Why Art is Vital to your Child’s Education

photo by John-Morgan

If you’re like me, you likely spend your days cleaning up messes, wiping noses, and giving in when your little one sweetly asks “I hold you?” In the midst of all this, you may have discovered that planning little crafts and projects make the day go a little smoother. I’d like to encourage you that these little projects do much more than pass the time. Whether you send your child to school or teach at home, there are many reasons to provide lots of art opportunities at home.

Art projects like painting and drawing help with fine motor skills. Your child will use these skills when they begin writing. How do you encourage this? Practice! Give your child lots of opportunities to make marks on paper. Don’t worry that they are messy or don’t look like anything. Let him work through this phase. Other skills to work on include cutting and gluing and sculpting with clay or play dough.

As your child’s pictures start to resemble real images, she is forming symbols that later help with reading skills. These symbols are your child’s way of making sense of the world around him. They also help when your child needs to make sense of other symbols, like the letter A. Attaching meaning to symbols is an important developmental step. Encourage this development by talking to your preschooler about her pictures. Ask her to tell the story behind it.

Adding detail to these drawings is your child’s way of recording and remembering the world around him. If you’ve had the privilege of seeing your little scientist in action, you know what a treasure these drawings can be. Look for opportunities for him to observe and draw the world around him.

Drawing pictures is a way for children to bring abstract concepts to a concrete form that they can understand. Children are concrete thinkers–they don’t learn to think abstractly until they are entering the teen years. So concepts like happy and sad are easier for your child to make sense of when they are able to draw them. Talk about the feelings that might be present in his drawing. If he has drawn a picture of himself in a specific setting, ask how he feels in that picture.

Corban and Mommy with a baby (and a sandwich) in her tummy

As your child grows and matures artistically, you’ll find that art is a wonderful way to build on concepts learned in other subjects:

-Look for basic shapes in everyday objects. It helps with drawing skills as well as shape recognition.

-Use pictures to work out math problems or illustrate science lessons

-Have your child draw what they think happens next in a story. It’s wonderful for reading comprehension, sequencing, and creative writing.

-Help your child write (or tell) a little story about her drawings.

Besides making pictures and projects, there are several other aspects to exploring the arts that will enrich your child’s education. In the next couple days I’ll touch on two of them:

Art Appreciation: Learning from Art of the Past and Present

Aesthetics: Recognizing Beauty in your World