One of my favorite children’s picture books is I Am an Artistby Pat Lowery Collins, In it, the author quietly shows children that they can be an artist by observing the world around them, noticing interesting things about nature. 19th-century educator Charlotte Mason, whose methods are followed by many of today’s home educating families, also stressed the importance of observing nature and the world around you, and recording discoveries and sketches in a journal
You can teach your children to have an eye for art by making it a habit to talk about the things you are seeing.
“How many legs to you think that creature has? What colors do you see in the sunset? Does that painting look warm or cool? Do you see the water sparkling like diamonds? Questions such as these, that encourage children to talk descriptively about what they are seeing, will help them develop an artistic vocabulary and also help them look for details themselves.
When it comes to children’s artwork, it is also important to be very encouraging. Younger children, especially, have difficulty getting what they want to draw from their heads to their hands. When their drawings don’t turn out as they envisioned them, kids will often get upset. Interspersing drawing “lessons” with times of doing their own artwork will gradually build their fine motor skills, but be sure to be encouraging about each drawing, and sympathetic to their struggles. Depending on the child, they may need a little help in getting started with a sketch or straightening out a line or two. In classes with kids, I make a point to ask them if they want me to help fix a drawing on their paper, or show them how on a scrap of paper, and the answers are quite different from one child to another. It’s also a good idea to ask very young children to explain their art to you… It’s much better if they tell you that they drew a cat climbing a tree, than for you to mistake it for the monkey you saw in the zoo last week!
Make it a point to encourage the children in your life
to be the artists that they were created to be!