Creative Art: Sensory Learning

Often, Luke's pre-school teacher will send home a written explanation of what the pre-schoolers are working on and what that experience is teaching them.

Since my business is all about turning a child's artwork into gifts and apparel, when papers come home that pertain to the subject of art and creativity, I pay special attention.

I wanted to paraphrase some points that Luke's pre-school teacher highlighted reagarding Creative Art, because I think it's so important:

Our art program is designed to promote your child's creativity.  We focus on the PROCESS, not the end product.  It is OK if your child's dog doesn't look like a dog, or if he colors his apple purple.  That is your child's work (not the teachers) and that is his/her level of understanding of the real world right now.

If your child's art project looks like a big gooey mess, keep in mind that it was a good sensory experience.  He/she probably had a ball making his/her own creation.  That is what's most important.

Many projects your child brings home are craft oriented, and we do not have a particular end product in mind.  These are projects, not art. They are designed to enhance skill and cognitive development, rather than promote creative abilities.

REMEMBER: Our number one priority in art is that your child did it all by him/herself, he/she enjoyed doing it, and is proud of his/her work.

While my oldest daughter has some artistic talent, the other five pretty much just enjoy being creative, and as I've written in previous posts here on my blog, I LOVE nurturing that creativity in them!

So, as with most weekends, I plant get out those paints and markers and colored pencils and scissors and glue this weekend and have a sensory development/cognitive development-fest!

Now I've just got to find an empty vertical space on a wall where I can display the end product...

Enjoy!
~Lisa

Here are some fun things to help get your creative juices flowing....

Encouraging our children to try new things

When Victoria, our 17 year old, was selecting her classes for her final year of high school, she found that she was faced with having to tread some formerly unknown territory in the way of electives.

Wanting to find an "easy A" to help her GPA, she couldn't for the life of her decide which class to take.

Remembering her love of all things art when she was younger, I encouraged her to try an art class. She fought me on it, claiming that she couldn't draw. But in the end, it was the only elective that would fit into her schedule, so art it was.

It's been such a joy to watch her! She's discovered not only that she loves her art class, but that she's pretty darn good at it! (And, combining art with her love of Michael Barrett, she created the stunning pencil portrait I so proudly display here on my blog!)

This was a big reminder to me that that we always need to encourage our children to try something new and different. The same goes for ourselves. We just never know what we might discover!


~Lisa
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