Painting Rocks

I  had the opportunity to go see my other grand nuggets this weekend.  We had an awards ceremony, a Fall Festival, dancing class and soccer all in a 24 hour period.  Parker is starting his 2 week intercession at school.   Yes, they are year round.  In this testing, have to get everything taught frenzy we now call school, he had a project to do over the 2 weeks.  At first I thought, geesh, can't they  just enjoy playing for 2 weeks?  After looking at the 'project' I realized that Parker would be able to complete it quickly and while I wasn't crazy about what they were to do, it was relatively harmless.  Being Parker, he wanted to get started on it the minute he got home from school.  We convinced him he could wait until at least Saturday.

At one point this weekend we went to a park and just played.  The kids had so much fun just playing, running, chasing, climbing - just playing.  They decided on the way out to gather a few rocks and a pine cone they found.  Mom thought it a grand idea and so home we headed.

Once home they decided to get out their 'art box' and paint the pine cone and the rocks.  No rules, no design, no 'project expectation' just painting rocks.  To adults it seemed silly and somewhat pointless.  But to these two little ones it was an hour of unstructured fun full of creativity.

I wonder in our crazy lives, how often do we allow our children just time to be creative?  It doesn't have to be painting rocks but a box of art supplies that they may use however they want.  Using scissors is a wonderful activity to develop the fine motor muscles needed for holding a pencil and writing.  Being creative is a foundation for, well, just about everything!

So go to the dollar store, buy a tub, some scissors, glue, pasta, paper, paint, whatever and give your kids time to be creative.   Trust me, they need the balance.