Child Artists at NIC

N I C

Building Life

“Spiderman”

Paul Celari Photo Editor

“I taped two tubes together,” said five-yearold Khaleesi Celeri. “Then one you talk through, and the other goes to your ear.” While North Idaho College prepares students for the career path they’ve chosen, the Head Start Children’s Center on campus teaches preschool-aged children about the world ahead of them through artistic exploration. The center provides a needed service to students and staff who are also parents, but it is more than just a convenient childcare option. Unlike the rigid structure college students are used to, the children of the Head Start program are given almost unlimited creative freedom. Teachers supply an ever-changing array of items that can be employed artistically by the children and allow them to create anything they want. “A phrase we use here in general is “process over product,” which is why we have a lot of loose materials for them to work with,” said Children’s Center teacher Ashley Crosby. “Sometimes we may put out a particular item thinking they’re going to go one way with it, and they go a totally different way and end up creating something awesome.” Underneath the creative freedom, children are learning important lessons about themselves and the world around them. They develop fine motor skills through painting and drawing and gross motor skills through singing and dancing. As their abilities grow, they learn to

e Skills

Outside the Box

“My Family”

be less afraid of making mistakes and gradually build confidence in themselves. “A big thing is that there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Whatever they want to create they can create and it will be beautiful,” said NIC early childhood professional Briana Werner. “Just because they want to do a jack-o’-lantern doesn’t mean it needs to have two eyes here, a nose and a mouth. Whatever they want to do is OK and it’s not wrong.” Children can also develop and grow interpersonal skills through their interactions with peers as they share, explore and create together. Creative arts allow children to explore and express their emotions. Unlike adults who use art as an almost cathartic expulsion, art allows children to express things they may not yet understand. And still there is so much more that they are learning through this creative freedom. As they create they begin to learn the foundations of mathematics through shape, size and counting the elements of their art pieces. As they engage teachers and their parents discussing their artworks, the children’s language skills and vocabulary develop further. “They’re like little scientists. They kind of have an idea of the way that they think things work, and they test it out and gain new theories,” said Children’s Center director Jolie Wenglikowski. “Art is a language just like dramatic play or music would be. It’s open-ended because it’s the way children represent their ideas and their knowledge.”

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