Art 'n' stuff

Well this morning seems a long time ago now, but a friend of Fugs came round to play- his mum just dropped him off and they played! This is a first for him. I gave up on him having friends round as it always seemed to end in some little boy trashing the house and not interested in playing with Fugs at all. But this is the first time he's had a friend independantly of me, met through the Montessori nursery. And they get on really well. Shame he's going to school in September, o well.
So then we went to Bradford to the home-learner's art workshop, which I was a bit disappoined with, really. I mean the woman who does them is a bit annoying and spends far too much time talking about why it's important to not touch the exhibits (even though they are all in glass cases) and there's not enough time to actually do any art. I can see the logic of trying to engage them in the exhibition and gain inspiration from it. But this bit was, quite frankly, boring to me, let alone them. By the time we got in the workshop room Fugs had had enough and was itching to go to the park. But we managed to do some decorated Buddha's footprints, which was no more interesting for having spent an hour learning about Buddha. In fact I am convinced that this actually took away from the experience. It is a bit too much like 'school learning' for my liking and I may knock this one on the head, although it was loveley to see Isabelle, who organised it, again and her boys, and to meet Tech and her gang. I think I go more to meet people and to go to see an exhibition, and not so much for the workshop, although the last one was much more hands on, and although it was quite stressful for me, it was very interesting doing stuff we hadn't done at home.
I think I have a different approach to doing art and creative stuff with the children. We do quite a lot of it and although it is quite often linked to a theme, or seasonal event, I try not to harp on about it too much in intellectual terms. After all, art is not really an intellectual activity, I think. Well I don't think it should be, anyway I can't stand conceptual art or anything that is trying to be clever and you have to think about too much. Instead I try to allow them to understand what it is about by getting a feel for it through the colours an forms etc. Of course I also try to facilitate creative expression through drawing and painting, too, without a given theme or subject. I don't require representational drawings, or, i fact any sort of finished result, as this is not the point of it; its the process. I try not to do stuff for the sake of having 'something to show for it', although, if we do have something to put up that is nice, but I'm quite happy to make stuff myself if I require a certain decoration for a particular event, so they are not under pressure to perform. The EEC inspector could not seem to be able to fathom why on earth I had stuck things into my scrapbook that I had done myself; I was simply recording 'we did this... leaf printing, whatever, ate pumpkin soup- no, I didn't make her write out the recipe'- that's not the point- the point is we made it and ate it and it was a celebration and sometimes you can't document these things. ...
"And where were the results of this scientic experiment recorded (a kindergarten teacher was once asked by an inspector, on watching frosty leaves melting). The only possible reply was given: "in their souls".