{"id":7859,"date":"2015-04-03T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T14:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=7859"},"modified":"2016-01-25T10:18:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T15:18:03","slug":"pinterest-unperfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/pinterest-unperfect\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinterest UnPerfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve really been trying to up my Pinterest game lately. \u00a0I’ve been working on my photography and making graphics which are appealing to the Pinterest crowd. \u00a0And I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made.<\/p>\n

But I\u00a0made a decision when I posted my very first kids craft (even though I didn’t know it at the time): my kids crafts are never going to be “Pinterest Perfect”.<\/p>\n

Nothing makes my preschool teacher brain and body more upset than walking through a classroom\/hallway and seeing an entire display of art projects that look the same AND exactly like the object they were told to create. \u00a0I refer to these types of projects as “teacher work” because more likely than not, the teacher had a heavy hand in the creation of the works. \u00a0And I have to admit, when I search through Pinterest for craft ideas for my own kids, I get the same feeling when I see crafts for kids that have clearly been made by an adult.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons that I dislike teacher\/parent made projects so much.<\/p>\n

1) I highly value process over product. \u00a0It’s not about WHAT a child makes but HOW they make it. \u00a0What skill did they learn\/practice? \u00a0What was their intention? \u00a0(more on process vs. product<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2) Children are not adults. \u00a0They do not have the skills, understandings and abilities of adults. \u00a0Showing them an adult made product and expecting their project to be even remotely similar is just setting them up for frustration and\/or failure. \u00a0Pinterest Fails are funny, but not when it’s a child failing.<\/p>\n

3) Art, especially in the youngest children, should be for the benefit of fostering the child’s skills AND creativity. \u00a0Giving a child an expectation of what their project SHOULD look like takes away the child’s opportunity to create the world as they see and experience it.<\/p>\n

So while my kids crafts on Pinterest may be Pinterest UnPerfect, I can guarantee you they are 100% kid made. \u00a0They are the product of my children’s skills, creativity and abilities. \u00a0Do I give them ideas? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0Do I give them set supplies to work with? Yes. \u00a0Do I tell them HOW it should look? \u00a0Never.<\/p>\n

Case in point: our foam Easter Eggs.<\/p>\n

I took Honeybun to the craft store and let her pick anything she wanted to cover her egg with. \u00a0After wandering nearly the entire store, she finally decided that she wanted to do bows. \u00a0We then decided to get some flowers and leaves for Sugarplum.<\/p>\n

The girls then painstakingly decorated their eggs. \u00a0Honeybun took the time to tie each bow herself (I helped tighten them for her) and the girls pushed each and every sequin pin into their foam eggs.<\/p>\n

\"girls<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I made my version\u00a0after<\/em> theirs were done. \u00a0Do they look the same? \u00a0Absolutely not, but that’s because I’m an adult and they are children! \u00a0I would never expect their work to look like mine and have to constantly remind Honeybun that she can’t do things like me because I’ve been practicing for years and years (the frustration of children trying to mimic adults mentioned above).<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a><\/p>\n

Doodle did stickers on his and had the best time selecting the next sticker, placing it on the egg, peeling some off, putting them on his shirt, putting them back on the egg, etc. \u00a0I gave him stickers because stickers are appropriate for him developmental level, sequin pins are not!<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a><\/p>\n

Children need to be given the opportunity to have art experiences that are open ended, allowing them to bring their own ideas to reality and work within the skill sets they have at that time. \u00a0Children should never be expected to produce a product that looks like an adults!<\/p>\n

No need to worry about a Pinterest Fail when doing my kids crafts because they will always be Pinterest UnPerfect (you can thank me later!)<\/p>\n

This post is part of my Arts in April series, this month’s Monthly Milestone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"arts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve really been trying to up my Pinterest game lately. \u00a0I’ve been working on my photography and making graphics which are appealing to the Pinterest crowd. \u00a0And I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made. But I\u00a0made a decision when I posted my very first kids craft (even though I didn’t know it at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[414,158,176,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-in-april","category-monthly-milestones","category-creative-kids","category-time-to-celebrate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7859"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7907,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859\/revisions\/7907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}