Pablo Picasso was once quoted as saying that every child is an artist but the problem is how to remain one once the child grows up. Indeed, this is true for children will draw on just about any surface with just about anything to adult consternation. Remember how your walls became instant canvasses with pencil, pens, crayons, lipstick and mascara as paint substitutes?
With proper preparation, you can avoid mini disasters in the home brought by the artists in your children. You nurture their creative imagination, their artistic passion and their drawing skills in the process! Here is how.
Kids Toy Boxes
Studios within the House
The first step is to allocate parts of the house as little art studios, which can be in the living room, in the bedroom and even in the backyard. The important thing is that your children have a space of their own where they can be as creative, as imaginative, as messy as they want without too much adult frustration.
You need not provide for big spaces. Even if that space is just one kids' art table with ample art supplies in a corner of the room, you have created an art haven for your children. As for the mess, you have to teach them responsibility for cleaning after their own mess in whatever way they can safely.
Art Supplies Aplenty
If you purchased one kids' art table for every little art studio, you have to ensure that these are amply stocked with art supplies. Pens, pencils, paper (even scratch paper from your office), crayons, play dough, non-toxic paints and other art supplies are relatively inexpensive, which should not eat away into your budget.
Of course, your purchase of a kids' art table will be worth it. Not only does a kids' art table have art supplies upon purchase but you will also be getting an art area perfect for little legs to fit into and for little hands to work on comfortably and safely.
If possible, you can even teach your children how to safely recycle their art supplies and materials. For example, after filling up the paper with drawings, you can teach them basic origami!
For more ambitious art projects, you can install free-standing and wall easels adjacent to the kids' art table. These allow for collaborative paintings and murals for your children, which can reinforce values of sharing and cooperation.
Drying and Display Areas
You have provided for their space and their work table with an easel; now you have to provide for drying and displaying areas. This is because young children relish the feeling of being able to take responsibility for taking care of their own artistic creations and proudly displaying them for all to see and admire.
The drying area can be as simple as a length of wire with laundry clips from which your little artists can hang their watercolor creations. Just be sure to provide for a plastic mat underneath to catch the paint drips.
The display area can be provided for around the room, on the refrigerator door, on cabinet doors, even on the art table itself. The important thing is that you provide for a display area that you and your children both agree on.
In all these efforts to make a juvenile Picasso out of your children, remember that designing an art space with something as simple as a kids' art table can be a creative experience for you, too. Just have fun with your children!