Part Six: To a Child, Love is Spelled T I M E

Spending Time Having Art and Music Fun with Kids

Are you a talented visual artist or musician? Most parents and caregivers aren’t and the best news is you don’t need to be to spend time with your children. When we set up expectations that we have to be good in order to take the time to do something, we also send that message to kids. Instead, we want them to enjoy drawing, coloring, painting, sculpting, crafting, singing, playing instruments, dancing, and more. What kids like most is that we share the fun with them.

spending time with kidsArtistic fun with kids can be as varied as families. G is a dad with a very busy job and not much leisure time. He spent a few minutes here and there with his daughter coloring a picture of a camping trip for the two of them to give on Mother’s Day. N colored a picture of a dinosaur with her son that she then used to brighten up her office space at home. A is another dad who doodles and draws with his son, helping him with the letters to caption his picture.

Earth-Day-craft-2R dances with her daughter and friends. K loves to craft and has shared that with her kids. G knows his daughter likes to cut and glue, so he joins her when he can. A has shared her love of music and singing with her son. Oh, maybe that’s not such a good example of how anyone can spend time with kids and we do not need any extraordinary talent because she really is a professional. In any case, kids do not need parents to be experts, or professionals, or stars. To children, their parents already are.

What we do as parents and caregivers is not judged with the eyes and ears of our children, but appreciated with their hearts. The very fact that we are not good at something but do it anyway for their sake means that it comes from our heart, not our talents. And isn’t this how to spell L O V E?

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