Welcome To Our House

The other day Charlotte wanted to do a craft "all by myself." She even knew what she wanted to make - a welcome sign for our door.

So, I printed out the word 'welcome' and then handed her a few supplies. This is the result:


She conceived this almost entirely by herself and the execution is wholly hers. The wooden craft sticks are a fence and there is a lot of grass and flowers to make it pretty. And of course, there had to be dirt (the black marks) for the grass and flowers to grow in. She even drew the circle around the word 'Welcome' so she would know where to cut it.

One aspect of this I am really proud of is the purple flower. Charlotte was practicing on another sheet and had a hard time getting it to look like the sample one I made. So she asked for help instead of saying, "I can't!"

(You see, we don't allow her to say, "I can't." If she is struggling with something, we are trying to teach her to either be more creative with a solution or ask for help. I want her to find the solutions to problems within her self but to also not be afraid of admitting when she needs help with something. Off my parenting soap box now.)

Getting back to the purple flower... so asked me to make the dots so she could trace them and draw the flower the way she wanted to. It pleased me to know that was trying her best to both make the sign look nice and to manage her frustration.

This really has me thinking that I ought to be giving her more freedom with the crafting supplies. I love watching her brain work!

Why don't you share your adventures watching your kids learn in the comments below.

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