10 Ideas to Get Your Kid Interested in Art

Parents often struggle to bring out the creative side of their kids. This has increased due to a new normal life – post covid – where children are more hooked to their devices than ever. Almost everything around them has become virtual.

Children are spending more time trying to cope with school worksheets due to the limitations of the new learning system. Art has become the least of priorities for schools as well as for parents. So how can you reintroduce it to your kids and bring out their creative sides? We have prepared a list for you to get your children’s creative connection back on track.

Importance of Art for Early Childhood Development

From the time when children can feel they have the power to move around their arms and feet- they are unstoppable. They work out ways to explore the world to find out how everything works. They see, observe, touch, imitate, feel almost everything that crosses their little eyes.

Allowing them to touch and feel at a young age helps them form connections in their brains. Art is the most effective way to support a learn-through-play approach. They have the freedom to learn from various materials in an unstructured way that encourages explorations and experimentation.

Learning about arts bring out the best in kids – making it fun and educational at the same time. So, let’s look at a few ways to keep your little ones interested in art.

1. Inspire them

If you are a parent, you already know that children are not the best at following instructions. Their curious minds love to explore and learn on their own. So, as a parent, you can create opportunities for them to feel inspired by a piece of art. You could start talking about the piece of art with your kids to plant some ideas in them.

Before you even realize it, you’ll see they are hunting for ways to recreate the art. Make sure it is age-appropriate because something too difficult or easy for their age can make them lose interest.

Give them the right tools to get creative. If your child prefers brushes, buy them paintbrushes, papers, canvases, and other tools to get their hands dirty. The main focus should be to nurture the artist in them.

2. Make a Creative Space

A sure-shot way to get your kids busy with art is to assign a dedicated space for them to do it in. The upside of this is that they won’t have to worry about ruining the carpets, furniture, or floors of your home. Permit them to go all out with the art.

Going outdoors or to a corner in the garage or basement is great for kids to create art. You can decorate their spot for them by displaying their favourite art tools, paper, craft supplies, markers, colours, paints, brushes, etc. You can also give them the option to listen to music while they are busy making art.

3. Time and Effort

Parents are always busy, and it becomes challenging to prioritize art over others – only because this means that you need to dedicate extra time and effort to manage it.

Try and come up with simple and easy ways that are convenient for you to manage in your daily life. Some parents enrol their children in art and craft classes, while others prefer to do it over the weekend. Whatever you choose to do, find ways to talk about observing things around them.

Ask them about the colours and shapes of the surrounding things. A super fun way to get into the habit of it is while running an errand or driving with your children – you can ask them to draw something they have observed. (You will need to keep sketchbooks and colour pencils in the car, in that case).

4. Make it Fun

Being interested in art does not have to mean just drawing and colouring. It can be extended to building or crafting too. Art has great benefits for children’s overall development. Their ability to observe, think, analyze and create gets highly enhanced through the practice of art. Creating art is an integral part of early childhood years – as it gives them the right resources to explore and become more independent.

For example, cut out shapes for them if they are too young and ask them to make flowers from them. You’ll see they will come back to you with a finished project.

You can simply give them a colour palette and ask them to mix and match colours to make new colours. They will immediately pick up on primary and secondary colours. You could also ask them to pick out leaves from your backyard and use them to make art. Another great way to make it more interesting is to play a step-by-step video for guidance like a Resin painting tutorial – they will follow through. This will help them with their first steps in Resin Epoxy Art by strengthening the basics.

5. Let them Explore

Typically, in art class, the teacher goes through the instructions in detail before children begin exploring. Yes, giving them instructions is important, but sometimes it can limit them. Well, it doesn’t have to be like that in school or at home.

They should be able to explore their options. You may find out that the outcome might be even greater than the expected one. The best way to go about this is to give them the right tools and examples – leave the rest up to their imagination.

6. Give them the Right Resources

Buy art supplies for the interest to grow. Kids are masters of finding objects to deconstruct them into new things. If you give them basic supplies like safety scissors, glue, paint, paper, cotton, strings, etc., that are child friendly – you’ll see they are making something or the other every day. You can even stack up reusable shopping bags and boxes for them to use.

7. Make it Easily Relatable

Sometimes, art can come across as a difficult-to-do project for many children. A great way to get them involved in creating art is to make sure they can relate to it.

Your child might be obsessed with a certain character or toy – try to incorporate their favourite things into art. Ask them to draw their favourite dinosaur or my little pony character. You’ll notice the interest sparking through immediately.

8. Participate with them

If you observe that your child has no interest whatsoever – you might want to come up with a different plan. Talk to other family members or think of a family project that requires art.

You can make it a weekend-long thing too. It could be building, painting, or creating something. Let them get their hands dirty and feel important while they are at it. Remember you planned this to get them interested in art. So make sure they are enjoying it. Be proud of the outcome to encourage them.

9. Make it Engaging

Kids can lose interest in seconds – and that has always been a challenge for parents. To ensure that they are not constantly bouncing off, come up with ways to keep them engaged on their own.

If your child loves messy play, give them cotton sponges to dab on paper or a canvas. If your child loves to build with clay, give them clay, a bowl of water and put lots of newspaper on the floor. If you are confused, make some efforts to find out what interests them to grow your child’s artistic skills. All you need to do is think of a quick way to make the process fun and engaging for them.

10. Display their Art

You have to be their biggest cheerleader if you want to encourage them. You have to remember to constantly clap for their artwork. Talk about it, tell them how proud you are of their work and how beautiful it looks. Ask them about the process they have followed, ask questions.

Take a picture of it to show them how much you have admired their artwork. You could also talk about it during dinner in front of all the family members. You can also offer them to get it framed to hang in their room. When they receive the right kind of support and encouragement at home, they grow willing to do better.

Conclusion

Being interested in art is like building a foundation for your children to express their feelings. It is a lot like preparing them for the future. If you feel your child will be better off in a kids arts and craft club, book a spot near your to try it out.

They will find their ways to connect with art in future years, only if they have been exposed to art and creativity in their early years. So as parents, don’t take this lightly – your child will not be three years old forever. When they grow up, you want them to be strong, creative, and expressive human beings – and art has the power to bring out all those qualities in them from a young age.