What is progressive repetition? Let's take a look and see how
it affects our understanding of our children, especially
through their artwork. Repetition is a part of our lives. We
repeat actions more than we care to count! But if we would
take the time to count the repetitions of our children while
they are learning, drawing and doing arts/crafts, we would
see interesting progress taking place. A child's learning and
development are based on new input and repetition. Repetition
is a vital part of learning. It is also a vital part of arts
and crafts.
Arts and crafts are used as a teaching technique and a form
of communication in pre-school children. The use of arts and
crafts is more than a recreational and artistic avenue for
any child or any age. Arts and crafts can be used to maximize
a child's creative thinking potential in other subjects and
other areas of his life, because arts and crafts makes
miniature copies of things in the physical world. These
objects embody concepts, actions and emotions in life that we
use and do throughout the calendar year, day by day. Let's
understand how we can use it to the maximum in arts and
crafts with children.
We are people of habit. We do similar things over and over
again without much thought, unless we stop and pay attention
to each nuance and minute in our lives. In the act of
discovery or learning, children can be automatically paying
attention to each moment if they are interested and excited.
The excitement of discovery in the minute takes over their
whole reality. They are in the process of self/discovery
— discovery of the self and discovery of the world
around them. If we could be in pace with their moments of
discovery, imagine how much better we would know our
children.
When they create or express themselves on paper: painting,
drawing, creating and copying, each mark on the paper is a
total entity. It is wonderful and worthy of consideration.
Even if they repeat the same line in a drawing again and
again or the same colors in their paintings, each line can
still be exciting and new, just as each moment is new. For a
parent to appreciate their child's repetitious moments and
discoveries, he must realize that each moment is as unique as
it is repetitious. He must also know how to appreciate this
phenomenon in himself as well.Live in the moment. Know
where you stand and before Whom and where you are going. Live
in your head. Look inside for direction and follow the
clues.
But often we are side-tracked and not able or allowed to
listen and our own growth is not encouraged. Maybe this is
what encouragement is. Can we acknowledge inner resources and
inborn talents that we were blessed with? Can we go forward
with a stamp of approval by a parent, teacher or good friend?
This in itself is dynamic and challenging and even more so is
finding how to combine it with the demands of standardization
and school. Perhaps one thing will work to make the
combination a success. That is, to accept the better points
of each and know how to progress at one's own pace in the
expectations of society and school.
Pre-school mastery of shapes, colors and cutting with
scissors are part of the agenda necessary for entrance to the
first grade. Normally, this is presented in a standardized
method which takes the average child into consideration. The
middle road is a good road. But what about a child who is
busy delving, however unconsciously into other conceptual
dimensions? He is called the different drummer.
Standardization has expectations. His perceptions may not be
standardized. He may be above average or below, and
regardless of the middle way, may be unearthing treasures
from within. Are his moves acknowledged? Is he given time to
follow his learning style? Will he have a gap in his totality
because something basic to his own rhythm was left out? Maybe
he needs extra time on the subject, because he is immersed in
fine points and within these fine points he is busy with
repetition and the inch-by-inch progress. Or he may be a
child who learns slowly and needs specialized learning skills
to break into territory that other children seem to glide
through.
A young child's art work is a form of communication and
indication of levels of achievement and is but ONE spiral on
the sea shell that represents life. This shell fascinates us
because of its twisting departure from a straight line. Each
ring is a design in itself. Without the spiral design, every
ring in the spiral would be broken.
The coast of the sea shore is the home to the shell, where it
makes its form in unexpected nuances on the sand. And just
like waves that roll again and again in a silent roar on to
the beach, a child tries again and again to form himself in
the uneven activities of repetition and variation. Rocking
her hands back and forth against the paper, pulling and
stretching the lines of the color and then making a big
splash of blue against the white of the paper, Esti is using
the rhythms of her arms and the colors in her hands to grasp
concepts on the surface of the ground of paper before her.
Her scribbles looked uneventful at first glance to her
mother. She had hoped her daughter would draw flowers or a
sun or something that she could relate to. If her mother
could only know what went into those scribbles, she would be
happy and communicate a measure of lasting confidence to her
daughter.
Our children are creations in progress. They are processors
of refinement of thought and action, vessels of transmissions
and receptions. This evolution takes place in the still of
time. Each child is created with a fluid yet constant set of
personality, temperament and talents. Potential seems to be
stamped out before birth and should flourish under ideal
conditions and guidance. But, it is beset by the word
progress which wants us to attain a standard level at each
step of development.
"Shouldn't Chevi be drawing houses by now?" "Shlomie doesn't
like to cut with scissors but enjoys coloring. Is this a
problem?" Norms are important and standardization is a valid
basis for organized functioning but we also need
understanding that a child will specialize in what he needs
to know first before he can go on to another step. Shlomie
wants to color for now. Color speaks to him. Later will come
scissors, after he has attainted mastery at a level he is
comfortable with.
