Resources to help my five-year-old artist
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@TessaW Hi Tessa, wow, I love the examples you shared. The “name the 3D shapes” game sounds so fun.
I love the thought that learning to see and identify shapes and the way they sit in space can be a casual, impromptu experience. Thanks so much for your advice! -
@KathrynAdebayo hey I have a four year old and he’s not interested in art at all but one thing I found that does gain traction is textures. Finding something that will make cool textures when you roll it on paper with paint. It gets them thinking about things. So for my son we use his trucks and the tires make cool tracks. Other things like slicing an apple in half and making stamps basically. I think at this age what’s best is to keep their interest for learning in mind and how to keep it creative and get them to take the risks that making art requires. They’ll develop in their own ways later on but for this age it’s fun to experiment over creating the final product. So colours and what happens when we mix them and dripping colours into water mixed with oil. I’d just look up artsy experiments and you already sound so supportive so totally keep that up because it’s amazing when people aren’t focused on the end game.
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@teresaro Thank you so much for your advice... I needed that reminder to let her be drawn to her own sources of inspiration by exposing her to many artists and styles. We actually tried the museum idea today and went to see an exhibit about da vinci. Thanks again!
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@CLCanadyArts wow, thank you! Great resources! I appreciate your advice... I like the idea to focus on what’s she’s interested in.
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@deborah-Haagenson Hi Deborah, That’s good to know... thank you very much!
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@KaraDaniel hi Kara, isn’t five year old art so inspiring?
And I hear you about the advice from our five year olds... usually I trust what my daughter says about my art more than anyone else! Thank you so much for the advice... I’ll see what kinds of programs are in the area, and I think you’re right - drawing together means a lot to both of us. -
@xin-li Hi Li, wow, what a great idea! I love it! She already makes “books” by taping together a cardboard cover and taping pages of drawings inside, but to help her with the process a bit in order to make a story would be very fun. It would be great to see what she would come up with. I can imagine that your daughter is lucky to have such an amazing artist as a mom to do projects with as she grows up! I was wondering, do you care for your daughter throughout the day as well as work on your art? I find it hard to manage both, but you seem to find time to do serious projects. Thank you so much for your advice and input.
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@Lauz_in_gumboots Hello! This sounds like a wonderful project for this age group. Thank you so much for the advice... I love the idea of looking to already published art for inspiration.
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@aska Hi! I love the idea of documenting adventures... thank you so much for your advice. It’s great to read these reminders to focus on the fun.
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@Paint-Doodles Hi! Thank you so much for you’re advice and encouragement. I love that you mentioned developing the capacity to take risks and be creative and experimental. That is so helpful! It sounds like you do some awesome stuff with your four-year-old.
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@KathrynAdebayo My daughtor is mostly in the kindergarten, so I got about 4-5 hours of time to work in most of the week days. I do work a bit in the evening after my daughtor goes to sleep as well. But we do not have a home studio for me, which made working from home more difficult. If your condition allows, make yourself a small home studio would help.
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@xin-li Thank you for the reply. That makes a lot of sense! I’m still caring for my one-year-old and homeschooling my daughter. My time will come, I suppose.
For now, I’ll enjoy watching other artist parents flourish as professionals. -
I would also try as many different media as possible and let her make peace with "mistakes". I have seen so many of my students get paralyzed by perfection ideals. If she is using all kinds of brushes and pens and pastels, she will a: develop fine motor skills and b: be more likely to be okay with experimenting which leads to better creativity and problem solving.
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@chrisaakins Fantastic advice... I value your perspective as a teacher. Thank you so much!!
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@KathrynAdebayo There are actually a lot of sources for online classes for kids. They are usually known by all the homeschooling groups. You might want to look at connectionsacademy.com (for art resources and a kids photoshop-ish program with tutorials), and then there's things like outschool, udemy, skillshare, thoughtco, artventure, or diy.org that have classes. But I always found simply being exposed to art everywhere and given multiple opportunities to draw with my dad (like when we'd go birdwatching together and draw the birds or make up silly comic-like stories together) was equally helpful as it allowed me to explore as I grew and always maintain my interest.
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@charitymunoz Thank you so much for the advice and info. I think all the thoughtful things that people have been writing have helped me realize the value of just sitting down and being present with my daughter and creating together. Thanks again for contributing to my process of reflection about this.
