Growing up

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. -Pablo Picasso

Sometimes I ask myself if Anjali is growing up. There are times, especially since the last month or so, that she has been shying away from the messy activities that I proposed. A couple of weeks ago, we did a nice contraption of baking soda vinegar and cornstarch, and I literally had to force Anjali into playing with it. She came up with all kinds of excuses and I had the sneaking suspicion that many of then had to do with her dress, but once she got into the puddle, there was no stopping her.

Then, last week, we made paper clay.



Sophia dumped herself straight into it



She mashed it, mushed it and made soup, but Anjali refused to touch it. Sophia and I played with it for half an hour, while Anjali watched.

"You are growing up too fast Anjali", I said. "You should be more childish"

"But you are all grown up", she retorted, "And you are still making messes!"

And then we had a playdate with Kiran last Friday

It was Anjali's idea to do this



And this



And when they were finished and Kiran had gone home, Anjali helped me to clean up. Here is how she did it



What makes a messy activity interesting for a child? Is it the activity, or is it the mind of the child when the activity is conducted? Many times Anjali doesnt like to help me in the kitchen to make puddings, but then we made strudels using spring roll wrappers and she was extremely diligent in scooping fruits into the wrapper, putting water and sealing it up.

It is not that she is uninterested, there is plenty of interest that Anjali has for stuff like this



a corsage that she salvaged out of an old hat of Sophia's which was going into recycling. She cut off all the ribbons and pinned the flower to her hair.

And this