#children art program

Acrylic paint was first developed in Latin America in the 1920s when artists demanded paint for their outdoor murals. The paint had to dry quickly and be resistant to changing weather conditions.

It was however left to “artists and scientists to work closely together to perfect the paint and in the mid-1950s, an American company launched the first commercially produced, water-based Acrylic Paint called Liquitex Soft Body.”

The great thing about acrylic paint is that, unlike watercolours, acrylic paint can be used on most surfaces — paper, glass, metal as well as wood — and comes in handy when it comes to craft projects.

Acrylic paint is a perfect choice for beginners as it has many of the strengths of oil paint in terms of colour translucency, opacity and body, but without using toxic solvents for mixing and cleaning. It is fun, affordable, and versatile.

Acrylic Paint is water-based and can be thinned with water but, once dry, it turns water-proof. As a result, it is perfect for use by children for painting and for craft projects. Just keep one thing in mind though, acrylic paints are permanent, so once dry they don’t wash off.

Here are some unique ways and techniques of acrylic painting to stimulate your child’s imagination. Feel free to experiment. There are no rules to follow because the process is always more important than the end product.

Also, keep exposing your child to a variety of art materials, and use different tools and paints to ensure different sensory enriching experiences. Even if your child’s paintings look like a mess to you – remember it’s her creation. Celebrate it!

Dry brush effect:

Simply apply the acrylic paint straight onto the surface of choice with a dry brush. Especially when you want a highly pigmented thick stroke of colour with rough, scratchy unrefined edges. This gives a more natural look to landscapes in elements such as grass, trees, and even clouds.Creating a wash

The wash technique is an easy way to create a watercolour effect for your painting’s background. Just like when you use watercolours, a wash of acrylic paint will make colours blend together and more translucent.

The purpose may be to help create the effect of a misty sky, a vibrant sunset or to give your painting a more abstract feel, or to quickly cover the canvas with a base layer of colour.

If you like working with watercolours, you’ll most probably come to love working with acrylic washes. The big difference to remember is the acrylic paint will set quickly and permanently.

Get started by taking a generous scoop of acrylic paint onto your palette. Dip your brush in water and dribble the brush into the paint. Stir. Apply this scoop of paint onto the canvas, covering the whole surface if you are doing a background. You will end up with a light, nearly-transparent layer of colour.

You can create intriguing special effects by adding a little more water or adding more colour. Experiment. Apply multiple layers on the top of the canvas and fewer as you move down for an ombre effect, or combine different brush strokes to create textures. Use your imagination!

Stippling with a toothbrush:

For intricate painting styles, stippling is a popular technique. It is essentially forming an abstract image without using long, smooth brush strokes, but by a collection of small dots and circles. You can use a paintbrush with stiff bristles or a discarded toothbrush to try this out. This painting technique is energetic, unpredictable and a whole lot of fun.

When using a stiff paintbrush, apply paint on the paper surface or canvas with a repetitive dabbing motion to create the effect. Or use a toothbrush dipped in paint and send a stream of droplets by gently sliding your thumb across the bristles of the brush over the painting surface. The stream of tiny droplets creates shapes that prompt several interpretations and is more abstract. Stippling is similar to but not exactly pointillism, where the shapes formed are more precisely defined.

Pouring a perfect abstract:

Some techniques are more common and easier, while others need more practice and time. Techniques for beginners are easy, quick to learn and need a few additional supplies. Simple to execute and allows you to create stunning works of abstract art.

A pouring medium is what makes the magic happen, without it you cannot get the paint to flow. Basically, the pouring medium is an additive that you add to your acrylic paint to increase its fluidity. It also keeps the colours vibrant and helps you create intricate patterns. You can get the pouring acrylic paint ready-made or DIY.

To get started, premix the acrylic colour in individual cups with the pouring medium. Pour each colour separately onto the canvas making lines or circles, taking any direction and going to places you’d like to go. Then tilt the canvas and enjoy the pattern that emerges. And it is done!

Of all the pouring techniques you can choose, the Dutch Pour technique is a little difficult but is an absolute winner. The results are usually spectacular and easy, and the best part, even a beginner can experience the magic of pouring. Each new creation is bound to be one-of-a-kind and amazingly different.

Splattering is freedom to express:

Splattering is a great way to experiment with less precise acrylic painting techniques. It is fun because there are no lines to restrict your creativity! This technique is about freedom, a play with colours, and want to express the chaotic nature of life.

The technique is achieved by wetting your brush in water, before dipping it into an acrylic paint of your choice before flicking the soaked brush to splash colour onto the canvas. Creating a real abstract piece of spontaneous art, as well as roughing up an already created precise artwork.

All you need is a canvas, a range of acrylic paints, and an open mind for a disorder to create bespoke masterpieces!

