They are the adventurers, forging ahead into the unknown. The challenge then lies for caregivers to facilitate fulfilling experiences for children. When I first started facilitating and creating children's art programs, I felt pressured to come up with new ideas for projects all the time. There seems to be a belief that if we invite children to revisit an experience, such as an art project they have done before, it will not hold their interest. Yet, we know through our own experience that it is by becoming familiar with a process through repetition that we become more skilled and confident in what we do.
Children love to feel that they have a storehouse of knowledge acquired through experience.
They feel great when their knowledge is recognized. I like to extend a project as much as possible so that the children have the opportunity to return to it later and make different decisions about what they are doing. This also gives me the chance to encourage children to discuss different options. A sculpture project, for example, in which items such as wood, cardboard and found objects are selected, assembled and glued together, can be revisited later to add texture and paint. Working with children who are doing art, I am always reminded of the energy that children radiate as they participate in expressing and developing their creative ideas.