Reflection on Chapter7 and 17 of HandBook.And Progress in project.

With the progress in my project of bringing awareness of importance of nature and out door play in children's life. I got great incentive and feed back from these two chapters as i read them.It was interesting to learn how much emphasis is done in this chapter to let the children express their creativity. As we all understand being parents and early childhood educationists, children are very creative it's a matter of giving them opportunity. We see children's creativity in their pretend play ,art, etc as they express themselves in an unihibited fashion. Children learn to recognize their own uniqueness and the capabilities they possess through creative self expression. Although it is necessary for a child to express their creativity of thought and if children are not given opportunities or encouraged to utilize their imagination,explore possibilities,try new things,consider new actions,invent understandings, and experiment they will not be able to discover themselves and will not be able to handle the stress of peers, and other pressures of the world. For that matter parents and teachers together should be supportive to child's imaginative play and experimentation. as well as provide guidance,feedback and structure, and most of all appropriate values. As it is mentioned in this capter 7, "Parenting (and teaching,for that matter) is very much a matter of balance"(Runco& Gaynor,1993). I agree, children's creativity is affected by many different factors, such as culture, family, financial status of home, environment and also each individual's personality. As i see it in my day care every child expresses in their own way and i see the effects of their home life and culture in their art.Their temprament and stresses they have, happiness and fears. i also see their strong bond with their parents and extended family also their love for me. It is amazing how well children express themselves through art. Also it amazes me to see the creativity in art work of very young children. I have one child who is from broken family, half week he goes to dad and half week with mom, The stress he goes through and the love he has in his heart for his real dad and his step dad, is amazing. The way he expresses it in his stories ,that i ask them to tell a story while drawing a painting. another little guy always fear of dark night and always tells us in his pictures that he draws about dark night and always mentions someone dies. and later gets better and everything is fne.I love the creativity and expressions of these 3-5yrs old through their story telling and art. i want to share some of their art with you and their stories that i wrote while they were dictating it to me. enjoy and i will continue rest of my thoughts.