Recently, I was working with a young artist (5), and we were creating alongside each other. Nothing fancy, just some basic drawing on paper. Shortly after we had started, Miss 5 peeked over to see what I was doing and immediately asked, ‘Wow, how do you do that?’ (I had drawn an intricate spiral pattern). I gave a few pointers, and she tried to copy me. But when her drawing didn’t look exactly like mine, frustration quickly set in.
I figured I had 2 options here.
Option 1) – Continue “teaching” her, telling her exactly how to hold and move the pen across the paper, encouraging her not to give up.
Option 2) – Swap roles and ask her if she could teach me some of her drawings.
Guess which option I chose?
Seeing her initial creative confidence shrink under a sense of perceived failure, I decided to try something different. I explained that the pattern I had drawn was one I had practised many, many times, and that it hadn’t always looked this way. I then (genuinely!) admired an element of her picture, and asked if she could teach me how to draw it.
Immediately, her entire way of being changed. She sat up straighter, her shoulders relaxed, and a smile spread across her face. With her chin up and that sparkle back in her eyes, she confidently guided me through her creative process.
Every day, we face countless small choices when interacting with our children. And sometimes, by simply shifting our perspective and approaching things in an unexpected way, we can give our tamariki the space to feel proud of their own ideas – and in the process, we learn from them too.
Imagine Play Inspire 