There are lots of benefits when
children are involved in the arts: children can feel good about themselves and
their ideas, develop physical coordination, learn to cooperate with others,
develop language skills, express how they feel and what they think, and learn to
look carefully at the world around them.
Helpful Hints:
Provide a variety of artistic play opportunities and
visit places where art is performed or displayed.
Think about the arts as more
than drawing and painting.
Artists express their ideas in many
different ways, including:
- Dancing to
music;
- Singing and
making up songs;
- Building
things;
- Cooking and
creating meals;
- Painting and
drawing;
- Making
collages with glue and scrap materials;
- Creating with
modeling dough or clay.
Set aside time and space for all kinds of artistic play.
- Allow periods
of uninterrupted time for play.
- Spend some
time with your child as he or she gets started.
- Set clear
limits about where the art materials can be used.
- Store
supplies and materials in a box or bag for easy access.
There are many ways to respond to your child's artistic
efforts:
- Ask your
child to tell you about what he or she has made;
- Display
drawings and paintings by framing or hanging them;
- Photograph
dress-up play and block buildings;
- Videotape
dances and performances;
- Write down
and "publish" poems, songs, and stories;
- Store art in
a scrap book or special box;
- Recognize
that the process of making something is often more important then the
product.
Just displaying his or her picture
on a refrigerator or at the office can make your child as proud as an artist at
a gallery opening.
Use everyday experiences to encourage artistic play.
- Create a
"take-along" bag with art supplies for visits or waiting times.
- Give your
child an empty paper towel tube and encourage creative ways to use it (to
dance with it, to play a pretend instrument, to wave as a magic wand, to
use with block building or as a tunnel for toy cars).
- When you're
walking or driving, play "silly word games" to encourage the
creative use of language (creating rhyming names and nonsense words)
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