Art Group

Inspired by The Artful Parent and motivated by a desire to connect with other families interested in fostering creativity, I decided to start an art group. Today was our first gathering. In preparation for the group, I turned to one of my favorite parenting books, Young at Art. It was helpful to review the developmental stages of drawing, especially Striker's thoughts on the importance of scribbling. She emphasizes the importance of allowing young children to fully immerse themselves in this stage without rushing them to label (avoid asking "what is it?")or create representational artwork ("can you draw a dog?" or "that looks like a house"). There is important work happening at this stage: on-going explorations (line, color, etc), physical changes (coordination, fine motor skills), and pure enjoyment. You can read more of Striker's thoughts on this stage here. I kept her words in mind as I was selecting the materials (limited color choices, extra large paper), the work space, and the focus of our activities.

We started our group today by reading Someone Says which is filled with beautiful illustrations and simple text highlighting the magic of imagination and creativity. It seemed to be a good starting point and when the book was finished, the kids enthusiastically started drawing using Slick Stix (highly recommend these for young artists). It was fun to see the different personalities and developmental stages emerge in their drawings. After drawing for a little while, we moved on to making no-cook playdough which also turned out to be a very enjoyable and messy tactile activity. Overall, I think it was a good start. I am glad we have a nice location for the group (a local community center), a friendly group of American and Italian moms and kids, and a weekly time to get together. Looking forward to many more creative adventures together.

Interested in starting up your own art group? Here are some helpful tips.

**Just realized Emily also posted about today's art group, too. Thanks, Emily!