The Art Process for Young Children
Young children learn by exploring – through taste, touch, sound, sight and smell. The art process presents an opportunity for children to explore their world through their senses and helps build self-esteem as they create something that they can be proud of.
The simple activity of putting crayon to paper allows children to discover different shapes and colors, while practicing their fine motor skills. Mixing red and yellow paint creates orange! Mixing all the colors together creates a lovely shade of brown. Scrubbing too hard with a paintbrush will cause a hole to appear in the paper.
Allow your children to use art materials with a sense of exploration. You can do a picture side-by-side, or show them how to use the materials, but do not do it for them. Let children to come to their own realizations and discoveries. Your sense of what “looks good” might be quite different from theirs.
And let’s face it; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
By: Max Stadnik, Director of Art at Gymtime, Early Learning Foundations and York Avenue Preschool