G loves art projects, and so when I noticed that we had a pocket of free time in our day- William was napping, and Charlotte was enjoying a little Daddy time-, I seized it. We got out our watercolor pencils, paper, and even some glitter glue. I had great visions of us making colorful snowflakes together, her following my lines and learning how to draw them herself. It was going to be lovely. Lovely I tell you.
Except that it wasn’t. G got frustrated that her lines weren’t straight. She hates it when she can’t complete a task perfectly the first time. And her frustration continued to build. She threw her pencil and cried. She walked out of the room to collect herself and came back to try again. Again it was too hard. More crying, more gentle encouragement, more tweaks to the lesson.
Time and again we worked at it. I traced lines, gave her starting and ending points. She got frustrated, but kept coming back to the table. She wanted to be successful. She persevered. And she did it. She painted a snowflake. It was a triumph for her, because she didn’t give up. And it was a win for me, because I successfully coached her through her emotions without getting angry or frustrated myself with her behaviors.
So sure, we had an art lesson today, but we also both got to practice skills we need more than drawing.