Quiet Observation & Partnership

Sometimes it gives our children a sense of security to know that you are close and there if they need you, but what do you get from this closeness? You get the opportunity to watch your child's creativity unfold, you now have insight on their passions and their observation skills as they explore their environment and materials. Sometimes our non-verbal communication with our children is exactly what our family needs.

Often our children see us working, but how often do they see us explore creatively and discover that we too can struggle and persevere and finally succeed. (in this case completing a project, even if it was challenging) While modeling skills is important it is just as important to model encountering challenges and solutions.

Most importantly creating together can be fun, but partnership can give us all so much more. Partnership can give us an opportunity to receive guidance and input from our children--they can teach us as much as we can teach them. Children learn that their opinion matters and they learn to dialogue towards solutions. While parents have years more experience it is helpful for us to aid our children through support when their frustrations get the better of them. As parents we can help them work through these feelings and feel proud of themselves for hanging in there. Parents can also use their experience to help children see the next level of creativity. By interacting with them we can help them push there inner creativity to think more about what appears to be a finished project.

Community, Community, Community!!! Community is made up of people of all ages not just peer groups.