Unwinding art practises.

Teaching young children to nurture there creative side is the same as teaching in general, it is about knowing your children, listening to your children and being really in tune with your children.


Teaching young children to nurture there creative sides, involves aiming high for your children and believing in the value of an idea.


My in depth investigations and thinking started to clarify after winning a scholarship to Reggio Emilia in 2010. Visiting Reggio Emilia and studying with 100 other like minded individuals was like finding your clan.
(Ken Robinson can enlighten you more about finding your clan.)


Reggio Emilia is a province in Italy where they have this world famous curriculum based around creative expression.
In Reggio Emilia they have a way of seeing the world through children’s eyes, they have a deep understanding and spend a significant amount of time collaborating with each educator to understand what children readily absorb through there experiences.
They capture the naivety of children’s thoughts as well as the animated high spiritedness children have for objects of desire.

Reggio Emilia was the inspiration behind my blog and if the reader wishes they are advised to go back to the beginning of my blog and read my article about my experiences in Reggio Emilia.

After attending Reggio Emilia I started studying 5 children in my centre to see if the desire for art is embedded in a person.
I was particularly interested in involving boys in art, as well as what I thought were disruptive children (big mistake, but we must challenge our perceptions to really learn value)
As well as children that had little interest in art.
I hope to gain permission to share these stories with the reader in time, but for now I am going to share the first finding of my enlightened perceptions of the time children spend being creative.



Finding the point of entry, accepting your invitation into a child’s perception of creativity…..The ground work.



The children I have known and that have shared there artistic expression with me , if I think back I can recall one defining moment where I have observed and believed that there is a spark of desire in there actions.
And it is a spark of desire, a mesmerised look, an intruding thought, an extension of interest that leads them to link what they like and desire in the world of creativeness and colour.



How do they get there you ask?

You follow them on their journey, you introduce them to the mediums of there choice.
For some children that first introduction is fleeting and for others it is vast and hollow and tactile with great sensory involvement, because using art will awaken all your senses.
The very nature of art is intuitive, so a first experience can be quite a moment, don’t try to hard to analyse it, this is not an analytical experience. This is a feeling moment, a time just to be.

Whatever you want to call it, it will be an introduction and I implore you to be very gentle with a child in there first experience. Do not analyse, or push for greatness all at once.
Instead offer time, patience, acceptance, describing words then sit back and watch.
Allow yourself to be the observer, even if it means watching paints being tipped over.

Start with infants and toddlers, relax a little, unwind your expectations, your head is easily clouding with what you are expecting.
But it is not your expectations that matter in this moment.

Let infants and toddlers show you there point of view.
Infants and toddlers will want to see paint tip, that is there stage of development, and what better way to learn about the texture and clarity and denseness of paint than to see it tip and pour and run out.
Even better set it up so it can tip and pour and travel. Travelling adds a deeper level of engagement.

The sooner we realise it is time to let children do what comes naturally to them; the more we will be allowing creativity to form.

I believe we must adopt the same attitude for older children who have clearly not had experiences with paints because they will also tip and smear and splat, be very careful not to scold children away from an experience you have set up because they do not follow your point of view.
Getting children back into art practises when they have had a bad experience is very difficult.
Speaking from experience I think we need to be very gentle with the beginning stages of art with our children.
Curiosity tells children what they want, desire impels children to act, educators can feel the need to rush in and correct, it is my desire to break that cycle.

Next time I would like to share my opinion on MESS……

Art is Expansive

My latest holiday to Thailand and Singapore has me thinking about art on a cultural level, You see Art is visual and expressive, but not all art can be contained or even explained, some art just breathes on it's own or is simply exists because of the people of the land.
A vast amount of art is picturesque, it tells a story or is historical in shape and form and fundamental structural qualities.




