Process not Product

A very wise friend of mine once told me it was about the process and not product when it came to children being creative.

That comment often pops into my head when the children are doing something crafty… I must admit that in the past, I often found it difficult not to interfere when the children were making something and had to stop myself from jumping in and showing them how to do it ‘properly’.

I recently decided it would be fun to try out the blow painting monsters from this site. I didn’t add enough water to the paint which made it incredibly difficult (and frustrating) to blow the paint in various directions to make it look like anything resembling the photos from the site. The kids quickly moved on and had much more fun playing with the syringes that I’d given them to suck up the paint mixture. They used the syringes to paint with as well as the straws to make patterns. They started talking about the different animals they’d created, the crocodile that was coming out of the water, etc. It really reminded me of my friend’s passing comment a couple of years ago, that it was about process and not product. They had such a lovely time simply creating something using the tools they had and their imagination.