How to Teach Art to Children – The First Steps on an Exciting Journey

Teaching art to kids is an essential aspect of their education. Art helps children develop their creativity, critical thinking skills, and self-expression. 

The most important part of teaching children art is to give them the room and freedom to experiment with expressing themselves. Judging, comparing, and criticism have no place in art, they kill creativity and fun. 

How many people have given up on art because of hard, judging words in their childhood? Don’t do it to your child. Just let them explore. Art is like everything else, you do it often and you will get better at it. Just ask them to explain their picture if you aren’t sure what it is showing, that way you don’t get into trouble 😉

We will also talk in detail about the best ways to teach art to kids, the most important element of art, and when or if kids should start art lessons.

The Best Ways to Teach Art to Kids

• Encourage creativity: Encouraging creativity is crucial when teaching art to kids. Allow them to explore and experiment with different materials and techniques.
• Provide a safe and positive environment: Create an environment that is safe and positive, where children feel comfortable expressing themselves freely.
• Use age-appropriate materials and techniques: Use materials and techniques that are appropriate for a child’s age and skill level. This ensures that they don’t become frustrated or overwhelmed.
• Allow for self-expression and experimentation: Allow children to express themselves and experiment with different materials and techniques without fear of making mistakes.
• Provide feedback and help if asked for: Offer feedback that is specific and encouraging if your child is seeking it. Help your child if it asks for it, like showing how some effect can be achieved or making them aware of what could help them achieve the effect they are looking for.

Starting with Teaching Art to Children

There are many different ways you can go about teaching art to children. But first ask yourself what is your motivation behind it.

Art Is creativity, a healthy way to express feelings and process them, a way to explore yourself and your surroundings, a way to develop and so much more. But there are also parents, who want their children to succeed in art, so they have something to show off to friends and strangers. That wouldn’t be a healthy start for them or their child and I hope after this article you understand why.

Today we have many ways to capture what is around us, and that’s why everything coming from within is even more important than ever. Otherwise, art lacks its soul and the certain light that captures the beholder. 

Let your kids grow in their way. Maybe they don’t draw what they see, but what they feel, taste, or even hear. There is no wrong way with art. 

So, in my opinion, give them the things they need to get going, introduce them to new materials if you have the feeling they would appreciate a change, and help them out if they are frustrated because they can’t figure out how to achieve what they try to do. 

Have certain rules about cleaning up after themselves or show them what to do and what to avoid, so the material doesn’t get spoiled. Like rinsing out brushes, cleaning up colors before they dry (especially acrylics), how wet paper gets holes if you stay in the same spot too long, etc.

But then allow your children to work independently, encouraging them to experiment and explore on their own.

Art Skills for Preschoolers and little ones

Searching for the right way to introduce your little one to art, here are some ideas:

• Children of every age can practice their fine motor skills by scribbling and drawing with different materials like crayons, markers, and pencils. (Our one-year-old loves to color with the big ones and tries to copy them, she even holds the pencil like they do.)
• Painting and coloring are great ways to explore colors, shading techniques, and how colors can be mixed to create something new. (For those that still want to taste everything you can easily create edible colors with food coloring and yoghurt or water.)
• Collage and mixed media projects allow them to experiment with different textures and materials, as well as space and layering.
• Working with clay and playdough helps improve their hand-eye coordination, three-dimensional imagining, and tactile awareness.
• Printmaking and stamping can be a fun way to develop an understanding of shapes, patterns, and colors.

 The Most Important Element of Art

Art is subjective, as it depends on individual perspectives and preferences. Art isn’t for being liked, art can be provocative, can show shortcomings of society, or critizise. It is an expression of feelings, thoughts, zeitgeist and so much more. It is not just about the outcome, but about the process.

So I think it is important to teach children from a young age, that everything is exactly right as long as it came out the way they intended. There is no wrong way to paint or draw something, there are just different ways. So it shouldn’t ever matter to the artist what someone says about their art as long as they are content with the outcome. 

The most important element of art is self-expression and creativity, fun and development, and the satisfaction of accomplishing what you wanted to reach. 

Encouraging children to express themselves freely and explore their creativity is the essential aspect of art education.

What Are Added Benefits of Art?

Next to the obvious, did you know art helps brain development? Here are some areas where it directly benefits brain development (as taught in Montessori):

• Hand-eye coordination
• Fine motor skills
• They practice expressing themselves: nonverbal and verbal (by explaining their pictures)
• Stress regulation (concentrating on what they do with their hands helps block out stressing stimuli of their environment)
• Implicit memory (effortless and unconsciously remembered tasks as riding bike)
• Spatial intelligence ( the ability to visualize space from different angles, with shapes and fine details, as well as recognizing and remembering complete visual scenes)
• And many more

Why Art Shouldn’t Be Judged

Like I said before art is a way of expressing your inner feelings, thoughts, and all of the things you can’t express with words. So it is not about being the fastest, jumping the highest, or being right about something. It is one of the most subjective things I know, because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, right? There are many paintings out there, that are sold for a lot of money and I wouldn’t want them hanging on my wall for free. So judgment, criticism, or grading of art doesn’t say anything about the art itself or the artist for that matter, but about the one judging.

When Should Kids Start Art Lessons?

Once they are working on mastering a certain style like photo-realism or a certain technique like aquarelle or oil painting you can find courses in your area or online to help them refine, but always let them experiment at first.

When they are interested in different styles and techniques, introduce them to famous artists and art movements, and encourage them to explore and experiment with different art styles and the history behind them. Maybe you can also plan a visit to a museum.

Often art lessons are very limited in what they are teaching, and that is okay if it is exactly what you are looking for, but for the exploring stage of art, it can do more damage than be of assistance.

Overall, learning about art is a valuable aspect of education. By encouraging creativity, and allowing for self-expression and experimentation, children can develop more than just their artistic skills. It will also improve their confidence, their imagination, their eye for color, and their skills overall and gives them a coping technique for their feelings and stress.