thoughts on art...

[happy1nluv]

What are your thoughts on art?  We do a few mom-directed craft projects/handprint art/etc.  that are usually gifts for someone or something I want for memories...  Mostly, I set out a very limited number of supplies and let them create.  I do direct some processes (color with crayons first, then paint with these paints over it ..type stuff).  I will sometimes ask them to make me a picture of our family, out house, etc.  We do a few pre-purchased crafts (glue this here, etc.)  but mostly i try to contain the mess while they create.

My oldest is 5 3/4.  I just was reading an art teachers blog (can't remember where...mary something or other) and she had artwork done by kindergartners that was ... well past what I've done with my kids...  Cats drawn to be symmetrical and layered in colors (it was a lesson in symmetry), etc...    When do you start real "art" and not just go ahead create. Or do you?

[dubatatamama]

I take a very similar approach with my DS and DD (5 and almost 4).  I have art supplies out for them and I find that they are far more creative than if I direct it.  I will sometimes guide them with certain things like you do.  Personally, and this is just my opinion, I feel art is important, but at this age, my children have so much more fun being allowed to explore on their own.  After all, it is their art project not mine, YKWIM?

Personally, I am a horrible artist and cannot draw very well at all, and I am a completely normal, reasonably intelligent person and feel no worse for the wear that I am not a great artist.  In other words, art is important, but if my children don't turn out to be the next Picasso, the world will go on spinning!

Hope this helps!

[Daffodil]

I didn't plan to ever do more than provide some materials and let the kids do what they wanted with them.  But then last year (when DD was 6-7) I realized that she was really getting interested in art and seemed actually to have some talent at it. (She didn't get it from me, that's for sure.)  So we started doing some exercises from a book called Drawing with Children, we signed DD up for a couple of art classes, we go to galleries sometimes to look at paintings, and we've been getting together with my artistic sister to get some tips on drawing and painting.  My sister has given her some art supplies, and I got her some better quality things for Christmas also.  We actually spend more homeschooling time on art than just about anything else these days.  But I don't think art is a subject every kid has to work on or learn about.  If you or your kids are interested in learning more about art, that's cool, but if you're not, I don't think you need to spend any time on it at all.

[EviesMom]

DH, who has an art degree, started Artistic Pursuits with DD last summer (6 years old, 1st grade). They both seem to love it, and it gives DD the skills and concepts behind art-- perspective, etc.-- and some basic art history as well. She still does plenty of her own self-directed artwork and crafts, but it's a nice curriculum and we usually tie the art history into social studies concepts as well.

http://www.artisticpursuits.com/

[SpiderMum]

I get a lot of ideas from http://www.artfulparent.typepad.com/ and I also really dig all the MaryAnn Kohl books.

[AAK]

For the most part, I wait until further interest by the child.  My middle child really has an interest in art and anything creative for that matter.  Last year, she wanted to be "taught" art.  She asked for this earlier too (and we had a bad experience with some drawing classes).  So, this time we found some books at the library to try out.  She loved them and uses them frequently.  We also started using Meet the Masters this year with her and her older sister.  Her older sister didn't express specific interest in being taught how to draw or paint or anything, but being in 5th grade, I thought that an introduction to art, art concepts, and famous artists were in order.  They both enjoy it, and sometimes I see something carry through to their own art.

Amy

[tankgirl73]

We also love Meet the Masters.  And I'd love to do Artistic Pursuits some time, it sounds really cool.  

I'm all for just 'letting kids create', but when you get down to it, they won't know how to invent everything from scratch.  Giving them "art lessons" isn't about restricting them to particular strictures, stripping away their individual creativities, nor is it about making them into "Picassos" or "my kid draws better than your kid."  It's about giving them the *tools* that they can then use in order to BETTER express their own creativity!

So we do some guided stuff (like Waldorf style copy-what-I-do paintings, or paint-by-numbers, or craft kits), some semi-guided stuff (using these materials and methods, let's make this sort of thing - like Meet the Masters projects), and lots of "free time" stuff, where the kids just choose what materials they want and what kind of project they want to do.

But because we've done a 'lesson' with chalk pastels, they know about the different ways to use them.  Because we've done a guided project with tissue paper balls glued onto paper, my daughter might get an idea of a different project using that method.  Because we've done a Waldorf lesson in watching watercolours blend together, they know how to use that to their advantage.  And for my older son, because he's had lessons on perspective, he knows how to make his drawings look "real" and doesn't sit there frustrated about how it's just not working the way he wants it to.

You can sit a kid in front of a piano and say "okay, have fun.  You're free to create whatever you like, we're not going to burden you with lessons."  Some precociously talented kids will figure it all out by themselves -- but most won't.  Most will create and have a certain amount of fun, for awhile.  But they can't get the sounds they want, and it all turns into noise, and their fingers won't co-operate.  Of course you can't force lessons on the kids who really don't want it... but the kids who do get lessons will find a whole world of beauty and creativity opened up to them that they would never have been able to discover on their own.  :)

[elus0814]

We use artistic pursuits with our six and five year olds. They're ok with it. They often want to get into the project part before the lesson part is complete. We do one of those lessons once each week. Most other days they do some sort of art or craft project, the six year old girl always does but the five year old boy only does these if he's interested. The kids usually suggest something they want to do but I try to guide them to not do the same thing over and over.

They do all sorts of things:

- watercolor painting (watercolor paper, stockmar paints, paintbrushes)

- drawing (drawing paper, drawing pencils, charcoals)

- misc. glueing on paper or whatever they want to decorate (white or stick glue, papers, foam sheets, etc.)

- seasonal projects like handprint turkeys, advent calendars, and so on (varies)

- wool felting (wool roving, felting needles, foam block)

- paper folding (kite paper, instruction book)

- 'mural' painting (tempera paints, brushes, roll paper)

- driveway painting (homemade cornstarch paint, foam brushes)

- freestyle coloring (beeswax crayons, oil pastels)

- beading (beads, lacing, elastic)

- sewing (fabric or felt, needles, thread or yarn, buttons)

- knitting (yarn, needles, knitting tower)

- sculpting (clay or homemade play doh, random sticks or utensils)

- wax modeling (stockmar modeling wax)

- coloring (coloring books, crayons, colored pencils)

- mask or puppet making (paper lunch bags, paper plates, felt, etc.)

- collage (magazines, paper, glue)