Layering for contrast & tonal values:

Among the most effective acrylic painting techniques is the one called layering which has resulted in some of the most well-known and desirable works of art in the world. Layering colours on top of one another creates an illusion of depth. Building contrast and tonal values.

This makes you look through one or more colours to see the layers below. This technique tricks the eye into seeing different depths between each layer, creating an impression that one shape is in front of, or behind another.

The technique has a huge impact on the overall feel of a painting. Brightening areas that would otherwise be flat and uninteresting.

Acrylic painting ideasHere are a few intriguing and practical acrylic painting activities for kids at home. These can simulate the imagination of toddlers and young children alike. Remember to begin the journey together with your child, and share the endless joys of painting. The selected art themes will help create experiences that can never bore anyone, least of all children. They never let go or hold back!Paint tulips in a jiffy!

Your favourite flower may be tulips and the favourite craft activity for toddlers and preschool children is playing with colours. So put the two together, and have a blast.

Remember, painting with anything other than a paintbrush is always fun for young children. Using an ordinary fork, instead of a paintbrush, to paint will be a great start. It’s quick, easy, and pretty mess-free.

Squeeze various colours of acrylic paint onto a paper plate. Start with less and add more if needed. Dip the backside of a fork in the paint, and press down on the paper to make an impression of the tulip. Wipe the fork clean with a paper towel and repeat using different colours.

Use a paintbrush to add in stems and leaves. Then use the fork again to make grass and sun. And lo, your tulip masterpiece is ready in no time!

Strawberry rocks:

Normally we tend to use larger-sized rocks when it comes to doing rock painting. But why not try using smaller stones and create a set of extraordinarily tempting and real-looking, rock-painted strawberries?! Needless to say, this will be an exciting and easy-to-do project over the weekend. You can add a little bit of drama to the whole exercise so that your toddler will enthusiastically participate and stay engaged.

Hand your child a small hamper to carry and take her for a stroll in the park. Help her collect a bunch of smooth, triangular-shaped rocks — the sizes can vary from ½ an inch to 1½ of an inch. Explain to your child what you are going to do with them. Inspire her and stimulate her senses while you are at it.

Collect as many pebbles and small rocks as you can and bring them home. Soak them in a tray containing a little detergent and water and give them a quick scrub. Wipe clean and allow to dry.

Using a flat brush, paint the entire surface of the small stones bright red. Ask your child to do the same with the other stones. It is essential to involve your child by showing her how it is done.

Using the tip of a toothpick, dip it in black acrylic paint and apply small dashes all over the painted red stones. Repeat with yellow paint, covering a portion of the black dashes with yellow ones.

And lastly, add two different shades of green to the tops of each of the painted rocks. Your painted strawberry rocks would by now be dry and are ready for display.

Pineapple finger painting:

Almost every child loves to paint. Pineapple finger painting projects are super simple and always have a big surprise in store for you at the end. Each painting will look different!

As a matter of fact, even when children are well into their teens, they don’t lose that urge because it is still fun to paint with fingers. This explains why pineapple finger painting can be so much fun for both toddlers and adults alike!

Use a paper plate as a palette to hold the acrylic paints. It really doesn’t matter which colours you choose, but be sure to squeeze out a generous blob of each colour. The colours can be contrasting, complementary or totally unique to each other.

After laying out the colour blobs, pick up the paper palette and tilt the plate back and forth, but make sure the acrylic paints don’t mix into each other. They just need to touch each other around the edges. You are now ready to start your finger painting!

Show your child how to dip her thumb in the colour blob and press it firmly on the paper surface. Create a pattern in the shape of a pineapple by making three thumbprints in the first row, follow this up with four thumbprints in the following two rows, and end it with a row of three thumbprints again.

Remember to vary the colours of each thumbprint. Bear in mind, that the more the variety of colours you manage to get in a single thumbprint, the more surprising will be the outcome. So don’t hesitate, because this is what makes Pineapple Finger Painting so exciting and fun!

The final step involves getting the lush green leaves on top of the pineapple right. Use a thumb dipped in green paint again and press it just above the first row of thumbprints, and slide it across at an angle to form short strokes of a green cluster of leaves. That’s it!

Cherry blossoms in bloom:

Children find painting without using a paintbrush fun as this can produce amazing effects. Painting a cherry blossom tree for instance is a beginner-friendly idea. It is also a perfect first canvas project for young children as it increases their confidence levels in painting with acrylic paints.

Start by drawing a bare shape of a cherry blossom tree with a brush dipped in black or brown acrylic paint. While you are at it, you can help your child learn to mix paints. Teach your child how she can create various shades and tints of red/pink that will help create an extra dimension to the cherry blossoms. It is easy to mix colours, start with simple colour mixes like adding red to white and you get pink! It is as simple as that.

