You walk into preschool.
The teacher announces, "Be sure your toddler makes a stop at the table in the art room today! We have paper and crayons set out so that they can draw a nice picture for a Mother's Day project we're putting together."
You follow your child back to the art room and glance at the layout. There's a tub of crayons and a whole bunch of paper. The table is full. Moms and kids are working hard on their drawings.
If you look to a table on the right, you see an example of the finished product. A "Happy Mother's Day 2008!" placemat. A nice close-up of your child along side the picture that he/she drew. It's one of those keepsake things that you would put away along side your kids baby book, their list of first words and the bracelet they wore in the hospital when you popped them out.
The Question:
Do you try to draw your toddlers attention to the art table and get them to scribble out a nice picture?
My Answer:
I asked Katie if she wanted to color and she said, "No." So, I let her run off to the kitchen area to try to eat plastic fruit. I was a little disappointed, but then I saw something that made me think again.
One of the other Mom's was sitting at the art table with her kid, who was coloring away. The kid got up to play with something else. The mom asked the kid to come back to add more color to the drawing. Yeah. More color. And the kid came back and did it.
I realized that it was actually pretty silly to force Katie to draw a picture so that I can feel good about myself as a Mom.
It also seemed a bit authoritarian.
And there, my friends, is your five dollar word of the day.
