Artasia at Wesley Churchhill Park

I was honestly really surprised with how engaged and creative the children were at the Churchill Park EarlyON site. It was incredibly helpful having such an amazing site worker (Dema) support my program delivery, but above all, I was shocked with how much these kids were able to take my instructions and give their art a life of their own at such young ages.

On Week 2, we all made flags/banners together. For my EarlyON sites, I made a point to give slightly more simple instructions to the children, since it is generally a little more difficult for kids under the age of 3 to reflect upon their life’s values and the deeper meaning behind each of our activities. I wasn’t expecting most of the kids to even know what a flag even was, so I was shocked when one of them approached me to ask if I had a stick for them to attach to their flag so they could wave it around. I didn’t have one on me, but luckily this site is located outside, so together we were able to find a few sticks (one for him and one for his sister) and taped them onto their flags, and before long they were running around waving their flags in the air! It was really refreshing to witness their display of such creativity and ownership over their pieces of art. Both of their flags had their names written on them, so as they waved them around, it felt as though they were announcing to the world, “this is who I am!”. 

I noticed too that, with the children who were a little more shy, it helped a lot to talk to them first and get to know them before asking them to join me in the activity. At first glance it seems like some kids were simply uninterested in the activity — and granted, sometimes they were — but it turns out that a lot of the time they were only hesitant because they weren’t sure if they trusted me yet, and that’s okay too. I realize that we’re often too quick to assume that we understand the psychology behind children’s decisions, but a lot of the time it is merely a matter of comfort. When I first asked these two girls to join me and do some tie-dye crafts on Week 3, they outright rejected me! I thought they were merely uninterested in the activity, but they still seemed curious about getting to know me as a person — it was only after I let them chase me around the field for a few minutes, pretending like they were “monsters” and I was their prey, that they warmed up to the idea of participating in the craft with me. It is often these kinds of kids who end up having the best time with our activities. 

Lauren Misiaszek