. Heather showed her how to draw a snail. She then drew a series of recognizable snails on her little magnetic board, each one getting progressively smoother of line. Uncle Jon had no trouble figuring out what the last one was supposed to be, even before she told him.
I'm trying very hard, as is Oma, to encourage her to express herself through art in the way she sees fit. If she decides something is done, I don't finish it for her. If she decides it needs more, I let her add it. When she's dancing, I encourage her to change her moves according to the music - not that I need to encourage that, because she has always done that all on her own. She has an excellent sense of mood and rhythm, and she matches what she does to the music she's hearing. I encourage her to learn words for songs, and then play with them - change them to silly things to see Mommy's reaction, for example, or sing different words to melodies not normally associated with them.
At age not-quite-three, my little girl is a free spirit in her artistic world. She represents the world with more freedom and more joy than she ever will again. I want it to last as long as possible, and when she eventually moves on to the next stage - as all children do - I want her to take with her that spirit of independence, that her self-expression is what art is all about, even if others can't see it.
"I'm dancing, Mommy!" Then she proceeded to make a triangle by standing on arms and feet and pointing her bum upwards, which she complicated further by sticking first one leg, then the other, straight out behind her. "Dance with me, Mommy!"
Mommy is just barely able to stand and walk this evening, so I volunteered to sing for her instead. I chose "I Got Rhythm," and she immediately adjusted the rhythm of her dance to match the rhythm of the song.
Earlier, she asked if she could do some cutting. For her, that means getting out her dollar-store scissors, construction paper, and glue stick, and making a two-colour collage. She sat absorbed for more than half an hour, cutting her red paper into smaller and smaller bits. Occasionally, she'd hold one up and say, "Look, Mommy, a kite!" or "Look, Mommy, a heart!" She found about fifteen different common shapes that way, and she's really improving at using the scissors. I was impressed with her general dexterity, not to mention her perseverance and ability to see shapes.
She didn't want to glue, tonight, so the end result was little bits of red construction paper in a fairly neat pile on the livingroom rug. I figured that was what dustpans and brooms had been invented for, and let her go.
One day last week, we went to Aunty Heather's for supper. Heather showed her how to draw a snail. She then drew a series of recognizable snails on her little magnetic board, each one getting progressively smoother of line. Uncle Jon had no trouble figuring out what the last one was supposed to be, even before she told him.
I'm trying very hard, as is Oma, to encourage her to express herself through art in the way she sees fit. If she decides something is done, I don't finish it for her. If she decides it needs more, I let her add it. When she's dancing, I encourage her to change her moves according to the music - not that I need to encourage that, because she has always done that all on her own. She has an excellent sense of mood and rhythm, and she matches what she does to the music she's hearing. I encourage her to learn words for songs, and then play with them - change them to silly things to see Mommy's reaction, for example, or sing different words to melodies not normally associated with them.
At age not-quite-three, my little girl is a free spirit in her artistic world. She represents the world with more freedom and more joy than she ever will again. I want it to last as long as possible, and when she eventually moves on to the next stage - as all children do - I want her to take with her that spirit of independence, that her self-expression is what art is all about, even if others can't see it.