How Art Helps Your Child's Development (And 8 Easy No-Mess Activities That Build Those Skills!)
When it comes to academics, the arts get little to no love. Everyone knows the importance of literacy, the value of mathematics, the earning potential of S.T.E.M., and even the benefits of P.E. But the arts? Please. How much value could a kid get from making macaroni necklaces?
You may be surprised, but the actuality is that they gain a lot. This seemingly simple task exercises a young child’s dexterity, fine motor skills, and pattern recognition skills. Add some counting and color practice and you’ve got yourself a pretty well-rounded, academic activity. And that’s just macaroni necklaces. Imagine how much more your child gains when they start using their imagination to tell stories through pictures, when they mix colors, or when they replicate something they see in the world around them. Art, at any age, is an important way to facilitate a child’s development.
Let’s break down some of the areas in which children can benefit from visually creative practices.
Inventiveness & Imagination- In a modern world where our children are bombarded with content and pre-made stories, making art is a way for them to have some time to explore their own minds. An adult in a studio created Cocomelon and having all those highly stimulating colors and sounds playing incessantly in the background robs children of an opportunity to make their own fantastical creatures and stories. You’d be amazed how far a box of crayons and some sheets of paper can go if you give your children the stillness and space to use them.
Motor Skills - As mentioned earlier with the macaroni necklaces, the simple process of cutting, pasting, stringing, holding, and arranging gives very young children ample opportunities to practice and strengthen their motor skills. Stringing a piece of yarn through the hole of a rigatoni noodle strengthens hand-eye coordination skills. Using scissors strengthens hand muscles.
Creative Problem Solving- How do I capture the likeness of a bird? What colors do I mix to get my skin tone just right? What do I need to make my tree sculpture sturdy and tall? When making art, you have to get the idea in your head onto a medium in the real world. Figuring out how to do just that is a great exercise in creative problem solving. As they experiment with materials and dimensions and textures they are learning about the way things work.
Visual Learning- When a child is observing something in the world and attempting to render it on paper he is visually learning. If the activity is to draw a dog, the child has to really look at a dog and absorb that information. What color are dogs? How many legs do they have? What features make them different from cats or cows?
Decision Making Skills- Should the sun be yellow or orange? Am I going to draw Mommy in the house or in the car? Does my monster need to have glitter or feathers? Decisions have to be made when making art and the more they practice this skill, the more independent they become. The more independent they become the more confidence they will have.
Language Development- When students share about their artwork they have to exercise their vocabulary and ability to describe. What is that? What is happening in that scene? Why did you use those colors? Asking questions like these force the child to draw upon their words to proudly explain themselves and their creation.
Storytelling - As children draw a picture or create a puppet, they create little stories in their heads about what is happening or what their creature is like. The storytelling begins in their head and continues as they create. Yet another layer of this skill is built when they share their art with others. Hello language development!
Pattern Recognition- Whether it’s ordering colors on a necklace or arranging shapes on paper, kids like repetition. And it’s a good thing, too. Pattern recognition is crucial to making sense of the world and is useful for problem solving and predicting outcomes.
Self confidence- “Look what I made!” In a child’s little world, most of the things in it are either created or done for him. When a child makes art, he or she gets to glow with pride knowing that they created something themselves. When they show you or another adult their creation they get praise and positive feedback, only strengthening his belief in himself.
Communication- Art is about communicating something. Either an emotion or a story or even an experiment. When creating art, the child is communicating something in his or her inner world. When you ask the child to explain the art we draw in verbal communication, as well. If we give instructions on how to make a piece of art, we give the child the opportunity to interpret what is being communicated.
Focus- Now, more than ever, it is important to build focus in our children. Big businesses are all capitalizing on our attention. The ability to not fall victim to every passing source of stimuli is crucial if we want to raise smart, mentally healthy human beings. When in the creative zone, kids are laser focused on their little project and worried about how to draw his house just right, not distracted by yet another YouTube ad.
So all these skills are good and well when we have time to pour into a really cool project, but who can be bothered to create a project and clean up the mess everyday? Parents are busy just getting through the day. How often can one monitor a kindergartener while he navigates his imagination with paints and glues over your living room carpet? Fortunately being creative doesn’t necessarily require paint or, god-forbid, glitter. Below are a few simple ideas that require minimal set-up and clean-up.
