Creative and artistic spirits are few and far between these days. Unfortunately, society pressures people to live a cookie cutter life where if you are "different" you will have to deal with torment and torture. I find this very sad, someone's creativity may bring important advances to our culture, but if they are not allowed to express themselves....we will never know.
I have six children, ages 1, 2, 9, 10, 10 & 14. I really feel that you must encourage a child to be an individual right from birth. At the infancy stage, it is more so the mama or daddy that must break away from the average. Refrain from comparing your baby. Dress you infant with a since of style that is becoming of them. Do research and make your own choice of which parenting techniques or products you want to use. I choose to breastfeed starting with the 14 y/o, and received so much criticism for that! I started cloth diapers with my second and everyone thought I was nuts! As my babies started rolling, crawling and interacting with their enviroment, we played with everything and anything. I let them lead the way. We've use hair brushes for phones, t-shirt for parachutes, blankets for forts. When they were old enough to hold crayons, I taped paper on the wall and let them color all day long on the paper and left it up for awhile to display their work. Finger painting was always a favorite with my kids! We made t-shirt with hand prints or potatoe stamps and also used window art stuff. At the toddler stage I always let them pick out clothes and help them learn how to dress themselves! We love to collect leaves and twigs and make trees or nest. It has alwAys been a tradition to make a Christmas ornament with the kids each year. On birthdays or holidays, I have them create cards with whatever they want. I keep a huge art box full of stickers and strings, paint, markers, paper glue, glitter....you name it, its in there...lol.
My kids that are in school are the ones I really stress about being yourself! My oldest is quite the artist. She draws such beautiful pictures. I'll ask her to draw me things all the time. She has a certain flair about her....her clothes, her purple streaks in her hair...but I love it! She brings home excellent grades and is a great daughter. I will got through her art work from school with her l the time. She loves when I buy her the cheap plain folders for school so she can decorate them herself. My 9 & one if the 10 y/o are more into reading and writing. We have a closet with shelves full of books. We make trips to the library, I read their short stories that they write. A couple of the books we put together in a folder to make if like a real book! My other 10 y/o is more of a fashion diva...so what can I do but take her shopping...teh he he. We pick out clothes together and accerorize! Then the babies....its all done through play and love. My 2 y/o loves trains. We have a ton of Thomas so we build huge tracks that go in every direction! I have the wonder markers for him and he draws masterpieces that get displayed. My 1 y/o is very texture oriented! There are times that I just put her in the highchair with only a diaper andet het play with mushy foods....pudding, hello, grapes..whatever I find. She will sit for awhile creating artwork on her tray!
I am a mama with high expectations of my kids.....I give them the tools for success and they decide how they want to use them! I have always marched to the beat of my own drum....call me different, weird, crazy, but I love being unique and I want each one of my children to be who they were meant to be, not what society says is acceptable to be.
This question was posed by BumGenius as part of their giveaway for the new artist series of BG 4.0
http://clothdiapers.blogspot.com/2010/10/bumgenius-artist-series-giveaway.html
Go check it out!
WWW.cottenbabies.com
WWW.bumgenius.com
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