Abrakadoodle: Art For Children

Art is a critical component of early learning with children. Art enhances imagination, creativity and critical thinking skills. Research shows that math and science skills are also enhanced through art. With so many school districts moving art out of their curriculums enrichment at home is needed. A great resource for your family is Abrakadoodle, a national art enrichment program with exceptional programming, a cool blog and many activities you can do at home with your own children. Who's the little Matisse living in your home?

Everyone is an artist, visit Abrakadoodle to see how you can help your children discover art.

Consider this idea from the Abrakadoodle blog:

What color was your day?

Art can be introduced into your child’s life in so many fun ways! Color evokes powerful emotions in us all, and each of us perceives color in different ways. What’s fun is to find out how your child reacts to color as an individual. Forget the preconceived notions of what people are supposed to think about a certain color, which is commonly known as the psychology of color.

Co-create a color wheel, chart or box with your child. You can use the basic colors or add lots of additional colors, depending upon your child’s age and interest. Perhaps your child will want to color white paper to create a personalized palette. Once you have your colors organized, you can have some fun exploring them.

We traditionally greet our child after school with a “Hello, how was your day?” What if you changed this up and said, “Hi, what color was your day?” Instead of hearing the typical, “Fine,” “Ok,” “Boring,” “Hard,” etc, you could engage in a colorful conversation. Your child could use the color palette to express the color or colors of the day that best suits his or her experience. Maybe it was a purple day. The question is: what does that color mean to your son or daughter? So, you’ll have to ask questions, such as: “What made today a ‘red’ day?” Perhaps the day was more than one color, and that’s okay, too. As long as your child does not feel judged for his or her feelings about colors and emotions, then you can give your child yet another way to colorfully express him/herself and expand visual perception. It's also an imaginative way to show interest in your child.

Posted by Karin Machusic, Editor at 7:03 PM on Mar 4, 2008 http://abrakadoodle.blogspot.com/