A mess is the mother of all invention

This afternoon I asked Pea if she would like to do some painting with her watercolors.  She has been asking me for a couple of days to get them out, and I kept on stalling--it was always at a moment that would be too difficult to set up, clean up, or assist her along the way.  So today, with dinner already prepped and the baby asleep, it was the perfect time to let her dive into a project.  

I got out the paints, some paper, our drop cloth for the table ( an old twin bed sheet I found at Savers), brushes, and water, and let her get started.  Little Pea is always an inventor.  It didn't take long before she was painting the drop cloth instead of the paper.  I didn't really mind this, but she also wanted to dump water on the paint on the drop cloth, and this wasn't really going to work, so I decided to change things just a little bit.  I wanted her to be able to experiment, but I also didn't want to have to monitor her every move while she poured water everywhere!  So I got her a big, plastic box--one of those Rubbermaid storage boxes.  We put her paper in, and she proceeded to create her own printing method by painting on the paper, pouring some water on the paper, and then putting another piece of paper on top to make the print.  Brilliant! Then as she was pulling one piece of paper out, it ripped, and she said, "oh, now these are the silks", meaning the silk ropes we had used in a circus arts class we had taken together. 

The whole time she was exploring these materials she was talking to herself, explaining her process as she was going along: "doo, doo, doo, little cup and then paint it around with a big brush and then I take a little water...this one...this paint because I'm big and then...washing machine [this is what we call it when she remembers to wash her brush after painting]..."  This is just a little example of her self-talk while she was working, a powerful indicator that she was really figuring something out during this process. 

Pea was not only learning about the properties of paint and water, but also practicing executive function processes.  These are the same set of skills that allow us as adults to plan, organize, categorize, remember important details, and manage events in time and space.  So, just by allowing a little time and space for process oriented creative exploration (pouring water on paint and paper), we also give our children the opportunity to develop important life skills!  We live in a product-centric world, but young children, if given the opportunity, are all about the process.  

This project was more of a creative discovery, exploring materials and processes, than an attempt at making art.  After working for twenty minutes or so, Pea was done.  She got down from the table and moved on to making a bed for her dolls out of a pile of small pillows.  The "product" was a pile of wadded up, soggy paper at the bottom of the plastic container--nothing refrigerator worthy, and probably nothing that Pea herself thought about saving.  The work was done, the process was completed, but the benefits of working in this open ended manner will continue to inform what she does now and in the future.