Importance of Art in Your Child’s Development and Ways Parents Can Inspire Creativity

Kids love to play with colours, smearing them on paper, perhaps sprinkling glitter, thoroughly enjoying the whole process. They may feel delighted simply moving paintbrushes across the paper instinctively without the intention of creating a finished piece. Some may not be open to this but allowing your kid to let go and freely enjoy the progression of creation may reap huge rewards. Creative activities and developing appreciation for visual aesthetics can become the building blocks for the advancement of kids.

Why Art is Important for Early Childhood Development

The school curricula usually lay a lot of stress on mastering subjects like maths and science. But the significance of art for a child’s growth cannot be undermined. Some of the benefits of art for child development may include the following:

1. Language Development

Merely talking about art may be a great way for most children to learn about words for shapes, colours and actions. Toddlers indulging in art activities may get a wonderful opportunity to pick up new words and expand their vocabulary. For example, parents may crumble a piece of paper and offer it to the toddler referring to it as a ‘ball’. Elementary school children may begin using descriptive phrases to define their creations, feelings or discuss various styles of artwork.

2. Improves Motor Skills

Simple actions like scribbling using a crayon or holding a paintbrush may contribute towards the furthering of children’s motor skills. Making art involves different movements, like when drawing a circle, square or cutting with scissors which may support the growth of both, fine and gross motor skills, and develop dexterity in kids.

3. Inculcates Decision Making

Art education can also strengthen critical thinking and problem-solving skills of children. While forming an art piece, the experience of gathering relevant knowledge, assessing alternatives, taking thoughtful decisions and making choices may sharpen the mental faculties of a child. The entire course of creating art may invite a kid to think, explore, experiment, and try out new ideas, thus helping him hone his analytical and decision-making abilities.

4. Builds Inventiveness

Encouraging children to express themselves without any inhibitions through art may assist them to nurture a sense of initiative and innovation. When kids use their imagination, they may learn an important life skill of inventing things, and seeking out new means to achieve their set goals rather than only following directions. People who take initiative are the ones who can take society forward.

5. Encourages Visual Learning

Visual learning is a crucial part of a kid’s total learning process. Children tend to learn more and faster from graphic sources than merely via numbers and texts. Today, a toddler may know how to handle a tablet or a smartphone even before he has learnt to read properly. Sculpting with clay, drawing pictures, threading beads through a string can all help promote visual-spatial skills in children. Art education can teach kids to identify, interpret and implement visual information to progress in life.

6. Enhances Academic Performance

There is a positive relationship between art and various other achievements. Experts believe that young kids who regularly take part in creative happenings are twice more likely to do well in academics as well. Activities like giving presentations on different subjects, showcasing projects for science or maths fair, writing a poem or an essay may boost kid’s academic performance considerably.

7. Stimulates Cultural Awareness

Training kids to realise and recognise the choices available to an artist in portraying a specific subject may help them understand and develop the ability to view and interpret reality in its various forms. They may learn to be aware of and accept other people’s reality and varying opinions which is important for peaceful co-existence.

How Can Parents Inspire Creativity in Children?

Some helpful ways in which parents may inspire creativity in kids can be:

1. Give Fewer Directions

Too many directions can curb the creative process. If a child is guided to reproduce an adult’s work or expected to follow directions, he may not grow creatively. Kids need to be encouraged to take on their own decisions and give flight to their imagination so that they may develop the skill of self-expression. Coming to depend heavily on the approval or feedback of an adult may hamper their flow of creative expression. Kids should be motivated to trust their judgement and take risks, rather than playing safe in trailing the beaten path.

2. Provide Suitable Aids

It may bode well to refrain from relying a lot on colouring kits or books which come with specific directions or ready-made pieces. The most basic or simplest supplies are often the most useful ones for stirring creativity. An assorted collection of papers, different coloured pencils or crayons, and a plain sketchbook may trigger a fluid trial-and-error exploration.

3. Avoid Questioning

Adults, more often than not, wish to know what their kid is drawing or making. But young minds don’t necessarily function on these terms. They usually don’t think of their creation as representational. Thus, avoid asking questions like ‘what are you making’ or ‘what is it?’ Instead, it may be beneficial to define and describe what you perceive and invite the child to share his views as well.

4. Withhold from Restricting Art to a Lesson

Persuade your child to appreciate art in day-to-day experiences. For example, you can suggest to your kid to formulate a nature journal while playing in the park or walking around the backyard. When kids are convinced to ‘make their own project’, they may feel freer to experiment and tap into their imagination.

5. Realise the Difference Between Crafts and Arts

Most people may take arts and crafts as interchangeable. But this is not the case. Crafts commonly involve a child following directions to duplicate an adult’s idea. Therefore, it entails no original thinking. It is meant to reinforce a learning theme for useful purposes. Art may aim to experiment with an individual’s ideas and art supplies to invent something unique. Parents need to be clear when arranging activities for their kids to extract maximum value out of arts and crafts for their child’s improvement.

5 Easy and Creative Art Ideas for Kids

Here are some fun and creative art ideas for kids:

1. Natural Arrangements

This exciting activity is sure to spark off your child’s ingenuity.

What You Need

• Natural objects like stones, leaves, sticks, shells, pinecones
• Unusual objects like dry beans or pasta, dinosaurs, Q-tips
• Coloured pencils or paint
• A glue stick
• A canvas sheet

How to Do

• Offer your kid a mix of natural items and some unexpected materials.
• Allow him to choose and arrange the things in any design and pattern on the canvas.

2. Object Printmaking

For this delightful activity, all you need is to gather things lying around the house.

What You Need

• Everyday objects like corks, sponges, bottle caps, marker caps, wood pieces
• Vegetable and fruit peels or slices, leaves
• Different watercolours or paints
• A canvas sheet

How to Do

• Ask your kid to collect things about the house that he may find interesting.
• Let him dip the items in paints of his choice to form unique prints on the canvas sheet.

3. Shaving-cream Art

This art activity is a sure shot way to let your child have a blast with various colours.

What You Need

• Shaving cream
• A cookie sheet
• A variety of food colours

How to Do

• Allow your child to spray some shaving cream on the cookie sheet.
• Put a few drops of different food colours onto the shaving cream.
• Let him then blend the many colours and make interesting designs.

4. Musical Magic

This musical play can be a wonderful way for the whole family to have a great time together!

What You Need

• Objects that can produce sounds, like empty bottles, cans, plastic cups

How to Do

• Urge your child to go treasure hunting around the house collecting objects of various sizes that can make sounds.
• Ask him to arrange them according to his liking.
• Let him create his own music with the instruments.

5. Reverse Mural

This art activity is more enjoyable with a group of budding artists.

What You Need

• A big piece of printing paper
• Different watercolours
• Paintbrushes

How to Do

• Ask each artist to make a mark on the paper with a paintbrush, like a bold curve or a line covering much of the paper.
• Crease the paper and cut it into as many parts as the number of artists.
• Number the parts so that you may join them back in the same order at the conclusion of the project.
• Hand out the pieces of paper and let them decorate it as they wish to.
• Collect the parts of paper after all artists are done decorating their respective pieces.
• Reassemble the segments to create a fascinating mural.

Art has a myriad of development benefits for children as it may open their eyes to a wealth of new and exciting things that can help them think in pioneering ways and leave an unforgettable imprint on the world.

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