Next, bundle together 3-4 Q-tips using an elastic band. Dip the tips in pink acrylic paint and dab away to make your blossoms. Just relax and enjoy the dabbing. Try this Q-tip technique as it can help create many cherry blossoms quickly and makes painting them very easy for everyone.

A never-ending journey of joy:

These acrylic painting ideas for beginners will set your child on a journey filled with plenty of beautiful experiences and moments that she truly enjoys. Encourage and stimulate her, but be gentle with your child and allow her to experiment and add her own twist and character to this journey.

When you approach painting like a series of mini-experiments, each building on one another — you’ll together help create something unique and interesting. What is important is not the outcome but the journey of learning together. This way she’ll enjoy the whole process that much more.

Always remember: painting (and learning a new skill) is a process. With each new thing your child learns and each new painting she makes, your child is on her way to becoming a better thinker, problem solver and budding artist!

About Abrakadoodle:

This is the kind of Process Art learning experience that inspires children to think different, be innovative, and devise ways that teach interesting things found in the real world. Changing the way they discover and imagine. Igniting their minds to think, play and learn like never before.

If you like to enrol your child in our children’s art classes or participate in cognitive learning activities, give Abrakadoodle a call. Or better still, make an appointment with the head of a centre near you.

Get hands-on exposure to an experience that will make you see art in a way that adds value to a child’s life.

Please note: Abrakadoodle classrooms are thoroughly sanitized every day — the tables, the chairs, the children’s activity stations and everything else the child might touch is made safe and clean. They also wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, and practice social distancing.

There are innumerable benefits that preschool drawing stages have in store for children of all ages – from a toddler to preschoolers and beyond. Drawing development is perhaps the most important activity they can take part in. Engage in improving their problem-solving abilities and improve the way they understand the world around them clearly and without bias.

Drawing and painting are valuable to children. That’s why it’s important to encourage such activity from infancy and to include drawing alongside home learning and as an extension of their play.

Not only are preschool drawing stages a deeply stimulating part of playtime, but they’re also an essential tool for young children to help articulate difficult emotions that need to be sorted out before they begin to disrupt development.

Needless to say, helping children emerge from negative experiences with the least amount of stress and post-experience trauma is very important. Apart from this critical benefit, preschool drawing stages also help little children develop their early-year literacy and creativity, and accelerate their fine and gross motor development skills.

Importance of drawing and painting in child development

Encouraging children to play with drawing and painting using different kinds of art materials will be the best initiative a parent can take to help their child face life’s challenges in the most constructive and positive ways. Studies indicate that a child who is creative can sustain longer attention spans, stay engaged and is happier.

Drawing and brain development is also useful in developing skills for key subjects later on at school, and to understand how to form connections between unrelated things. Drawing changes the way the brain functions for the better and lays the ground for a child’s health and well-being.

Drawing for drawing’s sake

The best creative activities are often those which invite a child to play and explore without any set outcomes in mind. The role of a parent is to create the right conditions and to engage with their child. Looking at the same thing together, helps a child pick up social skills such as language and perspective-taking, and feeling connected.

During the drawing and brain development process, you will notice a marked increase in attention spans and a sharper focus. Research indicates that the brain has a system of neural pathways dedicated to attention. When we train these attention networks, it helps improve intelligence.

You can be fairly certain that paying attention to these drawing developmental milestones, and practising drawing and painting frequently will activate these same neural ‘attention’ networks. Drawing development in early childhood also helps children to think in new ways, and to explore ideas.

It is a process of investigation, not just some aimless and random markings. When you draw, you are sharing feelings and ideas. It is a form of communication without the need for words.

Children’s drawing stages also reveal brain development in terms of improved memory. This is also called the “drawing effect”. Putting it in another way, when you illustrate the meaning of the word, it always leads to the highest levels of memory recall. Try it out and see how it can work for you as well.

So invite your child to a drawing session. At first, your toddler will probably finish drawing a picture and then tell you it is of you, her dad or her favourite doll, even though the drawing may not look like it. But as she grows older, your child will learn to plan what she’s going to draw before she starts.

This is a clear indication that she really knows how to convey meaning with what she draws. You will be pleasantly surprised by the number of new expressions your child may come up with during your sessions with her.

Different stages of drawing

Uncontrolled drawing: After a toddler discovers that pressing a crayon or an HB pencil on paper leaves a mark behind, she readily begins to experiment and indulge in random scribbling.

During this phase, drawing is less about what she’s drawing and more about the sensory experience she will be going through. She will notice that different pencils, crayons and chalk feel and smell different. She will also sense that she needs to press harder with a crayon to make a mark.

While she is busy drawing and scribbling she will be using big arm movements to make circles and large shapes and sometimes go off the paper she is drawing upon. Never mind this, she will pretty soon learn how to control her movement and stay within a given area. It is only a matter of time.

