Messing Around
Today I took the kids out on the concrete area outside our school’s side door. It’s kind of nice because it is shaded and relatively clean for a concrete slab. And the weather was too beautiful to be inside. I gave them each a huge 36″ X 24″ sheet of newsprint, a big paint brush, a jar of water, some crayons, oils pastels, colored pencils, and water soluble markers. Then I made them all come sit with me next to my paper, and I proceeded to mess around with color, putting one thing on top of or next to another, wondering out loud about my “experiment,” painting over top of things with clear water to see what would blend and what would bleed. They started directing me. . .”try this”. . .”put some this over it”. . . “why don’t you. . .” I said, “Why don’t you do it?” And they did–for nearly an hour. In the afternoon we came back with little paper plate palettes with small blobs of yellow, blue, and red watercolor and clean water. I returned to my paper, messed with the colors, and then did a watercolor wash over some of the crayon. “Hmmm.” “Can we ‘speriment now?”
Kids don’t get to mess around with stuff. Our deck at Two Trees was an art studio, a science laboratory, a playhouse, office, and yes, a dog pen. Doing experiments was a way of life. Messing around with art, music, science, writing, building, nature—how else do we get scientists, artists, musicians, writers, inventors, vets? Kids need dirty up to their elbows nitty gritty under the fingernails no directions experiences. We all do.