As part of my quest to spend quality moments with my children every day (even if we don’t have a LOT of time between work, daycare and meals/bedtime routines), I’ve been working on simplifying the ways that we explore together, especially with art!
I’ve put together some practical tips from one mom to another to encourage your child to explore and LOVE art!
1. Don’t be afraid of creating art with your preschooler!
I don’t believe that creating with our littles needs to be complicated, scary or unattainable. YOU CAN be a “creative mom” EVEN if you don’t feel like you are! At this stage, it’s more about the exploration than the outcome BUT that can be hard to remember as a mom in our Pin-tastic world of perfect projects! It’s OK to love all those Pins and use them for inspiration, but our child’s projects don’t have to look like that all the time.
2. It’s OK to be messy!
The key is to be prepared for messy art. Put down some garbage bags or purchase an inexpensive tarp or drop cloth from the dollar store or a local hardware store (these can be reused!)
Be sure to get your children to wear old clothes or painting smocks (I always wore an old shirt of my dad’s when I was little and working on messy “projects”
3. Have a few SIMPLE supplies on hand (here are mine)
You don’t need to have a lot of supplies at home to create art. A few things that I keep in our house for art projects are:
- A large roll of white paper
- Paintbrushes
- Washable paint
- Scissors
- Coloured Paper
- Crayons
Be sure to check out this tutorial for making your own DIY liquid water color paints. It’s a super simple project and we had so much fun creating it together!
4. Use Helpful Resources To Guide You
My goal is to make it really easy for you to connect + create together. Our story postcards arrive in your mailbox in a bright, fun envelope and have an illustrated story, perfect for reading with your preschooler or early reader.
Petit Mail stories always encourage you to learn and discover together with simple, age appropriate activity ideas perfect for learning at home.
The best part? You can try your first story for just $10 in Canada and the US (postage included)
This month, Oliver Explores ART and in our bonus subscriber videos (link included with your story postcard), I’ll be walking you through an art project that you can do together (no complicated materials needed!) – it’s going to be so much fun and I can’t wait for you to receive your cards this month.
