Rainbows, 'Colores', Sharing

Highlights of our Day

Art
I often sit with the kids and make watercolor art alongside them, modeling how to hold the brush, how to dip it in water and then the watercolor, and transfer it to paper, and repeat for each new color they want to add. So, when the kids do art, my focus is on the process instead of a prescribed end product (an expectation that their art is supposed to turn out looking a certain way). I didn't sit down and say, "Today, we're going to make beautiful rainbows!", but instead, we took out the watercolors and explored like we usually do. Yet, Lulu and Austin decided and announced they were going to make rainbows.

Can you see them?
I can!



Going back to my days of teaching, I'm definitely trying to be mindful of my comments when they're working. Instead of saying evaluative comments, like "that's beautiful" or "so pretty", I instead try to remember to say things like, "you used a lot of different colors in your painting", or "wow, you made some long, big lines". Art therapist and teacher, Julie Liddle explains it well below.

"I think it is important for parents to be mindful of how they respond to their children’s art and art-making. It is so tempting to lavish our children with praise for what they are doing, and our intentions when doing so are usually to boost our child’s self-esteem and motivation to continue. However, as parents, we do far more to encourage our children and enhance their feelings of worth and competence, if we comment qualitatively rather than quantitatively on what we see. The very act of stating what we NOTICE about what they have done or what we see (”You’re using your whole arm to make those red brushstrokes across the page!” or “I see you’ve collected all the shiny pieces for your collage. The page seems to shimmer.”) implies that we value what they are doing and motivates them to continue for the inherent pleasure derived from the process.

Evaluative comments such as “That’s beautiful!” and “Great job!” have a couple of shortcomings. First of all, developmentally speaking, we know that toddlers do not set out to create something pretty when they are doing art…art-making is a sensory, motor, and expressive modality for them, having nothing to do with aesthetics. We inadvertently impose this notion on them prematurely when we talk to them about how pretty their picture is. To confuse matters more, they have no way of understanding what exactly it is that makes this picture “pretty.” We also fall into a catch 22 where they begin to seek our praise, and the internal gratification derived from the art-making itself becomes superceded by the desire for the external gratification of the praise. This ultimately results in decreased motivation and creativity, and increased dependence on external approval. It takes a bit of practice to break the knee-jerk habit of making blanket praise statements, but just try to think descriptively. And when all else fails, you can always simply exclaim, “You did it!” It works like a charm every time!"

Spanish
We spent a lot of today talking about the 'colores' in Spanish. We'll continue to revist this as it comes up in our conversations.



We read Sandra Boyton's Blue Hat, Green Hat and the Spanish version, Azul el Sombrero, Verde el Sombrero. I think it's safe to say, the children enjoy saying, Ay, Caramba! instead of Oops! =)



Life Skills
Sharing and Taking Turns

Our little ones are still learning the concept of sharing and taking turns (we have to remember they're only two) so we've been spending some quality time working on this skill. And what better way to demonstrate it than with a tea set. Yesterday and today, I modeled asking the kids if they would like some tea, and they all, of course, exlaimed "YES!". I poured them tea, and asked whomever was holding the sugar bowl, if I could have some, instead of grabbing it, and so on. It's a beautiful thing to see this unf0ld in their play.



And closing up our weekly focus of Family, we enjoyed Are You My Mother?


And we've finally finished our 'Family of Casa T.' hand painting. Isn't it neato?