Arting with Kids.
I love art of all kinds. I love looking at, immersing myself in and creating art. I’ve never been great at drawing, but I love collage and embroidery and crayons and pastels and painting. I’ve been painting since I was a kid.
The painting is the one that is truly a passion for me, I’ve never painted with oils but I love designers gouache and acrylics and most recently I’ve been obsessed with watercolors.
My absolute favorite type of art though is not technically a medium at all, and that is children’s art.
I’ve been doing art with children since I was a child myself. I was a babysitter from the time that I was 12 years old and always did art projects with the kids that I watched. I worked as an instructional aide in an elementary school classroom and a daycare and was also a Sunday school teacher in high school and created art projects with all of those kids. As an adult I taught and assisted many art projects with the students I worked with in special education classrooms. And I’ve completed an untold plethora of art projects with my own children, my youngest especially since I taught them at home for six years.
In all of those settings I didn’t just teach art, I learned art and I played art. Doing art with kids is absolutely the most fun and satisfying. It’s the most genuine form of play that I’ve ever been able to connect with. There’s something about it that is so freeing and simple and unpretentious. The kids don’t care what your work looks like, they’re just excited and happy that you’re doing it with them. There’s no thought of comparing your work to others as in adult art classes, you just do it and it’s fun. Pure fun, pure play, pure joy.
So in the spirit of pure, joyous fun play (that I definitely need to spend more time indulging in in my life and I’m guessing you do as well), please enjoy these childish creations that I made over the years either with my kiddos or alongside them as they created their own. I hope that you are inspired to art something childish with the littles or teenagers in your life or maybe even on your own. It doesn’t have to be a beautiful or stunning masterpiece, just absorb the childlike joy that comes with the fun play that you’re indulging in.