Children's drawings

I love children's drawings.  I love observing them being drawn, I love watching the process as a child thinks up new ideas and ways of expressing them, I love hearing their thoughts and stories afterwards as they share their drawings with me.

Enkhmaa drew a wonderful picture of her family:

Mum, Enkhmaa, Dad, big brother, and those two animals that are attatched to the people by a line which looks like it represents some kind of leash?  Please don't assume they are dogs.  They are not.  They are sheep.

And this picture by Solongoo:

"It's a beautiful bird" she told me.  I agreed, even though I had wrongly assumed in my mind that she had drawn a very interesting lady.

I am reminded not to make assumptions about children's artwork, but to encourage them to talk about their thoughts and ideas, using their own words, and not making any judgements about it- but taking their word for it.  After all, they are the artists!  And their imagination is not as limited as mine sometimes is J

Simply early childhood...

A peaceful moment...

two little people, out on the balcony creating masterworks of art.

No one telling them how to do it, or to paint a sun, or a flower or a ger..

no one stealing the joy of painting their hands and admiring them....

Simply the freedom to explore, express and to play.

Simply early childhood.

Up and running!

Мөрөөдлийн Гэр бүл (Dream Family NGO) is up and running!

We had a small opening celebration down at the park and probably had around 50 children come through, some with their parents and some on their own.  The face painting was a big hit, and even the older kids (some of them teens) kept coming back for more!  It was a nice way to kick things off.

Happily "crafting" away...

Waiting patiently in line for face paiting...

Presenting a little speech: Who are we?  What do we hope to do?

Connecting with parents...

Happy opening day!

At the moment we are running a summer club in the afternoons, and a few mother and child playgroups in the mornings.  Although numbers have been small, the atmosphere has been GREAT!  I love seeing the children so excited to come, seeing Mums delighting in their little ones and spending some quality time with them down on the floor and exploring things together.  It makes it all so worthwhile!

Summer club fun:

Mother and child playgroup:

Crafting together...

Sometimes Grandmas come to play too! J

Making new friends...

With smiles like that you can see that we are off to a great start!  We really hope to encourage parents in their task of raising their children- which is challenging at the best of times, but when you are in a culture where emotions are hard to express, where connecting with your children is not really modelled and where the opportunities to even just get out of the house with your little one are very limited, this challenge is increased.  We want to encourage children to take joy in exploring and learning, to have fun, to relate well to each other, to be actively engaged in their learning.  And as you can see that we are having a lovely time as we go about that J

Thanks for stopping by.  Do come again soon to read more of our adventures!