look on the faces of children of all ages. Whether it's a group of adults learning how to carve, sculpt, or paint...or a group of roughly 7 year old children, the look is the same. There is a recognition that creation can be a form of 'play' and that 'play' doesn't necessarily mean 'waste of time'. The truly awesome thing about sharing with children is the complete sense of exploration that they have and the willingness to try new things.
On Thursday I had a chance to share some time with a great group of children, teachers and parents at a school called "Lingua Garden" a bilingual preschool in Peoria, Illinois.
Denise Hecker-Leitch invited me after spending part of an afternoon at my workshop. We've been discussing a sign for her shop. She saw a sculpture I made for my daughter and asked about some private instruction on how the sculpture was done. I spent a great afternoon with Denise and her two children sculpting and talking about making things.
Since I was to speak to a larger group of children, I thought it would be great to do a little project. So I whipped up a quick carving that we could all paint!
I took a robot pal with me, and we spent a little time talking about what it is I do.
I understood, though, that these kids wanted to get their own hands into a project, so we quickly moved from talking to doing! Instead of asking them to paint anything specific, I thought it best to let each child pick their own paint colors and to personalize their own rockets any way they liked.
We had a great time laughing and painting and making. I was so pleased to see each child do a very different and creative version of the paint on their rocket. Some added stripes. Some did cool mixes of color...all special.
If that's not a great way to spend a day outside the shop, I don't know what one is!
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