9am Printmaking, Color Mixing, Golfball Painting 12-8

Printmaking has endless opportunities for exploration and learning. When introducing this new "language" to children, I try and keep the steps to a minimum, and I love to see the "surprise" when a parent helps them to place the paper down and lift it to see what happens. "See what happens" is one of my favorite phrases! I noticed some of the children using this phrase during class. I believe in the magicness of childhood and encouraging children to experiment rather than adults always telling them what will happen. I think it is good for us adults to listen to the children because often what you think might happen doesn't, something new and magical occurs.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points to all there is, imagination points to all there will be." - Albert Einstein

Often I hear, wonderful questions from children, "Why is the sky blue, or how does this work?" Sometimes, adults want to say, "let's look it up on the internet and find the "Real' answer". We think we are doing them a favor and filling them up with important facts. Unfortunately, that "real answer" steals away, the experimentation, imagination, learning to problem solve, learning to THINK. When children ask questions like this, I see it as a wonderful opportunity for the adults in their life to "set the stage" for learning. Turn off the computer! While it can be a useful tool for older children, it is too abstract for young children. Young children (and in my opinion older children too) need to use their hands and their brains. Saying to your child, "Interesting question, What do you think?" puts the ball back in their court and shows them that Mommy and Daddy are not the only distributors of information, maybe I am a source as well!

Brainstorm yourself or with other adults around you how you could set up the environment to allow the child to discover the answers herself/himself!

J. discovered many different ways to use the plexiglass. He painted with a paintbrush, his hands, and even experimented with the concept of splatterpaint. His prints were Beautiful! I wish I had taken a picture of one...Dad supported his son in this endeavor by allowing him to make a mess (quietly cleaning it up himself, without interrupting J.). After class, I found many, many prints from J. and I smiled and was proud that J. and his Dad were able to enjoy this so much. I only wish I had more paper!

W. and Ya Ya really understood the importance of cleaning up after themselves to get the materials ready for other children. This is such an important skill for young children to learn both at school and at home. We must take good care of our materials so they last a long time, so we can enjoy them for a long time. Most importantly I think it teaches children to think about others and eventually they feel a sense of pride when they see other children painting or using a material that they helped to prepare.

Mixing colors is a fantastic gift to children. It's so hard for us adults to watch all the colors turn to brown, because they always seem to want to mix every single color together! However, with time and repeated exposure to this idea, they will learn how to make different shades, what colors to mix together to form others. While we want them to be successful in achieving beautiful hues and shades, dissapointment and frustration are necessary in creating something new! Frustration can be healthy and can often lead to learning. However, when you see them starting to give up, that's a good time to intervene. My motto is wait....wait....wait....and then wait some more....Then as they are about to really lose it...It's ok to give children an idea and they can either take it or perhaps they don't care for it..."See what happens when you just mix 2 colors?" "What would happen if you mixed red with white?"

J. spent much time mixing the colors and didn't mind at all what the end result was, either brown or black, green or orange. She understood that this required time, effort, and A LOT of paint. I am so glad we have a lot of paint and can allow her to experiment without limits!

"I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

Rolling balls dipped in paint invites children to many ideas of physics! According to The Young Child as a Scientist by Chaille and Britain p.76-78,

physical knowledge is constructed by the child's action on objects and his observation of the object's reaction. There are four criteria to be targeted in maximizing the child's ability to observe the effects of his or her action on objects.

1. The child must be able to produce the movement by his or her own actions.

2. The child must be able to vary his or her actions.

3. The reaction of the object must be observable.

4. The reaction of the object must be immediate.

So while many people see Golf Ball painting as "Cute", we understand that our children are really learning how to experiment, establishing correspondence between themselves and objects, learning cause and effect, and so much more!