Hello everyone, how are you all doing?

Today I want to get back to the subject I touched upon a few months ago. If you read any of my blogs, you know I have a baby boy who is almost two now. In the previous blog, where I mentioned his new discovered passion for coloring, I never really understood the importance, I was just being supportive.

Becoming a parent made rethink a lot of things. I broke some rules for sure and made some new ones as I go. Because children are growing and changing every day and I felt like I have to grow as well and keep up the pace. One thing remained the same from the start, and that is my decision that I won't force anything on him, but I will make it available for testing.

By that I mean, I won't expect him to be a footballer and force the practices. I won't force him to be creative and be a musician, a painter, a writer. I will, how ever, teach him to be independent and more importantly for todays subject to explore. I would provide him with tools and let his imagination run wild.

Like most boys, his first and true love are cars and everything with wheels on it. But, beside that I like to motivate him to explore. When the weather allows it, we would go outside and get our hands dirty. Play in the sand, make a dirt pit, pick up rocks, gather leaves.

We planted flowers and picked some too, swam in the pool. He learned how to ride a tricycle, got his first scraped knee. Got so dirty that I had to put him fully dressed in the bathtub, because there was so much mud. It was fun for a year we had in lockdown.

Then, the bad weather came and we had to spend a lot more time in the house, but my little one had the energy of three kids and I had to make some adjustments. I remembered how much he loved colors and he knows a lot of them now, so I decided to make some little projects for him to do on the weekends. Like water coloring, play-doh, crayons and similar.

He instantly loved it, and even the mess was quite big I loved it too. We had one more activity we can do together and it was relaxing. I later read some articles about the importance of creative play for children and I will share a few.

Communication skills:

Children around two years old begin to think and communicate in much sophisticated way. The big problem is lack of vocabulary and there the art and creative expression can come in handy. Joy they feel while drawing endless swirls, something they made on their own is such a big step to forming a healthy mindset and self-confidence.

Fine motor skills:

If I was being honest, this one was my idea in the beginning. I wanted him to practice fine motor skills and his patience. But what surprised me was the ease he felt holding a small brush. Like he did it a thousand times before.

Exploring:

This is a huge one, especially because we don't corelate art and exploring. When I think of exploring I imagine woods, hikes, nature but there is more to it. Exploring colors, mixing them together, leaving a unique mark on the paper is all an interesting thing to everyone, especially a developing brain. It may not look like it, but they actually learn how to solve problems like this as well.

Social skills:

Everything you can do together becomes a social learning for your kid. The opportunity to share activity, to learn from you, to wait his turn is all an important part of social skills that will come in handy one day. It's a great bonding experience and children who have strong connection to parent(s) or care giver have much less need for disobeying and "bad" behavior.

Keep in mind that small children are not aiming for perfection, they are not painters just yet. They just want to learn and have fun while doing so.

"Art is a process, not a skill"

Allow yourself to let your inner kid run free and get as messy as you can. You would be surprised how relaxing it is. Don't mind the unperfect shapes, mixed colors and endless swirls. It's the process that counts.

With love,
Tamara and Theodore