Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Nurturing the artistic child

There are some kid friendly music classes - any Suzuki instrument will be for kids and up. Choose from piano, violin, chello and more.

For art I agree that exploration is key! We have a set art corner with all sorts of materials, play doh, modelling clay, air drying clay, paints (oils, acrylics, water, craft, glass and fabric paints), crayons, colouring pencils and felt tipped pens, all sorts of pens (gel pens in different shades and types, ball pens, fine liners, permanents etc) charcoals, canvases, sketch books, tracing paper, rice paper, hand made papers, coloured board, glue sticks, craft glue, glue gun, pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes, straws, stickers and and and and. I want to get each kid an easel next they love to potter around there and when in a creative mood both older boys (6 and 4) will spend up to 2 hours there making things. I love watching their discoveries and explorations.

Perhaps later we will do something more formal. For now, we love this. we also visit art shows for local artists where possible and we create our own art for fathers day etc. They each got to choose paintings from a new local artist recently. They chose the same set and she re-created them for us to have identical sets in each room. There are many ways to help with creativity - but the best is to trust them to trust their inner creativity I guess.

You can also play games like Pictionary for use of developing skills.

Buy Don't move the muffin tin from Amazon by Bev Boss. It is more for preschools but there is a TON in there that will help you out.

I think ine of the best things you can do is to be it unstructured until she asks for structure. My daughter is a fine arts major now, and I let her drive the process. I kept a pile of art supplies in our family area, and she kept more in her room which didn't have the potential for ruining carpet, etc. It wasn't until high school that she decided she wanted lessons, and she chose the classes at school. She now works as a graphic artist on campus and still loves to create.

DD7 is very creative. She's amazing at drawing and making up songs. We give her lots of space to explore.

You've gotten lots of good ideas, but I'll just add these two. My daughter loved going to the art museum with her sketchbook and copying paintings and drawing sculptures. I think she started getting into this at about age 4.

Also, one of my favorite mommy blogs is http://www.artfulparent.com/.

Bzylzy, there is an art institute that we visit on family art days. Last summer, they had 10-week art classes for preschoolers. I enrolled dd even though she was only 2.5 yo then. Every week, for an hour, they would explore a new concept and take a walk around the museum and come back and paint using that theme. DD showed no interest and was always hungry, tired,etc. she never paid much attention in class. A few months later, she started to draw these beautiful landscapes and portraits using the ideas they taught at the art class. I was really surprised that she actually learnt a ton but did not show it. Unfortunately, the institute hasn't offered any other classes for her age group. Thanks.

Thanks, Zen Scanner for validating my thoughts. Our entire house is her canvas and she has plenty of material to explore and a constant admirer/ enthusiast in me. I am hoping that's all she needs.

Sounds like you have a wonderful daughter! My dd also loves to "cook" and comes up with these concoctions she forces her dad to drink. Once she made him drink milk with blue food color, a little salt, a little cinnamon and some other stuff. Yuck!
Thanks for sharing your dd's preference for experimentation rather than structured class. I agree with that approach. Thanks.

W'sMama, lol on the flower drawing. One of your website had a quote from Picasso on how how every child is an artist. It is how to keep that as you grow up. Thanks so much for sharing the links. The mrsbrownart is actually very similar to the art class she attended last summer that I mentioned before. It is so nice to hear from a talented artist on her approach and what worked. I will check out the book. You are amazing!

Thanks for sharing what is working for your sons, Madoosa. While dd can paint anywhere, anything, her main art space is our family room. She has all kinds of medium and the one she loves the most is tempera. She uses the three primary colors, and black,white and brown to create all different colors that she uses in her painting. She has a formula for creating obscure colors like olive green and navy blue using the six colors.

Thanks for the book reco, Sweetie. Will be sure to check it out.