Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
(Image Credit: Unsplash/Phil Hearing)
Why creating art with your children is important
Excerpts from article by Vicky Armstrong, published in World Economic Forum
Many of us may be looking to art activities to keep children busy while at home. From improving communication and motor skills to helping them develop a sense of self, there are many reasons why art making is beneficial for children.
The art making process encourages behaviours that build strong relationships, such as eye contact, pleasant touch, shared goals, responsiveness. You may notice that during the art-making process, you and your child look at the same things together a lot of times. This helps the child learn social skills, such as language and perspective taking, and feel connected to others.
Young children also see how they can make choices and communicate these to the grown ups around them. Even something as simple as choosing a colour or making a mark lets them see the physical outcome of their choices. This builds their feeling of agency and their sense of self.
Art-making for children
These benefits continue through childhood. Art helps children think in new ways and explore ideas. When you make art together with your children, you add additional relational benefits, as they share feelings and ideas. Art is communication without the need to be verbal, which may allow them to express themselves more honestly than through speech.
The best creative activities are those which invite children to play and explore without set outcomes. Your role is to create the right conditions for them to engage and then to follow their lead. You may be surprised by their ideas. An invitation can be as simple as offering an interesting material and suggesting that they see what it feels like.
Here are some ideas to bond creatively with your kids:
1. Printing
Printing transfers an image from one surface to another. Younger children can spread paint across the back of a baking tray, mixing to their fancy, then press a sheet of paper on top, making a print. Try the back of cupcake tins to get nice circular images.
2. Stamping
Stamping uses an object to transfer paint to paper. For smaller children try using things from around the house as stamps. Anything which can be dipped in paint will work.
3. Light and shadows
If you want some non-messy creativity, try drawing with shadows. Spread a sheet between chairs, shine a light and let children experiment with their hands or holding up objects to see the shadow they cast.
Remember, it’s not about producing perfection but allowing children to enjoy the process, sharing quality time with them, and having fun.
Career
(Image Credit: Freepik)
Starting a new job, remotely
Excerpts from article by Art Markman, published in Harvard Business Review
If you’re lucky enough to be starting a job during this time, you face an interesting challenge. You may find yourself starting your new job from home. And the chances are good that your new employer’s onboarding process was not designed for that situation and adapting that process is unlikely to be their top priority during this crisis.
You should always be proactive in getting acclimated to a new role but when you won’t work side-by-side your new colleagues for the foreseeable future, it’s especially imperative that you take an active approach to getting up to speed.
Here are five things you can do to fill the gaps and minimise the bumps as you transition into the new job
1. Schedule a lot of brief check-ins with colleagues
Reach out to your new colleagues and set up quick 10- to 15-minute one-on-one discussions. These can be by phone or video and shouldn’t be one-offs. Try to meet with your colleagues regularly to mimic the short, informal interactions you’d have in person. Use these conversations as a chance to ask questions you may have about your current projects, also ask people what they are working on too so they have a chance to describe their work. Pay attention to any implicit statements about what they think is most important.
2. Rapidly assemble your mentoring team
When you start working for a company remotely, though, you want to identify people to play these mentoring roles for you as quickly as possible. If you put some good mentors in place quickly you make it easier to be productive quickly. As you get to know the organisation better, you may choose to reach out to other people to be your guides. But, having someone early on is better than having nobody.
3. Announce yourself as new
Ideally, your new manager will introduce you but you’ll likely “meet” many of your new colleagues as one of a sea of faces in a virtual meeting. That means you need to be more explicit about announcing yourself as the new person in the office. If there is a team meeting, see if you can get a moment to introduce yourself. Many of your colleagues would like to welcome you, they just need more explicit reminders to do so.
4. Ask for help
On video and phone meetings, it’ll be hard for people to see if you are confused or not keeping up. As a rule, when there is something you need, say so. You might be worried that your colleagues won’t want to help. After all, everyone has a lot already going on. People are often much more willing to help than you believe they will be. So, don’t wait for offers of assistance. Ask for what you need.
5. Keep a daily diary
At the end of each day go back through your schedule and make some notes about how things went. Write down the tasks you accomplished and also the obstacles you faced. If there are particular issues that are still unresolved, highlight them. Then when you have your next meeting with a supervisor or colleague, raise those issues and ask for their perspective.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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