Art is also expansive in the way that ideas are expressed, art is trial and error in the view that the next idea could be the one that gets noticed or be the one that has a personal resonation within.
Art is in sync with a culture, whether it is the art of cooking aromatic food, or the art of urban design within a city. Art really can be out of our highest imaginable scope of thinking.
I believe the more you learn and open your eyes to art, the more there is to discover, and that is why art is so valuable for all minds. This brings me back to my personal mission to facilitate great art practises, this is why we need to over come the inexperience of having art behind closed doors, high on shelves or only available at certain times, that really is a cultural and educational malfunction.
I realise teaching art or art appreciation could be hard for some teachers, the very vastness of the subject makes finding a place to start hard, but you have to start somewhere even if you start with mistakes.
Now if art is in the eye of the beholder, then how does art taught in the eye of the beholder happen.
Here are some easy first steps
Research your subject matter, start with teaching what the subject matter is capable off.

Watch and notice the attraction between the subject matter and the child.

Build on what the child can already achieve.

Every artist will be naturally drawn towards a favourite medium, so high exposure to many materials in functional ways is my best advise.

All my observations have lead me to believe that generous amounts of resources and generous amounts of time lead to a narrowing scope of attention and some very purposeful experiences.
Just be patient and go in for the long haul of volume and the inexperienced ride of experimentation, If you go for a ride only focussed on the end destination, we miss all the scenery along the way.
Happy art making everyone

Following children's progress

Recently at Play and Learn we have started keeping a portfolio of children's art, this came about because i was diligent about checking the art box to see who was been creating works, and who has not.
For those that do not,i believe we need to be scoping there interests a little more to inspire them, inspiration can sometimes be the missing link.
Being the guardian of the ever growing art box made me realise that it is vital to be tracking children's progress in art, not just for developmental growth but for themes and motifs happening for these children.
We have titled these journal's Children's art journeys,and the name is quite descriptive of how we feel about the way art develops for children, how the exploration and the purpose and intent in art can grow and shape, i highly suggest you keep a record of children's growing art so you too can sit back and view what is happening for children.
Let me start with sharing the discoveries i have made with my experiences so far.
What is strikingly obvious to me when i study children's work is the creative uthenticy that is leaping from these works of art, and when these works of art are grouped together in there glory they take on there own voice and the expression and meaning becomes so much clearer to the eye, this is actually a fabulous skill for teachers to start learning, how to notice what is unique and personal about the way a child chooses to work.
Children's work takes on a fluency with mediums, you can clearly see the children that come back and try again with the same medium, so these works are becoming saturated with technique and curiosity.
For the beginners eye i would suggest you notice colour and form, shape and space, what is happening with the relationship of the given space can tell you quite a story.
How much effort are the children using to push there mediums around the page, how much are they pushing the mediums at all, has a child really learnt how to get the most out of bristle on a brush? For me tracking children's progress and expression has made me vitally aware of the next concept to teach, or the thought provoking questions to ask. Because being creative is both internal and external in the way we act and think, there is always a deeper message to think of in art, that is where uthenticy develops. That is the beginning of a motif.

I am suprised and delighted to see that cubism is well and alive in paintings at Play and Learn, Rachel started making her people square around six months ago, and now she has incorporated it into all her paintings, her exploration lead her to painting squares and then painting inside her squares. Picasso would be proud, so much so that you must tell your children they are painting like a very famous artist who's work hang in the Tate Museums, and then show them.
There is no reason why we can not up our game in teaching children relevant art history, but it all transpires from the very simple technique of observing and noticing. So up your A game teachers. Happy art making.

