On my facebook page recently I added a link that showed a day in the life of a Waldorf/Steiner preschool. One of the things they talked about is allowing time for children to understand and master a story.
This carries a strong resonance with me - particularly with art projects.
Firstly, I believe it is vital to provide the children with artist quality materials. If you provide the children with cheap materials you will find the children tend not to respect the materials, they will not be able to create high quality artworks and often you don't save money as the materials do not last.
Secondly, I believe that the children need to be provide the same (or similar) art experiences on a regular basis. Through this the children develop skills and knowledge of the materials - leading to more complex and insightful work. This does not necessarily mean every day - though i think a writing /drawing table should be out every day.
I have been putting this believe in practice over the last month at my centre - and the beautiful artworks that the children creating are a great reassurance in this philosophy (i will post some tonight when i download my photos).
In addition, on the curriculum front, one of my prac supervisors once told me that the creation of beautiful artworks by a child (especially one where they invest a lot of time in creating it) is a incredible example of the spiritual child and their understanding of beauty in the world
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