Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books
Literature based art ideas for you and your family
Fear of Missing Out-or Fear of Messing Up?
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 ...
Make a glow in the dark space picture
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 ...
Top Ten Favorite Art Supplies
I love to share the art supplies that have worked best in my experiences with kids and art. Here is my quick beginner list to have around for your kids to be able to get creative in a moment's notice.
Here are a few of my favorite things! (This list contains affiliate links)
- Crayola Crayons- (And have you read this book all about their invention? Dan the Crayon Man by Natascha Biebow)
- Oil Pastels- These are thick and easy to color and blend with. You can also find them in skinnier sticks. I like the thick ones because they are easy for kids to hold.
- Prismacolor Colored Pencils or Crayola Colored Pencils- Prismacolors are wonderful, but it's fine to start with Crayolas. Prismacolors make great gifts for the child who is very interested in drawing and coloring.
- Crayola Tempera Paint- This paint can be mixed together to make more colors. It is thicker than plain "washable" paint, that is frustrating to paint with because it is so thin. Bigger bottles and more colors of tempera ar ...
