"What are you making?" "What are you drawing/painting?" "What did you build?"
We are always asking kids to put labels on what they are doing.
But what if the child is not drawing/painting/building/making anything specific? What if he is exploring the how paints mix together or exploring how the different writing implements make marks? What if he is practicing drawing triangles or creating a pattern? What if he is figuring out how the blocks can balance and fit together?
 |
| "Just a design" |
I've learned to change my conversation with kids. I want to engage them in talking about what they are doing. But I've been challenged to talk about it in different ways. My most common question: "Are you drawing/making/building something or just drawing/making/building?" We need to communicate with kids that it's okay to just use the materials without a specific goal in mind.
Encourage kids to talk about what they are doing, how they created the lines and colors they made, what they think about the materials. Often we stress that process is more important than product--that the doing is more important than the final result. I need to make sure my conversation matches that philosophy.
