Children of every age love to color, paint, draw, cut, and glue. They scribble on the walls and smear mud on the backyard fence. They mix all the paint or Play-Doh colors together to create new colors. They cut endless pieces of paper and paste them together with glue.
Is all this just a mess, or is there a developmental reason for the chaos?
Luckily, research shows that children love to create, and channeling their creativity has many positive benefits. Here are just a few.
Art Creates Well-Rounded Persons
When we focus on memorizing factual information in the early years, we can create children who are hardened by the beauty around us. Art helps children delight in the small areas of beauty, experience pride in their work, and value another’s art.
Improves Fine Motor Skills
Children begin to develop fine motor skills around twelve months of age. This is most noticeable with picking up food using a pincher grasp. As they grow, children will gradually acquire more fine-tuned motor skills, but there is a lot of practice needed before a child can successfully write their name on their homework assignments.
Art gives children the motivation to develop fine motor skills. Holding the grip on a crayon while dragging it along the paper is challenging for young hands, but the delight of seeing the color gives the child a reason to keep going.
Scribbling is a precursor to handwriting, so it’s vital to allow plenty of time for children to experiment by scribbling. Over time, the intrinsic muscles needed for handwriting will mature and strengthen, making handwriting easier in kindergarten.
Boosts Problem-Solving Skills
Art is open-ended. Any form of art provides endless possibilities to express the imagination. During creation, children make choices of color, texture, and proportions, and they learn problem-solving skills to get it to all fit together. They may change their mind along the way and need to adapt, or perhaps they made a mistake and must choose to either hide or include the mistake in their final creation.
These problem-solving skills aid children in social and educational situations. They learn to persevere and concentrate, make the best of mistakes, and learn how to do things correctly the next time.
Art Helps Children Express Themselves
Children experience a range of emotions throughout the day and are learning how to control and channel these feelings. Learning art is one of the best tools a child can constructively express their emotions.
If a child is feeling angry or anxious, an “art timeout” will allow them time to focus on something else and return to their situation of frustration or anxiety with a calm spirit.
Improves Academic Performance
Believe it or not, art can improve academic performance! Studies are being reviewed that show a correlation between creativity and higher IQ. Learning shapes and space help children master early math skills and learn about ideas such as bigger and smaller, opposites, and spatial awareness.
How Do I Start?
Hopefully, you are inspired to help your child experience the beauty of art. But how do you get started?
Luckily, art is easy to incorporate into your daily routine–it just takes a little intentionality. Starting with simple crayons and paper or a coloring book, talk about each color and shape. Some basic paints (or pre-colored paint with water pictures) are sure to delight your child and have very little cleanup. Paint sticks are another easy clean-up craft!
Older children can improve their fine motor skills by cutting with blunted children’s scissors or using stickers. Glue sticks can bring a new dimension to their cutout creations.
Art at Crestwood Preschool Academy
At Crestwood Preschool Academy, we strive to provide many opportunities for various art forms on a weekly basis. From infants to older ages, we include age-appropriate crafts, activities, and art appreciation so children gain all the benefits of art.
It can be hard to include your child’s art skills during a busy day. Thankfully, you can rest assured that your child receives age-appropriate and fun art skills at Crestwood Preschool Academy.
Crestwood Preschool Academy is proud to offer an outstanding educational and fun curriculum that prepares your child for kindergarten per state academic standards.
Contact Crestwood Preschool Academy today if you’re looking to give your child a head start in school!