Controlled drawing: As your child gains more familiarity with finer motor skills, and improves her hand-eye coordination, her Drawing development becomes more purposeful. This will be the ideal time to intervene and help your child to draw lines of various sizes, show her how she can draw thicker or thinner horizontal, vertical, and curved lines.

Allow her to practice as she tries to make the same marks again and again. Very soon she will attempt and try her hand at using different colours in a deliberate way. See this as progress and show your appreciation for the effort and time she is devoting to drawing.

Naming drawings: The growing cognitive skills of your child will eventually lead to the next level. She begins to understand that her drawings can be made to represent something else. While planning what to draw ahead of time comes later, your little one will begin to give her drawing a name of her own choosing, accept it and encourage her creativity.

She will fill a paper with angular and circular shapes as well as draw random lines and then call it ‘The Cat’. It will not look anything like a cat to you but will be obvious to her because that is what she is seeing in her mind.  Go along with her interpretation and try not to correct it. Celebrate instead, as it is a big step in her cognitive and language development phase.

Getting better at creativity

The different stages of drawing development in early childhood is also one of the most important play skills a child can acquire, as their coordination and ability to grip and control their crayon, pencil or paintbrush is maturing and will improve over time. You will also notice that your child’s drawings are more controlled and the lines, while different, are smaller and more defined.

It will be interesting for you to note that at all the different stages of drawing development in early childhood, she is more likely to start experimenting with telling a story through her drawings or begin to draw letters and may even experiment with shapes of all kinds.

This ability to link unrelated shapes and ideas is not something we are born with – it is an important skill that children acquire and drawing skills development is the ideal way for them to pick it up. Connecting shapes with colours, perspectives, and concepts are all excellent ways for your child to develop and nurture her creativity. Generally speaking, your child is finding herself in a position to be able to think more clearly on her own and do it effortlessly.

WOW!

About Abrakadoodle

This is the kind of process art learning experience that inspires children to think different, be innovative, and devise ways that teach interesting things found in the real world. Drawing skills development processes will change the way your child will discover and imagine. Igniting their minds to think, play and learn like never before.

If you like to enrol your child in our children’s art classes or participate in cognitive learning activities, give Abrakadoodle a call. Or better still, make an appointment with the head of a centre near you.

Get hands-on exposure to an experience that will make you see art in a way that adds value to a child’s life.

Please note: Abrakadoodle classrooms are thoroughly sanitized every day — the tables, the chairs, the children’s activity stations and everything else the child might touch is made safe and clean. They also wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, and practice social distancing.

Young children are not always capable of expressing themselves using words and actions. As art is a simpler form of communication, it gives toddlers and young children a means to let what they feel deep down be known. Allowing parents to gain insights into their child’s thinking which otherwise would have been left bottled up and unattended.

Fun outdoor art activities work well with children of all ages, from toddlers and preschoolers right up to much older children who already attend school. Apart from this, open communication helps boost a child’s emotional intelligence as well.

Taking art outdoors means children can step out of a circle and get to work on a much larger scale freely. So be imaginative and inspire young children to go out into parks where nature thrives and enjoy lots of fresh air and have great fun being with nature and painting!

Here are a few fun outdoor art activities that focus more on the process rather than on the end results. Simple ideas that encourage children to experiment and express themselves in ways they may not have imagined before.

Working with natural paintbrushes

Take young children for a walk outside, while there ask them to collect lots of interesting pieces of nature. Small twigs with leaves and flowers still on them. Once you and the children have collected enough of them, use them as paintbrushes to paint!

Toddlers, preschoolers and older kids will all love experimenting with painting to see what kind of marks nature makes! This fun outdoor art activity is such an interesting process art idea for children that they will enjoy being outdoors and exploring the opportunity to experiment with nature!

It is through process art activities such as these that children learn so much more than trying to achieve a specific end result from what they do.

Make paint from nature

By teaching young children how to make their own paint using natural ingredients, you not only unlock their imagination but will introduce them to a fun and creative way to give a new twist to their art.

Find enough natural ingredients to ensure the entire process of making paint goes smooth. If you don’t have the following vegetables and fruit in stock at home, you could head over to your grocery store and pick them up — carrots, blueberries, spinach and strawberries! You can also think of food items such as coffee, vanilla flavouring and turmeric powder for creating deeper and darker shades of colours.

Once you have collected the natural food items, puree the vegetables and fruits and mix them with water and leave them overnight. For the spices, however, be sure to add very little water and mix thoroughly. Lesser the water, the richer the colour. This art activity idea will be a gold mine that will trigger endless creativity and fun times for children.

Children already have a natural ability for everything and anything art-related, so, as you can imagine, making their own homemade paint from nature and then using it to paint will give them immense joy, and perhaps even let their creativity run wild!

Make funny faces with rocks

Rounded and oval-shaped rocks found on river beds can be a source of great inspiring ideas for creating hilarious faces. Everyone will have a mind-blowing time working on this outdoor art activity!

