I’ve had so much fun doing art with Gianna. She dropped her one and only nap a few months ago, and after a good while of being really, really sad about it (no break for me!!), I’ve learned how to restructure our day. While Caleb still takes his nap, we have almost 2 hours to ourselves, during which we rest (for her AND me), and do all sorts of other adventures together. On a good week, I’ve planned out this afternoon activity, and it ranges from gardening, to a little homeschool chemistry lesson, to an array of art activities.

Lucky for me, a little while back I got to go to a free class at the library that was all about art with young children. I LOVE stumbling upon library classes that give me a ton of really helpful information in a short amount of time. The teacher was awesome, I had actually been to a class of hers before, and was so excited to have her again. There was a lot of things that she covered, and I sadly had to leave early because of my kids having a tough time with bedtime, but there were a few key jewels that I picked up and have held on to.

First, for young kids, art should be totally open-ended. No pre-cut pieces that have to be assembled a certain way so that it comes out to look exactly like the bear holding a flower pot that the example shows. Give them a piece of paper and some thoughtful art supplies, and let them freely decide what they want to do.

Second, it’s helpful for the parent to decide in advance set day/days of the week that art is going to happen. And, it has to be really reasonable. For me, it’s two afternoons a week. Setting the days actually helps me to do it. If I didn’t, I think I would just expect it to happen all the time and then get really overwhelmed.

The things the teacher of the class shared mostly about were collages and painting. In the handout, she shared a list of collage items (written below) that I found really helpful. A lot of the things I just had around the house! I put them in a bowl, set Gianna up with some glue and other supplies, and off she goes. Sometimes she can spend a long time with it, other times, it’s super short. I’m learning to okay with the latter!

The list of collage items included:

Fabric pieces, ribbon, lace…
Colored feathers
Yarn
Buttons
Toothpicks
Colored sand
Colored corn-meal
Colored macaroni
Cotton balls
Sand paper scraps
Sequins, glitter
Colored rice
Seeds
Tissue paper
Dried flowers
Foil and colored glut
Beans and corn kernals