Do you direct arts and crafts at all?

[hipumpkins]

My DD is in a Y class where they make a cute little project each week. She enjoys the class but I always find the teacher is helping too much so when I bring out the arts stuff at home I don't say anything. Not even a guideline.

Here's your paint..GO. She ususally ends up just spreading paint everywhere and making what she calls, "maps" I have no problem wiht this but am wondering if it is better to gove her some guidance.
What do you think?

BTW DD is 4

[flyingspaghettimama]

I think you are doing it wonderfully.

Did you ever read any Susan Striker. She'd be proud of ya, champ.

[~*max*~]

I think a balance of both is good. Sometimes kids enjoy a special project and in order to do it they need some guidance and lots of times they just want to create on their own. If your dd is being guided at the Y, yet has lots of artistic freedom at home I think all is good.

[crl]

My only guidelines are things like, the paint has to stay at the kitchen table. I think it is important to just let DS (age 3) explore the materials in his way.

Catherine

[hipumpkins]

I never read it but I will go check it out.

[treemom2]

Around certain holidays or changing of the seasons I will try to come up with some specific crafts we are going to work on. Like making snowmen out of black construction paper and gluing cotton balls to the paper. Then we decorate the snowman. She watches me to see what I do, then she kind of does her own thing. I never tell her she does something wrong--my DD is very artistic and she often takes her crafts to a new level. However, if it isn't some planned family project, I will just hand her some paint/paper, glitter, pom poms, glue, wiggly eyes, scraps of material, etc. . .and see what happens!

[debm]

I believe in total free expression when it comes to anything creative as long as safety is not compromised.

[teachma]

I don't direct my children (6 years old and 2.5) once they have begun a project. However, if they are "bored" and looking for an activity, I sometimes give them some ideas and direction about how they might want to use craft materials to do x, y or z. Today, for instance, they both claimed they had nothing to do. I took out some huge butcher paper and outlined their bodies, then gave them a bunch of craft materials with which to decorate "themselves." At that point, I disappeared out of the playroom, and they kept themselves occupied for 45 minutes. So yeah, I made a suggestion and gave them stuff to work on, but after that, I stayed out of it.

FWIW ds NEVER did anything more than scribbles at art class or nursery school. It wasn't until he was at least 5, that he began to think of things to make that represented actual "things." And even at 6, he is waaaay more into abstract art (patterns, shapes, etc.) than representational. But his pieces are coming together now, they clearly have style and his intentions are apparent when I look at what he's created. It's been a very cool process to observe.

[aywilkes]

Originally Posted by hipumpkins

My DD is in a Y class where they make a cute little project each week. She enjoys the class but I always find the teacher is helping too much so when I bring out the arts stuff at home I don't say anything. Not even a guideline.

Here's your paint..GO. She ususally ends up just spreading paint everywhere and making what she calls, "maps" I have no problem wiht this but am wondering if it is better to gove her some guidance.
What do you think?

BTW DD is 4

I think the way you're doing it is great and the teacher's way has its place too. I have a personality that makes it difficult for me to let my son do his own creative thing and work hard to let him be free.

[GalateaDunkel]

Mine is still an infant so I really can't talk but I can't imagine "directing" *art* - drawing/painting/coloring/sculpture. OTOH, if there is a *craft* that's supposed to have a specific outcome then I plan to provide gentle, respectful, non-domineering guidance toward that outcome.

[Jess A]

I don't really direct them in their art endeavors other than keeping paint on the paper and not the walls (unless we're painting the house), no eating the glue, and that sort of thing.

That said, we're making turkey crafts this weekend to count our blessings, and I did show DD where the beak and wattle go . . . but I let her do all the gluing.

[monkeysmommy]

It depends. If she has expressed interest in making something that actually looks like something, I might make suggestions like, "If you want that to look like a flower, you could put that circle in the middle." Sometimes she is receptive, sometimes she isn't. She might say, "Well, I'm making a different kind of flower."

Sometimes for her her art is completely about about the process of making it, rather than the end product. For instance, the other day, she said she wanted to paint a volcano, so we got out paper and paint. She ended up with a painting that was a big brown smear - but what was important was that the *way* she was painting, really wildly with great abandon, *felt* like a volcano erupting to her.

[OakBerry]

I don't direct ds.
He gets directed crafts at preschool so I figure he's good to go by himself at home. The other day he was having more fun squashing the paint in between his fingers and smearing it on himself than painting.