Music Center Move Causes Mosh Pit

Now, forgive me if I said that all wrong. I was NOT a rocker in high school and I think I used the term mosh pit right. Is it where people clump together and jump up and down and there is chaos and it is all done to music ? If not, then.. I guess I just made up a new word. ( Yes, it would be easy to look it up but not nearly as entertaining. )

Last night I spent three hours at a workshop for Arkansas Children Week . The theme is Art , Music and More. The workshop focused a lot of time on the difference between art and a craft. I know I preach about this often do you know ? The little bunny the kids brought home yesterday was a craft. The crowns that are in several cubbies today is art. The bunny I decided what , when and how to do the project. We even went as far as precutting the pieces to be glued on. Cute ? Yes ! Creative ? No… The crowns that are in the cubbies today came about like this :

Lyndee asked me to tie a scarf on her . ” You know like a queen . Like in the old days in the village when the ladies wore the things around their necks and they had crowns. Hey.. can you help me make a crown?” So… off we went to the art center to make a crown. Lyndee gathered the materials . I did help her cut out the paper to fit her head and made the top ” look like a queens crown.” Then she took it to the art center and got materials to decorate it. It was her idea. She decided when and where and what to make. That is art. I didnt ask her but if you ask her which one she is more proud of my bet is she would say ” the crown.” Why should she be proud of something that me or Dallas basically did ? So.. this is why you get papers in your cubby that we arent quite sure what it is… it is your child’s plan. It is art. ( Most of the girls decided they wanted a crown as well. )

Another thing we learned was how to respond to a child’s art. Have you ever looked at something a child drew or painted or made and said ” what is that?” The trend use to be ” tell me about your picture. ” One major reason teachers did that was so we could dictate and then the child would see us writing and therefore be familiar with print and know print as meaning. Marcy, our great instructor said she would like to challenge us to find something on the art that we can comment on. Example : I see you used red paint on the top or I notice that you mixed some colors in this spot , what were they ? If a story about their picture follows then by all means go with the flow but not all ” art ” has a story and not all children want to tell stories. So , I want to encourage you when your childs art comes home to value it. ( Believe me when I tell you as a grandma that those little drawings get more and more precious as your child grows ) Take time to talk to your child about their art. Hang it up! Show your child that his creativity is important. Marcy quoted that children that are exposed to more art experiences when they are young are more apt to be very good at mathematics later.

Then there is the whole music aspect of the training. You all know how Randy and I feel about music with kids and you know we use it all the time. One thing I was inspired to do today was move the music center to the other room. I have never really thought about the kids needing ” room ” to do music . My music center was on a shelf in a small area , so I moved it and WOWZERS did the kids enjoy it. We had bongos ALL MORNING. ( This is a small parenting tip. If your children are getting tired of the toys you bought them at Christmas already and seem bored , rearrange their room or their toy collection. It makes them feel like they are new again.)

A win – win situation for moving the music center was it gave the blocks center much more room and the kids also enjoyed that today.

Lesson plans? Oh yeah.. those? The ONLY thing we got to on our lesson plans today was decorating the cake we made yesterday . Believe me, it is one sugary mess. Beware the snack time sugar high that will be ensuing at pickup time. If happy loud kids equals a great day . Then boy howdy we had a marvelous time today !

Music Center Move Causes Mosh Pit