What's The One Activity That Never Fails My Granddaughter During COVID Time?
I have spent much of the past four months living with my husband, daughter, and granddaughter. My granddaughter Alma, who is about to turn four in a few weeks, has an upbeat and sunny disposition. That said, like all of us, this time of social distancing has sometimes overwhelmed even her.
The one thing though that has worked every time to calm her or lift her mood has been pulling out the markers and paper to do some "drawing." This simple activity, while loaded with skill-building, i.e., hand-eye coordination, strengthening her pincer grasp and building better motor skills, has best served her emotional development.
At Alma’s age, her representational drawings are simple figures, but albeit, with substantial detail. By detail I mean, there are often hair bows, flowers, skies, and various weather features such as wind and water (this is not surprising since focusing on the weather is something we all tend to do more often during these crazy times). And, because all the adults in the household are in the habit of saying, “tell me about your drawing”, Alma has the opportunity to express her ideas and feelings about the characters and events that she represents in her art work.
Early on during the pandemic, many of the people she drew had little circles on their heads. When doing her “art talk” or narration, she explained that those were “fevers.” Even though no one had spoken directly to her about symptoms of the coronavirus other than to introduce the word “bugs” for germs and how to avoid getting them, she had obviously overheard conversations about fevers. Her illustration allowed us to point out to her that we were all healthy, and that sometimes people do get fevers, but later feel much better.
Since much of the time is spent in or around the house, the occasional walk in the woods, or to the nearby creek has loomed large in all of our lives these days. Thus, drawings of these outings provide a natural escape and each of her renderings allow her to revisit Rock Creek Park where we go exploring, again and again… without leaving the house.
After a virtual “morning meeting” with her nursery school class at the Little Missionary Nursery School about “big feelings” she proceeded to draw an undersea world, complete with a happy girl, a scared mermaid, an angry octopus and a sad seahorse! These illustrations allowed her to name, process and express some of the emotions that she has been experiencing during this “new normal”.
If you haven’t tried it, put together some art supplies for your kids, markers, crayons, colored pencils and lots and lots of paper and encourage them to draw… and to talk.
It will make everyone feel better.
For more details about open-ended art activities, have a look at our blog, What Is Child Art? and please send us pics of your children’s art work.