8 No-Mess, (Well— Minimal Mess,) Art Activities
Collage making - Scissors, paper, glue. That’s all you need to make an innumerable amount of easy art projects. Children can use old magazines, newspapers, construction paper, or even things they find in nature. And if you’re worried about monitoring a very young child with scissors, they’re actually not necessary! Although scissor practice is a great way to strengthen motor skills, there’s also a nice added creative challenge with only being able to rip paper instead of cut it, (hello creative problem solving!) Ripping shapes out of construction paper and arranging them on a black background makes a great practice in abstraction.
Finger stamps- This is a practice in imagination and creative problem solving. Have your child press their thumb on an inkpad and stamp a piece of paper at random. Then give them some markers or crayons and tell them to create a scene that includes those finger prints. It’s amazing how creative little ones can be! From adding wings to their fingerprints to make birds or using them as spots on dogs, your child will have fun flexing her thinking and creativity muscles.
Yarn painting- Draw designs onto some construction paper using liquid glue and have your kids trace those lines with pieces of colorful yarn. Because liquid glue can get messy, this activity is best done with supervision or with older children, but the results can be stunning. If you look up “mola art” from Panama, your kids can really get inspired! For younger children, a glue stick will work best if you want to avoid the mess. The results will be more abstract, but the benefits will still be there! This activity really helps with motor skills and pattern recognition.
Washi tape shapes- Here’s a project that doesn’t involve any liquid or messy colors. Grab a couple colorful rolls of washi tape and some paper and scissors. Your child can go crazy slapping down all the different colors and patterns on a piece of paper at random, (or in a pattern!) Once they’ve finished doing that, they can cut out shapes like hearts, triangles, clouds, flowers, and stars, (good luck on that,) and admire the end result. If you have it in you, you can laminate them and glue a small magnet on the back for cute refrigerator magnets! For another layer of enrichment, you and your child could make these to sell lemonade stand style, (business lesson,) or make them as gifts for relatives during the holidays. They will simply burst with pride when they hear grandma oo-ing and ah-ing over her adorable, handmade gifts!
Clothing pin puppets- This little craft came from the days of our grandmothers when old, wooden clothing pins were lying around the house in abundance. Fortunately, you can still find these easily at craft stores, but large popsicle sticks will work just as well. Grab markers, yarn, and a little fabric and let your kids design a line of dolls that they will love creating, as well as playing with. This is an excellent practice in creativity, decision-making, and creative problem solving. As they play with their homemade dolls later, they will be doing a lot of storytelling in their own minds and communication and language development as they play with other children.
Paper Bag Puppets- In the same vein as clothing pin puppets, paper bag puppets are great for imagination, storytelling, and communication. These may be a more younger-child friendly option in comparison to the clothing pin puppets because they can be created with less-refined motor skills. Have some fun bonding time conversing back and forth using the puppets. Wouldn’t this be a nice replacement for screens or silence at the dinner table? Hone in their focus, visual learning, and creative problem solving skills by having them make a puppet modeled after each member of the family!
Tissue Paper Painting- Here’s a painting project minus the paint. Get colored tissue paper and have your kids cut or rip out shapes. Then, layer the tissue paper pieces over a canvas or thick, porous paper. Dip a paintbrush in water and paint over the tissue paper. Leave for about 10 minutes and then carefully pull off the pieces of tissue to reveal a beautiful watercolor-esque work of art. You can leave it as is and appreciate the abstraction or let it dry and go in with a black sharpie to draw some flowers.
Box villages- All those cardboard boxes that your crackers and cereal and pasta come in? If you save just a few, your child can easily create a village with them using construction paper and markers, (and paint if they’re old enough!) How cute would it be to set up one of their little villages on the windowsill during the holidays and add cotton snow? Pair them with some homemade clothing pin dolls and you can squeeze out hours of fun.
Remember, arts and crafts don’t have to be very involved to be beneficial for our kids. And boredom often breeds innovation and creativity. So turn off the screens, lay out a few materials, and let those little brains get to work!