Another big benefit will be an opportunity that doubles up as an outlet for expressing feelings and emotions for toddlers and preschoolers, as well as older children.

Encouraging them to work on creating enigmatic facial features, in a way that will make the jaws of adults drop. And like always, it is the process that is more important than the end result.

Messy masterpieces

Pour painting is not just messy, but also so much fun and an activity that is meant for the outdoors! Toddlers, preschoolers and older children will be able to create some really cool artworks using this art process and create one-of-a-kind gifts!

You start by plugging the holes of the terracotta planting pots from the inside. Use masking tape. Turn the pot upside down and place it on a flattened cardboard box and begin to pour the paint and watch the paint flow down slowly and steadily.

This painting technique is really simple and delivers loads of fun. Squeezing the paint out of those plastic bottles is great for working those hand muscles as well.

Choose one colour, pour, then fill another plastic bottle with a different colour and pour again. Keep doing this again and again, but remember to fill different colours each time. Wait for the paint to flow and settle and dry in the sun. The total effect when the paint dries will be stunning, to say the least. Rest assured, it will be always surprising!

Using water to paint!

If you don’t want the mess usually associated with using paint, you could have as much fun using just water. It is a simple and easy outdoor art activity idea to set up and allows young children to get as creative as they like without the mess! It also enables toddlers and preschoolers to work on developing their fine motor skills as they work using a paintbrush and water on a chalk background.

Begin by covering a chalkboard completely by using the flat side of the jumbo-sized chalks found in art shops. It helps in covering the entire chalkboard quickly.

This is a fun activity that can be left outside for children to come and go as they please. Leave a damp cloth next to the chalkboard, along with the water in a container and paintbrushes so that a child can wipe off the design once they are through with it, and are ready to start another!

Pistol painting with watercolours

Fill a water pistol with colour, take aim at a large sheet of paper and shoot! Every child will love this fantastic new way of creating a painting. The masterpieces children create end up looking unique and amazing. Water gun painting also helps young children build their fine motor skills.

Experiment with different colours. Water Pistol painting is such a fun outdoor art activity for children of all ages. It really is the best hot weather art idea ever! They will have so much fun that you will find it difficult to stop children squirting colour at everything they see, including you!

Use only watered down, washable paints for water gun painting in a 50% colour and 50% water. This will create paint of good consistency so that it becomes easy for children to squirt, and when the paint dries, the effect is bright and not dull!

About Abrakadoodle

This is the kind of process art learning experience that inspires children to think different, be innovative, and devise ways that teach interesting things found in the real world. Changing the way they discover and imagine. Igniting their minds to think, play and learn like never before.

If you like to enrol your child in our children’s art classes or participate in cognitive learning activities, give Abrakadoodle a call. Or better still, make an appointment with the head of a centre near you.

Get hands-on exposure to an experience that will make you see art in a way that adds value to a child’s life.

Please note: Abrakadoodle classrooms are thoroughly sanitized every day — the tables, the chairs, the children’s activity stations and everything else the child might touch is made safe and clean. They also wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, and practice social distancing.

What exactly is art? Most people believe that art is simply a great addition to academic learning in early childhood. Art, on the other hand, is much more than a "hobby or recreational activity." Art provides a wealth of skills and experiences that contribute to children's social and emotional development and benefit them throughout their lifetime. Through art-based activities, Abrakadoodle offers a rich combination of fun and intellectual learning. Here are a few features of Abrakadoodle that make it one of Singapore's most popular art classes for kids:

 1. Process Art Approach- Abrakadoodle, a one-of-a-kind art school in Singapore, is built on the process art approach, which fosters skills and encourages children to learn through the process of art creation rather than focusing on the final outcome. 

 2. Trained Staff- A team of highly trained art instructors assist children in creating unique masterpieces by adopting and experimenting with art techniques, as well as imparting art lessons on the discoveries made by well-known artists. 

 3. Nurturing environment- With a modern infrastructure that assures children's safety and supports better learning, Abrakadoodle comprises of social and emotional development activities through art lessons that help improve children's language skills. 

 4. Convenient Location- Renowned to be the best art classes for kids in Singapore, Abrakadoodle centres are spread across Singapore, making it convenient for parents to enrol their children at a center that is close to them.

Several researchers have discovered that children who acquire artistic skills as early as infancy are more proficient across all dimensions of life. Process art activities are designed to stimulate children's imagination and creativity. Thus, encouraging them to innovate and devise practical solutions to tactical problems is key. The top three ways to develop creative thinking skills in children: 

 1. Think out-of-the-box - Everything feels exciting when a young mind is given the opportunity to let their imagination run wild! A 5-year-old, for example, who is empowered by imaginative thinking jumps with delight when asked to draw a pig with wings that flies high in the sky or a lioness who swims in the ocean. 