We have an end goal in mind for our children. A mirage with a
clear lake lined with luscious fruit trees and children
healthy and happy appropriate to our society and standards.
The mirage begins with a landscape clear to the eye but some
children seem to disappear, as our hope for all the best
conditions and qualities of our children fade before our
eyes. Often the mirage is really OK and our child is OK. We
need only be sensitive, listen and look to see a sparkling
picture of our child.
How is it that a child who has an idea in his head and wants
to put it down on paper must struggle with the sensations of
the color, the fluidity of the brush and paint, the pressure
of the oil pastel before he can see his image? He must work
it over and over again. Unconsciously, he is sensitive to the
connections between his hands and the drawing tool. The grasp
on the pencil is awkward. With encouragement and guidance, he
tries the pencil in every way possible, repeating lines until
he masters the use of the pencil. Practice and repetition
open up doors for him. Shulie, almost four, drew large
circles again and again on A3 paper. She then took scissors
and cut up the paper into several odd sized pieces. Shuli
went on to paint circles and in colors on another A3 paper.
She then glued the cut up pieces on to the painted paper. Her
mother asked what was the point? It did not look like
anything.
The point was that she used the pieces that she drew on, that
she cut and that she now glued in to place. Shuli learned
that what she produced each step of the way could be used for
a final result. But at the time that Shuli was doing each
step, it was an isolated event for her. She also had a great
time practicing circles first with a pencil, then with paint
and a brush and also with cutting and gluing. This is
repetition with variations. Touch, texture, pressure and
direction of the coloring tool is the transmission of the
child's level of sensitivity and cognition.
Are all the lines equally wide? What of the variety of
thicknesses? Try this — Take a pencil and a paper.
Practice lifting up the pencil from the paper for a fine line
and pressing down for a thick heavy line. Move the pencil in
different directions. Hold the pencil tip in its side for a
wide line. Hold it straight up and draw thin lines. Repeat
until you and your child catch a new level of sensitivity.
The blind child who learns to see with his fingertips,
scaling the indentations of the Kossel wall of stone, will
find a remarkable smooth expanse of stone once touched by
millions of fingers tips before his own appeared. Can we take
the time to feel our own or be sensitive to our child who is
bursting with silent growth through his stages of
development?
He repeats and repeats, again and again a simple, very simple
mark on paper until it is done and he knows it well. It may
not look interesting to us, but it is very exciting to him.
Repetition doesn't always mean uniformity. Quality can come
from the ingenious ways one finds to make each action
slightly different. Progress and repetition are intertwined.
Without repetition we don't go foreword. Each repeat
performance deepens the familiarity of a skill or action.
Levels of difficulty have their own force. One is propelled
to a new level of challenge once a previous step has been
learned. One becomes an expert by knowing the ins and outs of
an action. Notice how a child draws the same subject over and
over until s/he is confident and ready to go on to a new
subject and a new level. Each slight change of nuance is a
great leap forward.
After-school classes with specialized teachers can help sort
out personalized time for your child, that is, if the teacher
is sensitive to the child's personality and talents.
Important also is that the teacher lets the child do the
projects as much as possible and knows how to give the child
options. Since arts and crafts are an early developmental
skill as well as one of expression, the teacher should be
able to present projects that incorporate both skills and
expression. Here is an ongoing project you can do with your
child and show him/her the value of progressive
repetition.
Watch My Progress
Project Materials:
Pencil and markers
A variety of writing/drawing materials and colors
(optional)
A few sizes of drawing paper
Scissors and glue
A folder to save the art work from week to week. Choose a
topic: a boy, a girl or a house. Sit together once or more
often a week. In each session, emphasize another variation of
the subject. In each session, repeat what you did last
session and add on a new concept.
1) Draw only outlines.
2) Alternate thick and thin lines.
3) A house can be drawn, at first, flat and symbolic, with
squares and triangles.
4) In another drawing do the same house and add dimensions.
Add a road that goes to town.
5) Next session add in shading and light.
6) Show the inside of the house on another occasion.
7) Draw seasonal objects (for house).
8) Draw house from close up or far away.
9) Change the background or landscape geographically and by
season.
10) Draw clothes from the seasons and chaggim (for boy
or girl).
11) Concentrate on the face with gestures or moods.
12) Use one set of color, red, blue, yellow one week, and
yellow, orange and red the next week.
13) Use tempera or quiche paint on Tuesdays and oil pastels
or chalk and pencil on Wednesdays.
14) Cut out from colorful papers the boy, girl or house and
glue on to more paper the following week. Count how many
ways you can draw the same subject. Save each drawing in a
notebook or portfolio and take out at the end of a season and
look at the advancement.
