what I see.... learning to look through their eyes

Ive had a super sonically great week this week and Ive only just worked out why. Ive been organised. Ive set up cool stuff for them to do and they've been busy. Which makes me feel productive and in turn helps them to be happy and productive! Love it :)


At the moment Ive been trying to encourage Jared with some more art stuff, not neccarily for the product at the end, but because he is going to school next year and I want to encourage his fine motor skills, drawing skills, and to find something he enjoys doing that doesnt involve games on the tv.


So this week I have set out a different medium of paint and made it look as inviting as possible so he will want to come and do it with Amahli and I.
Today I had pastels to draw with and water colour paints to paint over the top. He was actually happy to come and draw and drew his favourite "whirl pool" drawing and painted it. He then had a go at writing his name and enjoyed painting over it. The effect is quite cool as you can see the pastel coming through the paint.
Amahli is just happy  with anything artish and talked the whole time which makes us all giggle.

I asked Jared if he could paint me a picture of anything he wanted. he thought for a long time, telling me " how about a train? Nah I cant paint a train. How about a house? Nah I cant draw a house". I felt kinda sad for this little middle guy and told him he could paint whatever he wished and it would be great.
He then decided he could paint snakes and then got really excited at the idea of it and I let him be to do it.
Instead of commenting through it, I let him work by himself, and he and Amahli chatted about his painting her drawing.
When they had both finished I asked him to tell me about his painting ( I didnt say " Oh wow! Cool snakes!" in case the painting had changed. This is big thing I learnt as a preschool teacher because sometimes paintings need to be looked at through the childs eyes rather than our own) and he told me about his family of snakes: a mother, father, sister and brother, who were travelling to Sydney to see the circus. And so we talked about how they would feel going to the circus and what they would see there. When I stopped and looked at his painting through his eyes, I could see how fast the snakes would have been travelling ( thats why the grass is a straight line, cos its blurry from speed) and how the littlest one is tired.

I sat in wonder at this person who doubts his own ability at 5 and yet can produce something so cool :) I will continue to encourage him and his drawings and paintings in the hope that he will someday realise hes pretty clever :)