Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

To some families, choosing painting as one of their activities at home for their young children simply comes naturally.

But to some others, moms (and dads too!) often feel clueless as to HOW they should introduce their young kids to painting activities.

(Btw, over the years, I have shared simple activity ideas for kids here on my blog. Just click HERE to check them out! =)

Anyway.

Brie did some painting the other day.

(She is now 3 years and 10 months, btw)

What I did :

Drew with a pencil, simple shapes according to Brie’s request (when asked, she said she’d like to paint flowers)

I then prepared the water colour paints and brushes (she asked for the colours reddish pink, green and yellow)

The rest … was done by Brie herself.

Simple and straight forward =)

TIPS:

– To begin with, keep the colour choices to a minimum.
eg. You may want to start with just painting with one colour, and adding more colours to the palette as she progresses with her artwork.

Reason :
So the child can focus more on the painting activity, INSTEAD OF seeing ‘a temptation’ to mix and play with the paints on the palette =)

As the child grows a little older … introduce painting a page in ‘full colour’– Start with a big drawing book, so the child can just experiment with painting strokes and colours on the page

– As the child grows a little older and when you wish to introduce painting a page in ‘full colour’, then I’d suggest using a smaller drawing book first.

Reason:
Simply because it takes less effort to ‘fully paint’ the page. It allows the child to see how it IS possible to paint a full page all on her own, and it encourages her to paint more and more the next time round.

– If you’re keeping the artwork as keepsakes, don’t forget to write the child’s name and date of activity at the back of the page.

I mean, it’s always nice to remember ‘when’ it was painted, as it does make a wonderful difference to know if the artwork was painted when Brie was 2yo or 3.5yo =)

Display their artwork at home– Other than giving verbal encouragements to the child, to encourage these little artists further, do display their artwork at home (eg. Even one or two artworks are better than none)

– Also, what we usually do is, take a photo of the child AND her artwork! =)

‘I’d like to share what you did with Daddy‘, is what I usually say to Brie.

And yes, soon after, I send the image to her Dad through Whatsapp =)

…

Have fun with your little ones!!