How to encourage your mini Pablo Picasso or Frida Kahlo to shine – Flora Malpas, Writer & Teacher at Mini Artists

Engaging with the arts has been proven to encourage healthy brain development and helps nurture children’s natural innovation and imagination. Starting at pre-school age gives children the advantage of a range of skill sets at their disposal from the get-go so that they are ready to enter the big, bold world of school already armed with the potential to express themselves and work through problems. So, how can you encourage your child to embrace their inner artist? Process not product It’s important to remember with young children that it is the process of making that is key, not the end product. The experience of touching, moving, mark-making and paint dripping is where the learning happens, with the end results there to be proudly displayed on the wall regardless of its
finish!

Learning from role models

Speaking to artists, whether in their studios, in a gallery as part of a workshop or as part of a one-to-one session, gives your child the example of a real, living role model to look up to! Meeting an artist working today shows them that art is something which is happening now rather than consigned to the history books whilst meeting an

Supporting not controlling 

Through working with your child to support them in their art making, rather than dictating the end product or manner of construction, your child can gently move forward in the development of their artistic ability. Although Jean Piaget believed that the child’s development depended on them alone, it has since been shown that adult support can aid the child in moving forward from the lessons they have already learnt towards new challenges. (1)

Ask your child to tell you about their work

Asking your child to tell you about their work gives them the opportunity to explain what materials they used and how they went about using them. It’s important to leave the nature what is represented up to them, rather than asking leading questions such as ‘Is it a cat?’, especially as it is only between age 3 and 4 that “symbolic representation”- i.e. objects we would recognize- and basic circular people begin to occur.(2)

Get them involved!

However you go about it, the most important thing is to get your child involved in art in a way which they enjoy and which helps them to develop and discover more about the world.

Keen to find out more?

Have a look at this brilliant article by Early Arts’ to find out more about how art can benefit early years learning: https://earlyarts.co.uk/7-benefits-of-arts-in-the-early-years/

For ideas on how to make art with your child, see these guidelines from PBS: https://earlyarts.co.uk/7-benefits-of-arts-in-the-early-years/

Interested in the theory surrounding early years education? Read Bernadette Duffy’s Supporting
Creativity and Imagination

Looking for arts and craft ideas? Check out the activities given in Diane William’s Creative Art
Activities for the Early Years Foundation Stage

For further information about Mini Artists and their services, or to book your child’s place in their art classes please contact education@quintessentially.com

1 See: Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
2 See: Duffy, B. (1998). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Buckingham, Open University
Press, p61.