There are more types of arts than you can count. Painting, drawing, collage/gluing, singing, dancing, acting in the theater, and sensory-based arts, like Play-Doh and kinetic sand, are all worth exploring with your child.
There is no reason to wait until your child hits a certain benchmark to have his fingers strike an instrument or get his hands in clay. “The sooner you get your child involved, the more adaptable they are to get their hands messy, experiment, and try new things,” says Katherine Vergos Riederer, co-owner at The Art Project, an art studio for kids in Overton Square.
The key is to find something he enjoys and stick with it. “Push all the furniture out of the way, roll paper on the floor, and give babies trays of washable/nontoxic fingerpaints, and just let them go to town,” Riederer says. As kids grow, so do their abilities, and they may become better with fine motor skills such as using scissors, gripping a pencil, and drawing letters.
The arts are not just about the masterpiece that is being created or produced. It helps your child flourish intellectually and emotionally. “Involvement in the arts provides an outlet for kids to relax, teaches them to go with the flow, helps develop fine motor skills, builds self-esteem, makes kids more willing to take risks,” says Riederer, “and, most importantly, fosters great problem-solving skills.”
Praise your child when he picks up a paintbrush and let his mind wander. Provide a space where your kid can be messy, a judgment-free zone. Prepare for the mess and provide paint, clay, and Play-Doh, so they have options. Cece Palazola, director of the Memphis College of Art community education program, says, “They can start with dollar store materials and have some success and fun with that, so it does not have to be high-end stuff.”
If you took your child to The Nutcracker this winter and he came home dancing and belting out the tunes, encourage him to take up dance. “With ballet, you learn discipline, focus, grace, athleticism, and self-confidence,” says Mary VanDyke, artistic director at Children’s Ballet Theater. Kids as young as 3 are having recitals and becoming stars. “Starting at 3 years old, they gain confidence in life by being able to accomplish, step-by-step, the process of a small performance up to a major performance,” she says.
When it comes to the arts, find what clicks with your child. It may take trying several arts to figure that out. “Kids enjoy the arts as long as it is in a way that resonates with them,” says Palazola. “Some kids are more hands-on and want to get messy and dirty and build things, and then others are more into drawing, painting, or two-dimensional-type media.” Stock your home with the necessary materials so your child can thrive, and you will be blown away at all the new work on your refrigerator. “I am always amazed at what kids come up with in the use of space and the concepts they are working on,” says Palazola.
There are many wonderful resources in our community that host free family art workshops where you can attempt clayworks, paper sculptures, portrait collages, and valentines, to name a few. “Right now animation is really popular — drawn animations that you see in cartoons,” says Palazola. “Kids create the different movements of the character and put it all together on the computer to make an animation.” Industry-standard animation programs are made available to kids, and it can be exciting to watch your child as his imagination runs wild.
Drawing and painting classes are also in high demand right now. “It is about practice, and the strategy is learning to see in a different way,” Palazola says. Encourage your child no matter what art form he chooses to pursue and make sure he does not give up. “The really good artists are always drawing and carrying a sketchbook around with them, drawing in their spare time, and getting masterful at their craft,” Palazola says. You just might be raising the next Picasso or Monet.
Jamie Lober, author of Pink Power (getpinkpower.com), is dedicated to providing information on women’s
and pediatric health topics.