Art time with perfectionists

So when I started our art session this morning I planned to teach the children about aboriginal dot art and then blog about it, but as ever with home educating it hasn't quite worked out that way. The reason, both my children are huge perfectionists! My plan  to tell them about the history of aboriginal art and play aboriginal music whilst painting didn't quite work, teaching my perfectionists a new skill means lots of encouragment so they don't give up, so instead of teaching them about art history I taught them how to persevere and try their best. It might not have been the lesson I intended but it was one worth learning!

The children's perfectionism is teamed with low self esteem which means nothing is ever perfect enough. Beebie's stems from her speech and language difficulties, she tried hard with her speech but it didn't always work so she just gave up talking, she has to try harder than others with certain subjects for less results so her coping strategy is if some doesn't go according to plan she will rip it up before you have a chance to talk about it. Beebie is in school and a lot of her homework gets handed in on a sellotaped piece of paper! Chipman's stems from being told at school for years he's naughty and a bad person, if he's such a bad person how can he do anything good. If he can't do it as perfectly as he wants or it's challenging then he just gives up! They both want to prove themselves worthy by being perfect, well perfect is unobtainable so it causes lots of frustrations.

This morning as we sat down with drawing books and bamboo skewers and paints, I set them each an individual challenge whilst they were painting. Chipman's challenge was to see his picture to the end and complete it. He completed his challenge, he nearly didn't at several points when his picture didn't look like the one in his 'how to draw book' but he listened to my advice and produced this beautiful, colourful flower.

Beebie's challenge was to not get stressed out if it didn't go right or was hard, but to talk about it. She found it frustrating but she told me that she was getting frustrated rather than screaming or sitting in a mood. I talked it through with her and on she went. At the end she had drawn and painted a dolphin, cat and dog and said 'Mummy that was so much fun'

The children may not have learned a whole lot about aboriginal art or even produced anything that looks like it but they rose to the challenge. They tried something new, they accepted that their pictures were not exactly 'perfect' like the book and they have made some fantastic art work which once dry will be proudly displayed on the wall.