toddler artwork.

the only thing about lyla's school that bothers me is her artwork. it's not 'hers.' it looks like someone else (the teacher) does it. every single kid goes home each day with the exact same craft, except with their name on it.

it bothers me because i want her to learn to be creative in her own way. i want her to create things and make them hers. the way she wants it to look.

through teaching, i learned about how much we adults can interfere with little ones' creativity and their own personal touch to their artwork.

that is not something i want to happen with lyla. i want her to explore with many different materials and enjoy creating.

for example, she came home with a black piece of construction paper, with  printed dalmation dog glued right in the center and some red glitter glued on to the fireman's hat he was wearing.

i would have conducted the art class like this: i would have given every child a white piece of construction paper and put out art materials like pencils and crayons, red glitter and glue, and black circles. then i would have showed them a picture of the dalmation and talked about it with them told them to create their own dalmation. 

here are some other examples of what she has come home with:

this last one is the most recent and a little better since it looks like she was able to glue the pieces that she wanted, where she wanted. 

but, printed pictures, like coloring pictures and coloring books, really take away from their own imagination.

here is an example of one of her creations from story time this summer. it's a paper bag puppet.

i like to let lyla decide where she wants to put things when creating art. and then afterwards, her name and date is placed on the back of the paper, so I do not disrupt her little creation.

it's not about the product, it's about the process. 

but i always love the product :)