Wednesday 21 November 2012

A serious note to my Fun and Nonsense. . .

 A serious note to my Fun and Nonsense.  These creatures were inspired by Carla Sonheim .  I do these when my mojo is on a tea break or has gone off for a jaunty weekend.
 I love the sillyness of them and as usual they have their own little story.  I talk to my drawings (it stops me going insane - yes I hear you saying, "She's barking"). I do it all the time. It all started when I began working at school with 5year olds.
Here is the serious bit. The first year I had a group of  6 children that could dive into a picture and travel to the Moon and stars and be back in time for tea. We had the most amazing adventures. I used to leap out of bed in the morning excited to go to work.
Then came the following years...oh boy. I thought the second lot was a blip, then came the third and now the fourth. No, my 5years olds had and have no imagination, not one drop. Most of them don't like colouring or painting and worst of all, most don't want stories read to them. They want TV and console games. QUICK FIX entertainment. Which is wonderful for just that, a quick fix, not their sole entertainment.
I could get on my soap box about TV being the babysitter and treating children like precious Little Princes and Princess and don't even get me started on table manners, manner in general etc.
Anyway my message is, if you have children around you. Talk to them, vocabulary is very important, play board games with them, they learn alot of social skills, sharing, taking turns, counting, losing. I make my kids play Rummikub - it's a difficult game for 5year olds, I change some of the rules to make it easy. In no time at all they get it and can play with older children and adults. They love it.   Make stories up about their drawings or yours or even cracks in the pavement....(looks like an elephant has walked along here).  Go for walks, bike rides. All this develops, language skills, social skills and imagination that will help them be interesting and happy adults.
For now, I'm that horrid evil classroom assistant, that has 5 year olds enduring mega amounts of colouring and silly stories. My plan is working I'm cracking some of them....mooowahahahahahahaa.


That's my Fun and Nonsense for today... Catherine xx
 
ps.  there is resistance...last year I had one Mum that came to me and told me to stop telling the children that Fairies exist. Father Christmas was OK.
My answer to that was:
Fairies, happy creatures and ordered sillyness RULES in MY CLASSROOM!
So there... :P

10 comments:

rex said...

I am so with you Catherine! I limit tv watching and we have no playstations, Wii's, or any such games or devices, in our home. I enforce boredom, so they learn to come up with their own crazy games so they use their imagination and use their wonderful brains! I love this post. X

Cosequently they are rarely bored, ever.

denthe said...

Love this post! Especially the part about your answer to the mum who said fairies don't exist. Haha! Very right you are! I recognize Carla's signature in your creatures, but they're still very much your own.... Lovely work!

Melody said...

Great post.... I don't have kids, so I tend to see them from an "outsiders" view point... It's great to hear from a "kid person" that what I'm seeing is not my imagination. I truly worry for the future. No one will be able to function if the power goes out and their gadgets don't work! What about REAL books, art, making things, getting dirty playing outdoors, and planting a seed in dirt and seeing a plant emerge! If a KID isn't suppose to believe in fairies ~ where does that leave the rest of us?
I will step away from MY soapbox now...keep fingers crossed that imagination will one day return to your classroom! :))))
Love your art!

AM Zafaran said...

I love your 'rules'1 What's life without imagination? time mommies understood that! Catherine, I love your creations and yeeayyy!! full support!

manomij said...

Ha ha you sound so serious! But heho good on you I totally agree!
ManonX

Tracey FK said...

This is sooooo perfectly true... I love that we lived on the road out of a suitcase so that Phoebes couldn't be surrounded by easy entertainment... sure that is why she is so engaged and so much fun now... I hope this lot is just a bad group... you get that sometimes... you need a good group through to restore your faith maybe
I saw the cutest little girls dressed as fairies at the supermarket yesterday they were dressed to the nines and dancing in the aisles putting spells on the shoppers... they were adorable...xx

stefanie stark said...

I love your post and I love it that you believe in fairies too :) the little elephant is so cute and lovable.

PiaRom said...

Your creatures are adorable totally love them ♥

manomij said...

I love the creatures and they would look great with little Mojo.
Thank for the tip on transfers. I am going to try this out!
ManonX

Giggles said...

You are awesome!! I agree one hundred percent! I played cards with my daughter at two....yes two...I played the memory game, and then I played a game called up the river....by five we were playing open handed crib... she had the best math skills in her class!! Each year on her birthday we cut out her age and decorated it adhering it to a kitchen fireplace! We played rumikub for years, at 26 she still enjoys it and all kinds of card and board games!! Manners were a constant and gratitude a must!! I just don't get why that falls by the wayside now!!

Love your sweet art!

Hugs Giggles