Process over Product

I love my children's art much more for the process than the product.

Today I watched H4 draw a tree and put a cut-out picture of a nest in it (today was N is for nest day).

She drew a fat tree trunk with two thin branches extending from either side--like a T.  Then she got discouraged and said, "You do it, Mom.  I can't do it right."

That's when I go all cheerleader-y and pointed out all of the tree-like parts I could see.  I told her it looked like a perfect tree for safely holding a nest full of eggs. 

She thought about what I said, studied her picture for a moment or two, then drew what looked like a second trunk next to the first one.  "It will hold the baby birds without letting them fall, Mom," she said.

We colored and cut out her nest and eggs.
We glued them in place.
She colored in a sky above.

I asked, "Do you want to make leaves on your tree?"

She looked at her picture again.  "It needs more branches, Mom."

Then she drew a large brown circle all around the space above the two-trunked tree.  After drawing her circle, she proceeded to put a bunch of spikes all over it.  "Here are the branches.  And here are some more branches . . . " she muttered, half under her breath, intent on her work.

How interesting.  I'd have drawn branches to define the space.  She defined the space and then drew the branches.

There's so much more than a finished product in a child's art.

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