What to Practice at Home

We do so much in the art room and sometimes parents want to know what they can do at home to reinforce what we learn in art.  Here are a few suggestions:

1.  Cleaning.  A clean organized place with less clutter makes for happier families.  In art students are asked to gather the materials they are going to need, but more importantly they are required to return those supplies and clean up after themselves.  You might be saying to yourself, "But he's only 6 years old."  In fact my best cleaning up class is a first grade class full of 6 year olds.  Start small with just a few things, make sure you have a place to store certain items and don't take out more than they can put back in a reasonable amount of time.  If you see they are not able to complete the cleaning process within 3-5 minutes try removing items that they are allowed to use the next time, letting them know when they are able to clean up what they have more things will be added back that they can use.  Make cleaning fun but routine.  You can even have your kids help choose cleaning supplies (broom, dustpan, cloths). The more they get involved, the more invested they will be.  Set a time limit for cleaning and try playing a quick-paced peppy song to keep momentum up.

2.  Make sure you are allowing your children the chance to try new ideas.  It is easy to get in a rut and fall into the trap of thinking their art needs to look exactly like an example you are showing them.  This can lead to resentment, frustration and eventually your child may stop wanting to produce art from the fear of being judged on its worth and value.  There are times when you are teaching technique and other times when you may want to give more leeway as to what the end result may be.  It is important to remember that child art is not going to look like your work because you are an adult and they are a child.  You have at least 20 years more experience than they do.

3.  Teach and reinforce safe practices with the use of supplies.  Do not encourage the smelling of supplies.  Do not purchase markers and crayons with food scents.  Discourage putting supplies in mouths.  Encourage the use of a cover shirt or apron to protect and care for clothing.  Encourage the use of paintbrushes when using paint that is not fingerpaint.  Throwing or using supplies in a dangerous way should not be permitted.

4.  Encourage and model talking about and looking at art.  Don't just look at art that you like.  Choose a variety of art to expose your child to artwork that he may like.  Everybody's different.  Schedule time during vacations to visit art museums or places of cultural significance that contain art.  Purchase art in front of your child and talk about why you are buying it.  What purpose does it serve in your life?  Ask your child questions about art... which one is your favorite and why?  ... why is this piece important to you?  ... what is this artist trying to tell us with his art? ... can you show me patterns, lines, shapes, colors in this artwork? ...have you seen artwork that looks similar to this artist's style?  One of the oddest places to look at art is actually the grocery store.  Look at the cereal, pet food and card aisles.  There's a lot to look at and discuss!  It's fun, easy stuff on packaging that we look at every day, but it is also a great lesson on layout and design.  Have your child draw a map of the store, using symbols to show the locations of their favorite foods.  Use your smartphone and take photos together of the different labels on products in the store, the colorful vegetables and fruit and the cartoon characters they use to sell products to children (cereal boxes, yogurt, snack cakes).  Try to find the best display of food in the store and try to determine why it works so well.  Is it where it is located, is it how they arranged the things for sale, or is it the colors they used?

5.  Read and discover.  I cannot stress enough the importance of books.  The touch, feel and smell of a quality book... books are personal, shareable and so worth it.  Leave books around your house in places where your children go so they can discover them.  Read in front of your children.  Make it a habit.  If you cannot afford books, check them out from the library.  Swap books with other families.  Purchase them used at thrift shops.  This is a great way to find some quality book titles that are no longer being published.  Get them for free when libraries discard old books. 

6.  Remember that art can assist you in other areas beyond the art room.  Art likes to be a team player, working with other areas.  When I was a high school student writing down notes in my American History class, I decided to doodle in the margins of my notes while I was writing.  My teacher was courageous enough to let me do what I needed to do to be successful.  To someone else it probably looked like I was not paying attention in class, but for me it was a way for me to focus more on the information I was writing down.  Because I am a visual learner, when it came time to study and then take my tests in that class I was able to not only recall the information from each page of my notes, but I could also remember the exact page and position on the page the information was located - along with the doodle that was drawn next to it.  Using this method of note taking is not for everyone, but for me it worked extremely well.  The point is art by itself is great, but art working along with other areas of your life is even better.  And the art is already there ... you just need to realize that and discover ways to utilize, highlight, embrace and enhance what's already going on "behind the scenes."