Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books

At the end of January, my husband and I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Miami for his work. (Thank You, Lord!) Yes, you wonderful, hardworking, under-appreciated mamas, you, too, will get to do this someday.  I hope that for you. 

After his work meetings, he shared a powerful principle with me that he was learning. The principle was this: Most people have more fear of messing up than the fear of missing out. In other words, FOMU is stronger than FOMO. We are all insecure, and we are all afraid of messing up. When faced with hard decisions, we freeze--because none of us wants to mess up.

This applies powerfully to our kids and to us when faced with something like creating art.

Fun story-while in Miami I got to see an unusual art museum called Wynwood Walls. It celebrates street art: large, spray painted murals as well as street sculptures. I got to have 3 minutes to spray paint a wall as part of the experience. This is what went through my head: "Yikes! 3 minutes! I don't ...

I am interested in Space...but my husband, kids, and granddaughter are REALLY interested in Space! Since my granddaughter was visiting, it was fun to think about doing some glow in the dark Space art to share with her and other children this past weekend. If you want to take your kids' art out of this world, try this with us. 

You will need scissors and glue and about 30 min. to do this project.

Grab your glow in the dark art supplies. If you don't have any, just grab any art supplies you have. Kids will still get to make a fun space picture, it just won't be glow in the dark. Not sure what I'm talking about? Read what glow in the dark art supplies I recommend here. Here's one more recommended by reader Debbie R: Elmer's Glow in the dark glue!

You'll also need a piece of black or purple paper and a piece of any other color of paper, plus some different sized circles to trace. I used a canning lid, a plastic tub, and a spray can lid. Use a variety of sizes--we are making planets! To ...

Would you like to help your elementary children draw a quick art project? Have you seen your children draw a house? Perhaps they have drawn your house, or maybe a house from a story, or maybe a house they are imagining. I love seeing kids draw houses. Here are two drawings given to me by children years ago, to welcome us as we moved into our new home. I have kept these drawings for 20+ years, because they remind me of how these sweet children were helping us celebrate our new home 20 years ago!

There are some fun picture books out there for elementary kids about houses that will foster your kids' curiosity and creativity. Reading picture books is a great jumping off point to get kids drawing all kinds of homes. Here is the list:  
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Here are 3 of my favorites to get you started: (Amazon links)

1. If I Built a House by Chris VanDusen

2. Home by Carson Ellis

3. Let's Go Home: The Wonderful Things about a House by Cynthia Rylant and Wendy Anderson Halperin

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