The art in descriptive language

Today in my lunch break i was reading a book about the potential of a puddle by Claire Warden and it has taken me back thinking about how revevant language is to learning.
It has me wondering why we over look such a simple element of learning and dismiss it as inadequate or rush to the bookshelf and turn to the internet.
If i am really honest as a teacher i can tell you that i quite often find myself caught up and captivated by all the new gadgets and books and the focus of the new ideas pushes past my old existing ideas.
The pressure of todays busy life style spurs me on and i am forever searching for new ideas and enlightment in some new concept, so as a teacher i think the skill nowdays is to try and abstain from getting caught up in todays competitive lifestyle and take the time to enjoy what you have around you.
Reggio Emilia drifts back into my thinking when i remind myself that if i just took the time to look under a rock i would discover life that is waiting there in secret ready for admiration and fascination.
If i follow through and act on my thoughts and reflections and observations i would be back in a frame of mind where depth of learning is at it's best.
That is where the Art in descriptive language comes in, for a few weeks now i have been asking 2-5 year olds how they would describe what they are seeing in random situations. Last week it was the bread making, when Eric was mixing in more flour to the dough in a gradual form, he made a comment on how the dough was wobbly. Again i asked him for clarification on what was happening and how he could describe it, or for starters i asked what is a good way to talk about what you see,when he added more flour and mixed it in, and he told me it was getting quibbly and quobbly.
We used that term for the rest of the dough making session.
Today a week later i asked Reana what she could describe and she told me the dough was bouncy. But if we really think about it, how doe's a child now how to describe what they are seeing, do we really take the time to encourage and teach this as educators, or are we to focussed on what is happening next. Children are the best at invention, but are we facilitating it, are we actually giving children the words to use and rushing past there unique perspective on the world. At this stage i do not have any masterpieces of wisdom to share about the responses i have from my children, because i need to remind myself to be thought catching and preying open little minds at thought. But i am very interested in children's voices, and i am going to be doing a lot more descriptive digging with my children this week.
Happy art making everyone. Kerri Iwaskow has written an article to accompany the workshop she gave at elp Big Art Day Out in March this year. Kerri's article How can educators support children through the arts? is a free download and can be accessed at www.elp.co.nz or by going to elp resource section (Lecture/Conference notes).

Seeing my most reluctant artist fly.......

Create a collage

I am really not that gardenistic, but i can grow my own salad!

Welcome to 2012, how has it been for you so far, and how has your last years journey inspired you to be more productive and thoughtful? One of my resolutions is to write more, to keep track of my thoughts and publish them and that brings me to my first post for 2012. Another is to learn how to spell, but read on and you will get that. Last year i completed the Foundation course at my local council run art gallery called ART STATION TOI TU, i studied Painting and Drawing,Photography,Sculpture,Printmaking and Contempory art. But by far my favourite part of the year was finding my crowd, if you have read any of Kens Robinson's books he tells stories of how people enhance there lives by finding like minded people that inspire you, this was defineitly the case for me. Having 5 different artists sharing snippets of there thought processes with me once a week really opened my eyes to the possibilities in life, uthenticality and creatively. It also taught me a great deal of skill and improved my practises and opened my eyes to the use of doubt and mistakes as a very possitive attribute. So as we go into a new year, for some of us that may mean new children, different teaching possitions i wanted to write more about getting stuck into some good old fashioned playfulness and share some of the insights that improved my practises with young children and the arts. If you are not artistic, then this is writen for you Just yesterday i was watching a child pull cellotape from one end of the room to the other, i mean this child got some serious distance, he was going on a road trip with that tape, i had to smile at my new understanding, and laugh how it has overtaken the old knowledge. The old knowledge would have impelled me to rush over and teach him how to use a smaller piece, and i would have let this artistic child down severly. The new knowledge however is smirking as i see that this child is going to be a regular in our art room, he has creative thoughts and he has ambition and drive. It drove him to grasp that tape and pull with all his might, and he got quite far, had he even realised the potention of the sticky side i wondered?. I want to be there when he makes that discovery and the cellotape bunches up in his hands, as it will because this child is two. Oh and the look of accomplishment on his face, Cellotape is going to be a good friend, i can see that already. I actually didn't interfer at all, he was having to much a good time to be interupted, but i am excitted to know he is one of my crowd, and i am going to keep an eye out for him. Knowing your mediums potential is all about playing with it, finding its function, layering it with other resourses and finding your own way to use it. An artistic child will look for every other way to use it apart from its obvious function, that is the spirit i love in an artistic child. An artistic child is the master of new invention. So really this brings me to my title, because i grow really fustrated of teachers and people telling me that they are just not artistic. Lets look at the definition of artistic in the Colins English dictionary- Person who produces works of art,esp painting or sculpture, person skilled at something. Then you have the definition of art, which is works of great beauty. So from that definition i conclude that maybe some people think they are not capable of making art, and just need to widen there view on beauty. I actually think people confuse beauty with pretty, what they mean is i can't actually make pretty art and to them i would invite them to take a look at there Public art gallery, i am betting there is really not a great deal of prettiness in there. Beautiful art however is in the mind, beautiful art is in the sense of pride and achievement and the deeper meaning behind why you made it in the first place. Beautiful art makes you love it, sometimes for no reason at all other than the mind is attracted to it and it gives you some kind of emotional response. So i can tell you a prudent strategy for over coming the need to see children produce pretty art, and that is to stare a little longer at what children are doing in the artroom when no one is telling them what to do, watch children when they think no one is looking at them, because they are now in there safe default place. Some people have made shopping there default safe place, a happy place some might say, artistic children are creative, they play around with something, they mess around, it is very instinctive and it is impulsive and it is raw. Please please let it be all of that. Because i can tell you from personal experience, when they enrol in a programme of the arts, it will take them a long time to get the structure of pre supposed thoughtout plans out of there head and get back to being raw. Instead try at catch there thoughts, pick at the threads, unwind the actions, find out about there though processes at that time, let yourself be suprised. Art is a massive area of the curriculum, one that offers delight, fustration, doubt, fear, pride, happiness and many more emotions so please think about it before you tear in there with discipline and set up orderly behaviour. Nurture the artistic child, they have a lot to teach you. Here is my garden, truely i am not very gardenistic, my tomatoes are held up leaning on broken sticks, the raddish is over crowding the lettuce, and luckily it has rained a lot this summer, or they would all be limp however i am enjoying a fair bit of salad now.

