Ten Reasons Why I Love Doing Projects With My Daughter

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

05 Sep 2006 06:15 AM

I am one of the least crafty people I know. For years, I would watch my mother see items or objects in magazines and create them without even trying. She could sew, she could paint, and she could build bookshelves and more. I never seemed to be able to enjoy similar activities much less perform them.

But being a parent is about more than just providing shelter and food for your child, but about inspiring their own creative impulses. I'm a writer, but my daughter seems to have the same artistic leanings as my mother. So being her mother and assistant in her endeavors has challenged my creativity and I've discovered a real enjoyment for doing the craft projects I never enjoyed before.

So here are the ten reasons why I love doing projects with my daughter:

• I love to see how her mind works when she is puzzling out some new way to do arts and crafts
• I love to see how she utilizes color, her world is full of vibrant colors that are not muted nor dulled by cynicism
• I love her satisfaction at figuring out a way to put little stickers or face shapes on items and giving them a new type of life
• I love to see the tumblers of her imagination flare to life as she sees what could be rather than just what is
• I love the amount of patience she demonstrates despite her enthusiasm when she understands that a project will take time
• I love to challenge my own creativity in order to come up with ideas to help her accomplish her goals
• I love to paint wooden objects whether they are benches, haunted houses, face masks or other designs that we come up with together
• I love stencils, because they help me provide her with the tools to create the images she wants to do even when my own drawing talent is lacking
• I love that she and I can spend entire afternoons, heads together puzzling through a new art project and laughing together as we build a story for every item or design
• I love that she takes greater pleasure in creating something of her own rather than just buying it in a store - she'd rather create decorations than buy them, paint her own pictures to hang on the wall and help me to design a quilt rather than buy a blanket

These are just some of the reasons I love doing arts and crafts with my daughter and we have so much fun together. Do you enjoy doing arts and crafts with your child?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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