 2. Treat art as a form of play - Critical thinking skills can be easily instilled in children when they take joy in playing with art tools and explore different applications of art techniques in their creations, especially during the times of leisure.

Children love art! It does not matter to them how messy it can get – messy hands, clothes or even floor mats. Nothing else can make them happier than creating something through their own handiwork. The benefits of art will go beyond expectations, even way beyond just fun. Recent studies have indicated that the process of creating art helps support young children in almost all areas of their development!

Process art is the right way to go about engaging children to express themselves in ways other than traditional handwriting and reading comprehension exercises. This style of learning about art encourages discussion about what goes into making each piece while describing how it may have looked before or after a project is completed. Besides, while observing these changes, children begin to understand and explore different techniques, as well as get creative with their work. It can also be a really fun activity for an entire group of children.

Learning through play

The aim of process art is not just to teach how to do art. It’s about creating an environment for children to discover for themselves. It is about freedom, not rules. Children are more interested in learning how the art is being created than in what the finished product is going to look like. If the end result looks beautiful, that’s great. But it is about actually the doing, the thinking, and the experimenting that becomes the primary focus. And there are no mistakes in this process. If any, these so called “mistakes” become just as valuable – they become milestones and need to be treasured as your child’s ‘masterpiece’ work in progress reference points!

As stated earlier, process art is different. It is much more about a child’s own discovery, rather than adult-directed learning. It doesn’t mean that a child can’t be inspired by a subject, like when you sit down together to create a ‘cat’ for instance. It is a means to encourage everyone to freely choose the colours, shape, size, and design elements to include and express the idea of a cat.

You paint.  You draw.  You stamp.  Spray watercolours.  Collect leaves and twigs. squeeze glitter on the glue. You can even add birds.  You name it, you can do it. It is the most incredible creative process that will help you establish a wonderful sense of exploration and a feeling of peace.

The best part is your child decides when she is done with her work.  Adding layers upon layers with each passing moment, until her world begins to take shape before her eyes. Others might look upon the work as a mess, but to your child and you, it is far from that. It is purposeful, insightful, engaged creativity coming to life.

Process art is so open-ended, it helps you see into the mind of a child as she remains engaged throughout. The whole exercise becomes an experience: how you feel as you experiment, the ideas that you get, and the opportunity to try new things. It is all about creativity.

Creativity & logic

“Creativity” and “logic” are seen as vague concepts. But it will be wrong to neglect or ignore either of them in the development process of children. So let’s attempt to frame them in generally accepted terms.

Creativity is the ability to create unique ideas from existing memories. In other words, it is the ability to turn existing ideas into something unusual that didn’t exist before. Logic, on the other hand, is the ability to arrive at conclusions, or deductions, based on known information.

When it comes to art, you will discover that children learn through play. Children needn’t be told what to do, they only need to be given rich experiences to explore and engage in.  Process Art guides and enables them to raise the bar on their own learning and development.

Building new skills, improving outcomes

Making art helps improve your child’s fine motor skills and enhance her creative problem-solving abilities. Activities like finger painting, drawing, cutting and glueing paper, can help her develop better coordination and dexterity. Or while threading beads and sculpting clay can improve her visual-spatial skills.

You will also be surprised to note that young children truly enjoy an art museum experience. Try not to visit all the galleries in one sitting. Start by focusing on the whimsical and magical on your first visit, then take in other rooms on some other day. Look at paintings on nature and animals, and other topics of interest to your child.

By exposing your child to magnificent works of art, you will enhance her curiosity and enjoyment. It is an opportunity for thoughtful conversations with your child too. Talk to her about what she sees and thinks.

Challenge each other to find hidden objects in a painting. Or, wonder about a painting. Talk encourages your child to express what she is feeling. Prompt her by introducing new words into your sentences. Landscape paintings are ideal for expanding and stimulating imagination.

Long term studies have indicated that building these skills translates into better academic outcomes for children in other subjects including writing, literacy, mathematics, and science. A report from Americans for the Arts concluded that “children who regularly engage in artistic activities are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement”!

Going beyond words

There are times when children find it difficult to put into words what they are feeling, simply because they have no words to describe them. This is why complex emotions may end up being expressed through anxiety, stress or trauma. This is a time to be cautious, notice changes in behaviour, and keep an eye out for those angry outbursts, withdrawal, or an inability to concentrate.

So how can you, as a parent, support a child to work through these experiences in constructive ways. One simple and gentle way is by encouraging your child to express her thoughts and feelings through art.

The language of art — colours, shapes, lines, and images — speaks in ways that words cannot. More importantly, children find that art helps them process their ideas, helping them to channel and express their experiences and deal with overwhelming emotions.

Art provides children with critical sensory input and allows them to express their feelings in a multi-dimensional way. Even if a child is not involved in creating the art, just being around art can provide your child with enough sensory inputs to kick start her imagination and engage her curiosity.

