Over and over, research shows that kids who receive art lessons while they are young become more imaginative and creative adults. As you may know, creativity is an essential part of intelligence, and is often used as a gauge for measuring IQ.
With increasing demands being placed upon schools, teachers, and youth groups to educate our kids in the three R's, education in the arts has begun to suffer in many areas of the country in favor of the "more important" or "more practical" subjects.
What people need to understand is that art education in schools IS important, and in fact essential to form well-rounded adults. In the business world, for example, people who are creative are much more likely to find success. Creativity allows for innovation, a vital characteristic in today's business executive. To stay ahead of the game, for example, a business must be able to initiate and adapt to change. Both of these things are impossible without creativity, which is best learned at an early age.
Any successful business starts with an idea, and a good idea is innovative, different, and creative. It speaks to a certain audience and makes people stand up and take notice. If you lack the creativity to come up with such an idea, you're not likely to do very well.
Now, consider some of the most memorable marketing campaigns in recent history. What do they all have in common? Creativity; creativity that must be instilled at an early age, and is most effectively taught in school, which is why early childhood art education is so important.
Kids art lessons are very time consuming to prepare, and many teachers and parents feel that they lack the artistic ability or creativity to teach art. The reality is however, that they really don't need to be creative geniuses themselves to be effective at teaching art to children in their classrooms or homes.
Educators and parents who feel they need help with art education child development can turn to plenty of outside sources for aid. By doing just a little bit of homework themselves, teachers and parents can find people, groups, and even companies who are ready and willing to come to the rescue and offer a wealth of information about early childhood art education. Taking advantage of this help can save hours of time and energy, and provide a much-needed educational benefit.
Family Fun Arts and Crafts Blog is one service that offers k-6 art lessons. Here's a sample lesson for your enjoyment:
?2nd Gr. CLOWNS?
Motivation:
Mom or Grandmom should create examples ahead of time, getting a feel for the process. Look for and gather examples, if possible. Show examples, samples, and demonstrate the process. Show clown pictures to give the students an idea of how various clowns do their makeup, and what kind of costumes they usually wear.
Materials:
4 X 6" and 12 X 18" colored construction papers, 12 X 18" white paper, scissors, pencils, erasers, glue, clown pictures, markers
Procedure: Parent or TEACHER NOTE: Keep the color photo of this lesson handy, as well as any examples you make and provide so that students can look at them during this assignment.
1)On 12 X 18" white paper, draw a picture of a clown from the top of the head to the waist. -Outline the clown in black marker. -Color the clown with colored markers. -Cut out the clown.
2)Choose a 12 X 18" colored background sheet. -Center the clown on the background sheet and glue it down.
3)Choose two colors of 4 X 6" papers. -Cut these sheets into 1/2 X 6" strips. -Then cut the 1/2 X 6" strips into 1/2 X 1/2" small squares.
4)Glue the 1/2 X 1/2" squares all around the background sheet border edge, surrounding the clown. (You can choose to glue these small squares so that they touch each other as they go around the border, OR you can glue them down leaving a tiny bit of space between them.)
5)Let the picture dry.
You're never too young to learn the art of scrapbooking. In fact, teaching kids a few simple skills can help you create time in your schedule to scrapbook while still spending quality time with your family. Different ages can learn different scrapbooking techniques, but all ages should be able to help you make an album or produce albums of their own.
Toddlers
Even the youngest age group can learn beginner skills to scrapbooking. One way to get them involved is to have them try their hand at choosing colors and embellishments that they like. You may be surprised at how quickly a four-year-old picks up on concepts such as color schemes and layout design. You can also ask your child to help with the journaling. This works especially well when you create pages where your child is the main focus-ask for his or her thoughts on the day and include this in your journaling. You might be surprised at what they say, so be ready to write down some great quotes! Toddlers can also be given paper and markers to draw pictures about the event, and these can make heart-warming embellishments to your page.
School-age Children
As your child learns basic motor skills, such as how to use scissors, you can let them practice at making their own pages. Let them use the doubles of your pictures or pictures from the roll that are fuzzy or otherwise undesirable for your own album. Scrapbooking paper can be expensive, so unless your child has a genuine love for the craft, you may want to have them use construction paper, which is not acid free but will help you save money if all your child wants to do is play. At this stage, your child may be able to help you choose all the elements for a page or look through scrapbooking layout ideas to pick some of his or her favorites that you can then create. As a pre-teen, your child may have the skills to begin creating his or her own album and using real scrapbooking paper and supplies. This is an investment that will depend on your child's particular interest and skill level.
Teens
If your child continues to scrapbook at this stage, he or she probably can handle creating a beginning album. A good start is to use the school pictures your child has surely acquired over the years from friends. Encourage your child to be creative and to design pages that interest him or her. If you do digital scrapbooking, this is also a good time to introduce your child to some of the programs available online. The love of scrapbooking may continue past the teen stage and into adulthood, and soon your children may be creating albums that rival your own and teaching their own children how to scrapbook.
Both Alberta Johnson & Tom Ambrozewicz are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Alberta Johnson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Ideas for Scrapbooking, Kids and Teens. Author Alberta S. Johnson is an art educator who understands the importance of children's art lessons in schools and at home. Her company, Family Fun arts and Crafts makes fully-planned art lessons for children, with color photos, available to educators. Alberta Johnson's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.
Tom Ambrozewicz has sinced written about articles on various topics from Free Credit Report Score, Gym and Hypnotherapy. Tom Ambrozewicz is one of the pioneers in using breakthrough audio technology on his web sites. You can read, you can reading to. Tom Ambrozewicz's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.