I try to maintain a choice-based environment, continually reigning in my desire to see my own ideas come into fruition. Some days, it’s easier than others. When Max and Hugo rejected my idea of the clouds, I was a little sad, to say the least. That teaches me, to get attached to my own ideas! After all, my whole philosophy centers around the importance of following the ideas of the kids. I have to TRUST.
Ideas are beautiful things. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, in fact, and when people don’t accept others' ideas, evolution, revolution, change, growth, or refinement does not happen. I have to hold myself to that very standard, and dignify the kids by following their lead, their ideas. So, we switched gears.
It’s not easy when plans don’t hold, and you have to make things happen, cooking up ideas from scratch! What becomes important at these points, is organization of materials and resources. Having a tidy, organized studio and workspace is so important for impromptu moments. When someone says, “what if we could….” And you can say something like “yes, let’s try. We could use _____ or _____, what do you think?” you have the makings for the golden moments where magic can happen.
The boys ended up turning the idea of the clouds on it’s head. M and H built the most interesting white sculptures with all the same materials the other kids used for the clouds. Round shapes: pearls, lids, rings, shells, and pieces of packing foam. The stacked their structures in interesting ways, testing balance, working with gravity, using hot glue. (We love hot glue!)
H chatted about his process as he went:
“All it takes is your whole day in your playroom playing with lego. That’s all it takes. I’m going to make a mound of these things. Kind of a moundy junk pile kind of thing. I’m going to make this black and blue and I’m going to call it Von Nebula. I know how to make sure it’s perfect. I go to the end of the table and I look at it like this… That oughtta hold it together.” -H
M preferred to work quietly and keep his thought processes to himself. He was quite delighted with his ingenuity with how he joined pieces, periodically holding up his structures with a smile, saying, “Look at this!”
After their structures were built, the boys unleashed their wild love for squirting and splashing paint. They drenched their structures in dripping swirling rainbows of colour. Rivers and pools of paint formed at the bases of the sculptures, as the boys rained down their colours.
After emptying half of each bottle onto their works, M asked if he could mix some colours is separate containers. So, they began to mix, and discovered some things… here is a bit of what it sounded like:
“What do yellow and orange make? Oh, just orange.” M
“Blue and red make brown!” H
“That’s purple! How do you make it?” M
“Blue once, red twice. Red goes down first. Then blue.” H
“Okay red first?” M
“Yah.”
“Then what? Blue?”
“Yah.”
“That good?”
“More blue.”
(Max makes a nice purple, then adds his orange)
“I made brown!” M
(He then adds white)
“A coffee colour.” M
“So what makes green again? Oh, I need the blue.” M
H in the mean time is furiously mixing in more and more red to his purple. I ask, what colour are you going for?
“Lava.” H
M and H have begun to acquire an understanding of the properties of paint, knowledge of how to mix colours, and a growing confidence in themselves as artists and creators. It was really great to see the boys test and explore colour so happily, using their prior knowledge as well as their developing colour instincts. I think that they may soon be interested in discovering the colour wheel or studying colour theory… maybe?