Open-Ended Art : Mosaic (Pebbles)

Sophie is a wee bit too little to understand how mosaic works or how to create one, especially when the medium is "pebbles". However, I was encouraged by the host of Teaching My Little Bookworm to give it a shot so I went in head on.

Although we could have done a collage, I wanted to stick to the theme as much as possible. So I printed out pictures of pebbles of various sizes for Sophie to create a collage or mosaic (depending on how it would turn out). She was quite curious to what they were but she was not very keen at all. Therefore I made the decision to go down to the playground area and let her handle real pebbles.

End Product (simple arrangment without any pasting)

Although I am Sophie's primary caregiver, I am not always confident to take her outdoors. She has not much problem with strangers and she can run off without any worry (I am always behind... running after her). I am quite concern about playgrounds because they are not always age appropriate or safe. And the one in our condo premises is meant for older children.



Knowing Sophie, she will definitely be very tempted to go for the slide. So, I asked Papa to join us for a while so that I could collect some pebbles. Straight away, Sophie climbed up the stairs and crawl through the tunnel (which was wet from yesterday's rain). We had to "ambush" her from both ends of the tunnel to "capture" her.

Sophie could not grasp the idea of arranging pebbles to create meaningful objects despite my coaching or demonstration. She just enjoyed throwing the pebbles around, knocking them against each other and rowing them about. But the one thing that cracked her up was the way the pebble caused a "dang" sound whenver she knocked it against the metal parts of the playground structure.



Sophie always likes to tease me by deliberately doing the opposite of what I ask of her. So if I tell her to come, she will run away or play hide-and-seek with me. And soon, I realised it was hopeless to talk her out of hitting the metal bar with the pebble. I decided to stop her before the security guards come after us for vandalism.

The pebbles were common property of the residents here so we had to put them back. Sophie seemed very happy to throw them back. By then, she could utter "pebble" quite accurately. I was so happy. Usually, she would take a while to say a word with two syllables.

End Product - Mosiac (Pebbles)

I took Sophie to the roof garden on the top floor of the carpark building. It is not really a great place to hang around but there is some room for Sophie run around and explore. The view looks okay though... I like the greenery and space.

Back at home, we had some time left before shower time so I let Sophie finish off the paper version of Mosiac (Pebbles). She was more enthusiastic after the outdoor experience. Perhaps she made some connections that those pieces of paper were actually pictures of real pebbles.

My girl can be quite a fireball when things are not done to her liking. Notice how she protested when I did not paste the piece of "pebble" the way or the place she wanted. All in all, it was quite a good experience. It makes me want to talk Sophie out on nature walks more. Anyway, do go to Teaching My Little Bookworm to see what others have done and get inspired.

End Product