A young student (age 11) shares her thoughts on how you can help your children express themselves with art.
By: Robbin Towers
Give your child some paper, along with color pencils, Craypas, watercolors, or pastels; ask her to draw any or all of the following:
- how she is feeling
- what happened
- dreams
After she does the drawing, ask her to tell you something about it; describe it, tell you how she feels. You can listen and be supportive.
Take her to the museum if she would like to go. Look at paintings that are big and colorful (not real adult looking or serious); paintings that she will not find boring. You probably know what kind of things she likes. Be sure to go to the food court and the gift shop.
Draw and paint with her. She will enjoy it and it will be fun!
Collect lots of stuff in a box that you can make sculptures and art with; for example, clothes pins, pipe cleaners, fabric, paper clips, ribbons, lace, etc. Invite her to make something with these things; this could be a sculpture or a collage.
Look through books about artists that she might like; pick out paintings and drawings that you can use as examples of what kind of art to make. Understand how and why the artist painted what he or she did.
Play music that she likes while doing art; for example, a favorite song or singer.
