Pattern Making

“Pleasure in arranging things – whether lining up pebbles or tiny toys in a row, or arranging lines, shapes and colours on a sheet of paper – is part of children’s lives, part of the human desire for visual order.”

Ursula Kolbe, It’s Not A Bird Yet: The Drama of Drawing (2005)

Yesterday I was cutting strips of fabric for a sewing project and Immy took the thin offcut strips and started laying them out in rows. It reminded me of the wonderful quote about a child’s desire for visual order and pleasure found in making arrangements of all sorts of found items.

Above: Immy, Arranging Fabric – 20 months
Above: JB Arranging stones – 2 year old
Above: HP Arranging stones – 4 year old
Above: JW Painting patterns – 2 year old

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7 Comments

  1. Azra Momin says:

    Children never cease to amaze! My own ScuttleBug arranges all her crayons in rows so neat and precise it's hard to believe she did it. She's 28 months now, and for months has drawn babies in different poses and different expressions.

    Immy's activities are marvelous, and that painting – I wish I could paint like that!

  2. What a great reminder. Kids love order (well, we all do), and it's so great when they get a chance to explore sorting out their world.

    And painting with Q-tips! Amazing idea, and I'm embarrassed that I never thought of it. I'll be a lot less hesitant when they want to paint if we're using those.

  3. whistlejacket says:

    It's lovely the way they do this. Somewhere along the way I lost my tidy, orderly skills. My eldest does this with cars and trains and his little brother is obsessed with putting things away in other things (things that you then often need and can't find!)

  4. SquiggleMum says:

    When at cafes waiting for our latte and milkshake to arrive, we always make patterns on the table with the sugar packets! Most coffee shops kindly provide two types of sugar and the packets are different colours, or three if you're lucky 😉

  5. Busy Brissy Mum says:

    Miss M does this too. It's interesting to watch. I find it happens in sticker collage, car play, draawing and other activities. Your Immy is certainly growing up!

    Funny thing SuiggleMum….we used to use the sugar packets to make famous landmarks in a guessing game.

  6. katepickle says:

    ah I love to watch kids line things up and make patterns… it appeals to my creative side too!

  7. I'm in Reggio Emilia right now attending the study week on documentation. Pedagogista Vea Vicchi talked quite fervently of the link between learning and aesthetics, and that epistemology and beauty can be considered synonyms. The nature of finding beauty and harmony through means such as patterns is a process of knowledge construction.

    -Lauren
    http://bigvoices.wordpress.com

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