Making Art Fun!

2008 February 12 by: Scott

The visual arts (drawing, painting, printmaking, photography) enrich our lives and help children express their emotions. For preschoolers, doing artwork helps them get ready to read and write by developing visual and motor skills. Doing artwork gives older children the opportunity to get away from a desk and use different learning styles to explore beyond words and numbers.

Here are some things you can do at home:

* Keep simple art supplies around the house: scrap paper for drawing, old boxes to cut up for a cardboard “canvas” when using thicker paints or making posters, or pieces of cloth to do pasted up designs or patchwork. Limit pictures to 2 or 3 colors to save materials and to teach children about mixing colors and the different intensities of color (light and dark).

* Let your child express himself. A picture doesn’t have to look like something you can recognize.

* Have your child talk about the picture to describe what it is supposed to be. This helps develop language skills.

* Encourage your child to make patterns of repeated colors and shapes. This helps develop an understanding of math.

* Have your child practice different techniques: drawing with lines, shaping figures and designs with blocks of color, using contrasts of light against dark.

* Have your child make connections between artwork and other subjects. Look at, and talk about, book illustrations when you are reading together.

* Check art books out of the library and look at famous paintings. Talk about what is in the picture and how the artist painted it, (did he use thick paint with bold strokes or did she use light colors with dots of paint?).

* Display your child’s art in your home.