The Pursuit of Tinkering

Just ran across this post from Judith E. Glaser. When her children were in elementary school she coordinated the publication of an annual book that contained stories and pictures from all 550 students in kindergarten through 5th grade. In regards to organizing the content she writes:

Something amazing seemed to drive the process at an almost invisible level. It was as though each year there was something in the air that each child was breathing - some aromatic that they could all sense. This unique essence showed up in the patterns and substance of the student’s expressive art work and writings. Each year it was different - each year a larger story emerged and - once we saw it - mystified those of us working on the project.

Looking back on the success of the project, Judith writes:

My feeling is that we all have bonding instincts. We have the need — a strong instinct — to connect with others and make music. When validated and fulfilled, our connections elevate us to higher levels of growth, wisdom, creativity and insight.

I LOVE Judith’s idea and her story. Read the full post: Children’s World - The Emergence of Self Expression

Yesterday I gave Crayola some hate for releasing simulated crayons. Today, I stumbled upon the Crayola Glow Station, which I love for two reasons:

1. It gives kids the ability to create art at a new time (night) and in a new place (the dark).
2. More important, the art is temporary, lasting only a few minutes before it fades.

For time and place, changing your environment is a great way to stimulate creativity. And why is temporary art a good thing? It’s too easy to get attached to our ideas, too easy to get stuck, failing to recognize that there is always another idea right around the corner. The Glow Station inherently solves that problem. It reminds me of a similar product that we bought for our kids a while back: Buddha Boards. They essentially do the same thing, except with water instead of light. I love their philosophy:

Buddha Board is based on the Zen concept of living in the moment. You simply paint on the surface with water and your creation will come to life in a bold design. Then, as the water slowly evaporates, your art will magically disappear leaving you with a clean slate and a clean mind - ready to create a whole new masterpiece.

Nice. That’s so, um, Zen.

And for you, Crayola, you have redeemed yourself. What other cool stuff do you have?

Today, Crayola and Core Learning released Crayola Art Studio, a digital art program for children. From the press release:

Crayola Art Studio has a wide range of drawing and painting tools including many realistic art tools that simulate the real effects of traditional art tools such as Crayola crayons, pencils, markers, watercolors, tempera paint and more.

I don’t want to be a downer, but why not just use real crayons? Seriously. How could simulated crayons possibly be any better than the real thing?

To be fair, I understand that Crayola must feel some pressure to be part of the digital world. After all, in the very near future there won’t be any paper. Right? Right. Well I think it’s just fine for Crayola to join the digital age. In fact, as a father of two children and a shameless computer/Internet addict, I’ve actually spent an afternoon or two thinking about this.

At our house, my kids are still creating art the old-fashioned way. With actual crayons and paper. And they are creating lots of it. Being a geeky dad (that’s me to the right), as soon as they finish a drawing, I scan it in. Just takes one-click with a cheap $50 scanner I bought from Amazon.com. Then, after they go to bed, I spend a few minutes emailing their drawings to the grandparents, posting them to Flickr and my Facebook page, then tagging them in iPhoto so I can use them to torture the kids at their weddings.

There are a million things to do with kid art on the computer. And none of them have to do with creating the art. We should be using our computers to share the art!  Crayola, let’s talk. I’ll get you excited about it.

Our last few attempts to take the kids to the art museum ended in disaster. No Monets were harmed, but tantrums were thrown. It just isn’t a kid-friendly place.

A story by Barbara F. Backer might help. It has a few good ideas for engaging kids during a visit to the art museum that I plan to try next time. The best bet, for my kids, is her suggestion to kick-off a game of I-Spy each time you enter a new gallery. Perfect.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts here we come. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Will the current economic turmoil help us rediscover our ability to imagine and create? Sure sounds like it could from this great write-up at The Simple Dollar blog: Christmas Inspiration from a Stick and a Cardboard Box.

The post analyzes the 41 toys inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame and recognizes that of the set:

1. Several are free.
2. All but a few cost less than $10.00 if purchased new.
3. Almost all of the toys are sturdy and can therefore be found second-hand.
4. Almost all of the toys are open-ended and therefore inspire imagination and creativity.

Right on. As the author states:

In short, give a little more imagination and spend a little less money. If you really feel obligated to spend that money, make a donation to the child’s 529 in addition to the gift.

Also, check out the Fifteen Ways to Have Cheap Fun With Your Kids Using a $1 End Roll of Paper post on the same blog. Brilliant.

Wow. Check out this post on Rich Hoeg’s eContent blog: Innovation After Kindergarten. In it, he references some great info from IDEO General Manger and author Tom Kelley. Here’s a snippet:

“Tom Kelley reviewed the works of an artist named Gordon McKenzie. This artist visited a school and spent time with each class from grades K through six. When he asked the kindergartners how many of them were artists … almost every hand went up. By the time he got to the sixth grade and asked the same question, only two hands went up. Somewhere in the intervening six years the children had learned how not to be creative … but instead looked around the classroom and sought their peer’s approval.”

Rich adds to this with his own observation:

“As a coach of Lego Robotics for the pas six years, I learned the same lessons. While the designs from the Minnesota H.S. robotics teams are robust, when it comes to creativity every coach knows one must visit the elementary school competitions. The younger children have not yet been taught what does not yet work. They experiment.”

With a daughter currently in kindergarten, and another set to begin in fall 2010, this is powerful and scary stuff…

Discovery Education is running an ‘Inspiring Invention‘ contest. School-aged entrants create a public service announcement that motivates other K-12 students to get inspired and start inventing. It’ll be fun to see the results.

For us parents, It’d be fun to see a similar contest where we’re asked:

1. How do we create an environment/tools to help our kids be inventive.

2. How do we nurture/encourage our children without influencing their ideas.

I’m constantly struggling with both.

In the last week or so we decided to try something new at home. We had a 6′ roll of white paper laying around for years - can’t remember where we got it. We started using the paper to cover our dinner table, similar to the pizza restaurant down the street. The bowl in the center of the table, the one that used to hold apples and oranges, is now filled with markers and crayons. The paper stay on the table for three or four days at a time, and the kids are able to draw whenever the mood strikes them. It has made dinner time lots of fun. Also makes it possible for the kids to be creative anytime - they don’t need us to get supplies out for them. Added bonus: the art covers our old, junky table and really brightens up the room.