I have always struggled with those crafts that you do with kids, that are more about the end result. Anyone who has has worked with little ones around certain times of year knows what I mean. The internet is full of amazing crafts that you can do with children; turning handprints into reindeers, bunnies or love hearts depending on the time of year, making fingerprint calendars which look like the leaves of a tree etc etc. Don't get me wrong, none of these are bad, and we obviously share the craft projects we do to (hopefully) give people ideas. But, for me, the problem comes when it is so much about the end result looking picture perfect that the adult steps in to finish it off or add all those extra tricky bits.
Because, if the child is really into (engaged) with the job that they are doing, they have an idea in their mind of what they are making. It might not look like what you want it to, but it is their idea. It's hard to 'run with' these things and sometimes I do end up finishing off a piece of craft if the girls have lost interest and I need to clear up and I have sometimes encouraged one of them (normally eldest) to go back and just colour the edges slightly neater because she has rushed it. But I have also sent mothers day cards full of dinosaur pictures (Sorry Grandma!!) and Christmas cards with Disney Princess stickers in, because when I take time to ask 'Why?', a lot of the time, it is because the girls have thought about what that person might like or because they wanted to share what they like with them.
It is the same problem I have always had with running toddler group or Sunday school crafts. Some children will spend ages on the craft, make it look beautiful and be very proud of it, others will not mind at all and have a halfhearted go because its really not their kind of thing and others will spend a lot of time and effort but not be able to make something which looks like the example. My eldest is a really good illustration of this. She is a ball of energy and full of a million ideas. She can sometimes spend a lot of time doing something she is interested in but she likes to think outside the box and try different ways of doing things and I love this about her. The problem is that she can get very upset when she feels she should be making something in a certain way and she can't make that happen. She cant see that what she has made is actually much more beautiful and unique, she just sees the gaps of what she hasn't done.
This is where I think, as grown ups, we need to move away from the product - the end result of what the child has and spend more time appreciating the process - the making itself. It's really hard at those times of year when we expect to be making things for the children to take home. It feels odd to be sending home a purple drawing of what looks like a banana than a picture an adult has cut out and helped the child to piece together but it is more from the childs heart and at their level. If we start encouraging and appreciating their creativity so young, then imagine what they will make when they are older?
So I really hope that when I share things that we have made, you know that it is not about that perfect ending. We have had fun and made mess making it. It may or may not look like what was in any of our minds when we started but, just like any journey, its all about taking it one step at a time!!!
Comments