Creative learning

You will discover that art encourages creativity and imaginative thinking, two skills that are increasingly linked with long-term professional success. Simply put, art forces children to engage in out of the box thinking and can help them hone their creative problem-solving skills.

Creative learners are usually those who end up becoming “big-picture thinkers”. With your guidance, your child can become a change maker, the one who makes connections to fulfil needs through real life experiences. This can lead to a lifetime of seeking creative solutions to future problems yet to be encountered.

When, for instance, a child is painting a tigress by pretending to be a lioness! Adding a mane to her picture of a striped cat. Soon after that, she bounds off with a dry paintbrush-turned-sword and announces that she is Captain Hook pretending to be Peter Pan. Children like her flow with unusual, humorous ideas, demonstrating creative thinking abilities.

According to the International Child Art Foundation, “a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think innovatively, and discover original ideas — key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twenty-first century.”

Treat colour as a learning catalyst

When moving with a purpose when learning more about colour will help your child develop her vocabulary, and complex thinking faculties, and enhance her keen observation skills. By using a variety of tactile experiences you can help your preschooler to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of colour which will be missed out if left to a computer program or flashcards.

When you are out in the park, you can help your child collect leaves of various shades of green. Point out that just like families have different names, so do colours. Illustrate your conversation by accurately describing the many hues of green – emerald, moss, mint, fern, celadon, and avocado… You can ask open-ended questions about colours too: What are all the fruits and veggies you can think of that are coloured ‘green’? Work with paint to create new shades and tints. Then allow your child to mix yellow and red paints. After some time, introduce white so your child can see for herself how the colours soften or add bits of black and to see shades of orange emerge.

Exploring colour using accurate vocabulary and connections to real things will help your child internalize a deeper understanding of a concept that many adults understand only at a cursory level. As your child thinks deeply about colour and observes it intentionally, she will gain new perspectives on her rapidly expanding world. Creative expression is as natural and developmentally necessary for children as fresh air and sunshine is. And as a parent, you are your child’s first teacher. The conversations you have will help your child develop thinking skills that will stay with her for a lifetime.

About Abrakadoodle

This is the kind of process art learning experiences we use to inspire children to think differently, be innovative, and devise ways that teach about interesting things found in the real world. Changing the way children discover and imagine. Ignite their minds to think, play and learn like never before.

If you would like to enrol your child in our children’s art classes or participate in cognitive learning activities, give Abrakadoodle a call. Or better still, make an appointment with the head of a centre near you. Get a hands-on exposure to an experience that will make you see art in a way that adds value to life.

Parents of young children have to nurture creativity and imagination, the two critical qualities that will play a big role in their future. Help them grow up doing exciting art projects that make them exercise their natural abilities and keep them happier as well.

Imagination-driven learning in early childhood will help them realize their full potential.  Exercising their minds by involving them in activities like drawing, storytelling, or imagining vivid and wild scenarios – the more out of the world their ideas, the better will be the outcome.  Children by nature are intelligent and imaginative.

So the only person who has to relearn the “how” of being creative and re-ignite imagination is us, the parents. This is a fact. According to most experts, adults are victims of an outdated educational system that was designed for a different time. For instance, by the end of our college years, our education “system” would have been successful in extinguishing the creative ‘spark’ within us.

So quite literally, our children give us the best opportunity to help rekindle and sparkle again as we did when we were young — free, joyful and living in the moment! Re-learning how to be a child by being with our children. Don’t miss this God-sent opportunity. Here is how you can start the creative journey that lets the child within you express.

Have faith in the creative process

Parents and children often tend to focus on the result. The thinking driving this obsession is that you either have a reasonably good looking artwork at the end of an art session, or the whole exercise is a washout. This is a wrong way to access and manage children’s imagination and creativity.

For example, when you and your child are involved in drawing a house, the house doesn’t need to have four walls and a rectangle roof. This kind of restriction limits imagination. After all, there are a million different ways to render a house. It is best to avoid introducing preconceived notions, allow your child to be free to imagine and express her ideas of what a house can be.

Imagination-driven learning in early childhood helps shift attention and make the child see the beauty in the creative process instead. This change in perspective will be a lot more engaging and fun for you and your child.

Be curious

When spending time with a child you will notice a trait that sometimes drives parents up the wall. Children are persistent and experts at being curious and never tire of asking questions. Why? Why does the water in the waterfall flow down and not up? Why does a cork float and not sink? These kinds of creative thinking skills help your child preserve their sense of curiosity and nurture the spirit of inquiry.

This is what having a creative mindset means. Imagination-driven learning in early childhood focuses on fostering a different way of seeing the world, where you wonder and notice the puzzling things that abound in our world. Creativity and imagination are all about not accepting how things are. It’s about wondering how things can be and could be better.

