I wanted to do some arty stuff with the kids this morning. Because the house is a disaster and I have not washed my hair since... I am not telling. And there is laundry to do and dishes to wash. (Note: picture at left is not from this morning.) Perfect time to launch into a messy project with no thought for protecting clothing, work surfaces or drying areas. I needed to get some ideas for marbeling paper with children. I had a book with instructions for how to do it with oil paints, carageenan and "ox gall." But I didn't really want to kill an ox just to do a craft with my offspring. So I thought I would turn to pinterest. Lots of cute projects. Lots of great photos of cute projects. Many people who have a very different idea of what it means for kids to do art than I do. (I don't think that cute crafty things that look just like the adults want them to count.) But the biggest problem was how many many many blogs there were full of wonderfully organized crafty parents (okay, only moms. which also kind of pisses me off) who not only have the time and energy to do art projects with their kids, but the time to document them photographically, write them up and post them. Daily. I am not one of those. I am far more likely to take pictures like the one above-- of my children thoroughly enjoying art materials. Creating to the point of destruction. Not really artsy blogger material. And I like this approach to children's art. I really do. It fits with both my parenting philosophy and my educational philosophy. Giving children more freedom to explore on their own without having so much parental intervention and micromanagy direction... So why do I feel guilty when I look at the blog posts of the adorable children in their matching smocks doing darling crafts with their perfect mothers in the pristine kitchens? Oh. My kids love doing art. They love thinking of things and learning new techniques and deciding who will get this art. This is a good thing. I will never be a pinterest-poster. And I may have to avoid going there until my attitude improves. I am not in competition with these perfect-seeming people. Also, I am pretty sure that I am the only one who is judging myself harshly in comparison. And I am equally sure that I am not the only one who feels like a crappy parent when looking through some of these posts. Grateful Crap: enthusiastic (and messy) artists in my home Daily Convexions:
Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
K. BuchananQuaker, teacher, parent, |