Don't you just love a blank sheet of paper? I do. For the same reasons I love hardware stores and craft supply stores; when you go through the doors you walk into a world of endless possiblity.
At our house we do a lot of drawing, coloring and painting. We've started buying white paper by the box. Not just a ream, but an entire box. (Hooray for Costco!) I like to think I'm providing the means for the next Picasso or Cassatt, but it really doesn't matter. What I am providing is ample space for creativity and exploration for my kids.
Madeleine L'Engle said "All children are artists, and it is an indictment of our culture that so many of them lose their creativity, their unfettered imaginations, as they grow older. But they start off without self-consciousness ...They don't worry that they may not be as good as Di Chirico or Bracque; they know intuitively that it is folly to make comparisons, and they go ahead and say what they want to say."
My girls can be just as happy with a plain blue pen as they are with their 96 colors of crayons. Give them that and a stack of paper or a lined notebook and it's really amazing what they can produce.
At one point, I was trying to save everything the kids drew. Then I realized we were going through reams at a time and I gave up. We just keep the highlights now.
ReplyDeleteAmen. Although sometimes it's hard to do, but unless you want your house to become a paper storage facility that's the way to go!
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