Recently, a friend expressed her belief that it is the experiences in life that are the most important, not the outcomes, and that we are often so preoccupied with the outcome that we hesitate to have the experience. This philosophy seems to coincide with how children view life.
Children are much more interested in the experience than in results.
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.