It is important to balance
the need to teach with the need sometimes to step back and let
children simply get on with what they are doing. There are times when they do
need to be taught a technical skill so they can broaden their skills and try
new things, for example, how to use safety scissors to cut paper. But the key
crime of parents in stifling creativity is to step in and interfere when it is
not necessary.
You might feel frustrated
that your child can’t quite get the hang of painting in separate colours yet
and insists on mixing all the paints into the same sludgy brown shade. But aside
from the fact that is it their picture and not yours, they learn from mixing up
those colours; that blue + yellow = green; green + red = brown, even if the end
of the experimental splattering is the inevitable mossy brown smudge all over
the page.
Children need to experiment. And sometimes when they do it ‘wrong,’ they come up
with things that are surprising, delightful and truly inventive. Do you know?
Chips, Frisbees and Post-It notes were created as the result of ‘mistakes.’ Sometimes getting things wrong can lead to brilliant inventions. So,
don’t help your child too much.
Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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