Talking about art with children 

You can encourage your child's artistic development with just a few words.  "It's beautiful" is always welcome, but here are a few other reactions that might get your child talking or thinking about her art:

-"Tell me about your painting"  This one is so open ended, she'll have to think of something to tell you.  When she does, you can encourage her to "tell me more about that."  By talking about their art, kids start to make connections in their minds.  They'll also develop pride in their work.

-While "It looks like a [fill-in-the-blank]" might not be the best thing to say to your budding artist, you can make observations that are helpful.  You can say things like "I see you've made long lines here, and short lines here.  Can you tell me more about that?"

-If you want to encourage your child to keep drawing (for example, he's made a few lines and claims that he's done), you can try "Take a look at your paper and find one area that needs a little more color."  See if that sends him back for another try.

-Another open-ended way of asking the child to re-examine her project is to follow up the "Tell me about your painting" conversation with "Are you happy with the way this turned out?"  If the answer is "yes", then this may be a masterpiece.  If it's "no", then maybe you can challenge her to go back and try a little more.

-When they "mess up": This seems to happen when they reach elementary school.  At this age, they can set out to draw something that may not turn out just the way they wanted it to.  One way to handle this is to encourage them to make something out of their mistake.  For example, if your child starts to write her name at the top of her drawing, but makes a mistake on the first letter, perhaps she can make that letter into a butterfly.  Picture saved.  And this gets their creative thinking going too.

-Encouraging them to stop:  Your child might make a beautiful painting filled with colors, lines, textures and all kinds of things that you can talk about together and hang up and admire.  But give her a minute too long, and those colors and lines cold become a big brown mush.  Big brown mush can be a learning experience too, but sometimes you have to encourage your child to stop.  Asking them to look at their painting (or drawing or collage) and ask them "Are you happy with this?  Do you think this piece is finished?" might be a good way to get them to think about what they've done and make a decision.  If they want to continue, then let them.  But give them a chance to recognize when they're done.


*One more thing...decreasing mess:  Little kids tend to like to pile it on thick when it comes to paint or glue (or anything else you can pile on thick.)  One line that has worked well for me, and that can even become a chant, is "Not too gloppy!"  Kids like to say it, and they seem to heed the words.


If you have any other suggestions for how to talk to children about arts & crafts, please email me and I'll do my best to share them.