My Little Creative Genius

Okay, so maybe I'm not quite so humble.  To be honest, my little boy is more interested in learning how to put things together than he's interested in art.  For example, he'll spend hours opening and closing the closet doors to understand how the hinges work or he'll spend a good long time practicing how to snap and unsnap the safety belt on his high chair.  However, give him a piece of paper and a marker...and he's done in five minutes flat.

Little Lewie's Child Development Center (a.k.a. Daycare), however, is inspired by Reggio Emilia, Italy Approach, which among other important missions and criteria, focuses on providing an art based and multisensory curriculum in the classroom.  So, while Little Lewie's natural inclinations don't necessarily gravitate toward art, his daycare has inspired him to try a thing or two--like making collages out of natural materials (like pine cones, bark, leaves), molding and glazing clay, or drawing pictures using chalk, crayons, markers, or paint.   And, while he usually bypasses trying this stuff with me at home, his wonderful teachers at the Child Development Center actually inspire and encourage him to do it there.  When I received his first art project, I thought surely someone had to do it for him, but then they sent me pictures--firsthand proof that he may have an interest in art after all...

So while I used to turn my nose up to daycare and cried and cried the first day I had to send him...I'm starting to discover that maybe daycare has given him a lot of great exposure to new and interesting things that he wouldn't have at home...