Happy salad building and art making everyone.

In case you forgot it's all physical.

Achievement and personal satisfaction is a common goal for teachers of young children and we see the determination of children's will power push this through. But there is the flip side to that, the reluctance and the insecurities that become barriers for children, and try as we might, theorise as we do, reluctance can sometimes disable children like a virus. This story is very dear to me, because i have been working with a child whom i have seen experience a world of different emotions about his own drawing practises. I fully believe that you must never draw for children and part of the long fustration this boy has experienced is because he is in love with popular cartoon culture and he wants someone to make representations true to the graphic images he is in love with. I have observed this boys journey and it has been slow and gradual, but it has taught me a leason in patience and authenticity, because we are always telling ourselves that to teach well you must know the subject matter, and for me to teach well is to know the children i teach well. If i had been true to this i would not have worried about the fact that this boy could not, would not try to draw or express himself visually, because he has always been in charge of his choices and has always been able to catch up when he was mentally and physically ready. Being mentally ready and physically ready to draw is the key to success i believe, no amount of inspiration is going to be able to help you if your body has not been prepared for the journey ahead. So for the Early Childhood places of play that have little value for being outside and emersing yourself in nature and the value of open space and risk, i believe the journey will be so much slower. So the inspiration in this case was Hatupatu and the Bird Woman, and the physical preparation came in the way of a wheelchair. Puzzled? yes i was too actually, but you see this child had a full cast on his leg for six weeks so he was in a wheel chair on and off for that period, and what happend was very natural, as he gained very strong hands from learning to move his wheelchair. So when he sat down with a piece of chalk and expressed his interest in Hatupatu, what happened astounded him and the control and movement had all clicked into place and he was able to draw images he was happy with.

Space and natural settings have to be the biggest priority for Nga Tamariki of the 21 century, it seems to me that everyone you talk to valued there freedom, independance and physical activity growing up, so why is it that as a Universe we are not fighting for the same priorities for Nga Tamariki 100% of the time, why is space being taken from our children for the sake of a crazy notion that learning only happens inside the wall of an institution. Learning Institution's for our children are becoming more compact, the space inside the class is given the space and the numbers of children inside this space are growing, but what really matters should be the space and state of the environment outside the classroom. The natural world around us is being classed as out of bounds and too risky and needing too much supervision. We are restrciting Nga Tamariki from the natural desire to learn as we experience the world evolving around us, and many of us are turned off like a switch when we are put into classes. There is not a single thing we can not learn watching nature unfold. My friend learnt that his fingers were strong and that he could draw only because his will power kicked in and being in a wheelchair did not stop him from being outside and joining in with others, his body just adapted, his muscles grew stronger and as a spin off his brain opened new pathways and he linked it to being able to draw now. The body and mind are our most powerful tools, if you have them both on your side really the world is your oyster. So get outside everyone.