“Art is a place for children to learn to trust their ideas, themselves, and explore what’s possible.”
MaryAnn F. Kohl
Messy. Spontaneous. Loud. Inspiring. Exploratory. Expressive. All of these words could be used to describe an artist. Your children are no different. Part of the joy of parenting is giving our children ample opportunities for them to explore and find their way into subjects, activities, and worlds that captivate them and cause them to feel passionate about something. Often many children are overcome with the fear of failure or perhaps immediate gratification is the key element to keeping their interest. These next few articles will address this topic with simple and inspiring ways to allow our children to grow into who they were made to be.
How do we encourage our child to embrace failure in order to succeed?
Praise their effort.
Praise the bad, the loud, the sloppy and keep encouraging them to do the very best they can in every area of their life.
“Whatever you do, do it all for the Glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31
We can praise their efforts by enjoying the process right along beside our children. Whether it’s knitting, drawing, acting, singing, or playing a musical instrument; having a creative outlet is very inspiring and actually vital in the development of a child. It is important to try new things and allow your child the opportunity to grow through the process. Parents can encourage their child and maintain an environment that makes practicing their craft enjoyable and functional by offering a quiet private space with the needed materials and resources.
There are so many ways to encourage the creative side of your child. We can praise their efforts by allowing them opportunities to share their product. Give your child opportunities to create and perform for your family and to be recognized as achieving something great and unique.
- Puppet theater presentations are fun! Children can select toys or even create new characters, give them each a personality, write a script, set up a puppet stage, and let the characters come to life!
- Children can make an instrument and give a presentation and concert with simple household materials. Teaching pitch, timbre, and the science of sound. Here is a great resource for homemade instruments.
- Video a “how to draw’ and send it to a friend for them to return the favor with their own drawing.
- Let your child teach YOU their instrument or craft.
Let your child know that their creations can also be for themselves. Not everything rehearsed and critiqued is going to be performed. So what is practice for anyway?
We will save that question for next month!
In the meantime, come see all the opportunities the Mineral Area Fine Arts Academy has to offer for the upcoming session! You can read all about it on our website, or visit us on Facebook!
Amanda Dement, Executive Director- Mineral Area Fine Arts Academy mafinearts.org
***Please note, this article was imported from the previous MAHC website. It was written by Amanda Dement. Articles written on the previous website by users who do not have a profile on this website have been listed as written by the editor. However, the original author is listed in each article.
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