For instance, when you see your child playing with her favourite doll, instead of just watching her, join in and start a conversation. Help her to see things differently and to wonder. Trigger her curiosity by asking her to imagine, “What makes the doll blink her eyes?” Wonder together.

Follow it up with another question, “What do you think the doll’s hair is made of?  If she says “plastic.” Ask her, ‘Do you think her hair will get wet? “Shall we give her a bath?” Your child will be so intrigued that she will want to undress her doll and get it ready for a bath in a jiffy!

Make it fun

The mark of divergent thinking and looking at things in an alternative way is when you have a sense of humour. It also allows children to practice thinking outside the box in a fun way. And when they get a laugh out of others, their creativity is instantly rewarded.

Riddles and jokes put children in the mood and ready to look at things in different ways. You could follow it up with the “knock, knock: who’s there!” game. Ideal for a dull rainy day when things tend to get quiet and sort of boring. Add a dash of fun, cheer it up!

The best way to break the tension is by helping your child see the humour in a tense situation. Like when your girl just spilt a huge glass of juice, and she is upset about it. You might say, “see the juice is gone, I think the tablecloth was thirsty!” This will immediately make her feel better.

The idea is simple: have the presence of mind to model positive reactions to bad situations.

Ask for help to solve your problems

Creativity generates ideas that are new and come in very handy when it comes to solving problems. So it is OK for you to ask your child to help solve a problem you are facing. For example, involving her to come up with a toy for her dog, so that he is not bored when you go out to the cinema and there is no one to play with.

Involving your child in brainstorming ideas, then implementing one together, gives your child hands-on problem-solving practice. This will also help them to see that creativity is everywhere and is a very useful skill. These types of workouts which involve watching and helping when you have a problem to solve is just as crucial to nurture creativity as arts and crafts.

Be a role model

It is good to keep in mind that children learn by imitating adults. This is why as a parent, it becomes essential for you to be a role model to your child. They look up to you and learn daily.

So when you are immersed in your project, there is no harm in asking your child to see and help out. Whether the project you are involved in is making miniature dollhouse furniture or writing code, work on it with your child alongside watching.

Talk about what you are doing. Find ways to share what you love. Your child will pick up on your energy and enthusiasm and will want to do the same, making the space come alive. And whenever you see your child making something, you might want to try it too.

Sit down by her side and start to sketch, or enthuse over what your child is doing. Listen to her when she corrects you and wants you to do it her way. Encourage, and increase the time you spend together. Doing all sorts of things, knitting, painting, writing, cooking or playing music or just shooting the breeze with her!

Another point of view

Questioning assumptions help you gain fresh insights and perspectives and push your child’s creativity to new levels. Getting her to see different viewpoints will help your child look at the world in new ways. This could be as simple and inexpensive as reading a book about a different culture, which can give your child a new outlook.

All you have to do is ask your child to put herself in the character’s shoes. Pretty soon she’ll begin to see that creativity is worth pursuing and sharing and is found everywhere she looks. Even watching birds flying can become an instructive lesson in flight dynamics!

Leaving gaps for your child to fill

According to a study in the online journal, Frontiers in Psychology, children need time in their day to engage in activities of their choosing. The most enriching one could be examining dust with a beam of light passing through it, or messing around in a pile of dry leaves, but not another round of lessons in French.

Children who get to spend more time in free-form activities are more able at setting their own goals and take action to meet them without being guided by adults. That’s a skill for a lifetime!

What may come as a surprise is realizing that boredom can be a stimulant that encourages creativity. There is truth in this insight because boredom induces daydreaming — a state in which the mind wanders and allows you to look at things in new ways.

Think of being bored as a time off for a child’s brain. It helps. In one study, subjects who were asked to read a telephone book aloud (a boring thing), came up with more uses for disposable cups afterwards than those who were not asked to do this boring task.

Passion pushes creativity

Creating something new, or figuring out a problem needs stamina. This is why, when you show that you value your child’s efforts, you will help your child to keep at it and not give up when a task becomes a little difficult. Your interest will help her to keep going and that helps build the creativity muscle.

The real big creative achievements in life — coming up with a game-changing idea about how to fix global warming — requires persistence and commitment to developing the expertise needed. Creativity comes from passion and motivation. It happens only when you get real pleasure out of doing something.

It will be worthwhile to expose your child to a diverse range of pursuits to see if she finds something that ignites her mind. If she falls in love with art, find ways to encourage her enthusiasm. When children are given the freedom to explore in this way, there is significant brain growth and personal development. Besides, your child just might discover a passion that will change her life.

About Abrakadoodle

Abrakadoodle children art programs inspire children to think differently, be innovative, and devise ways that teach about interesting things found in the real world. Ignite their minds to think, play and learn like never before. Changing the way children discover and imagine.