Art has so many benefits for children from brain development, learning to express their feelings and emotions, developing hand-eye coordination, building problem solving skills, to establishing muscle control. And, it’s just plain fun!
Here are a few art project ideas that you can easily do at home with your kids.
First, a few tips:
Embrace and plan for the mess! Put down a drop cloth or old sheet. Or do it outside!
Step back! Set up the project and help facilitate...but let them explore on their own!
Follow their lead! Art projects are a great way to delve into your child’s interests.
1. Yogurt Spin Art
Prep the tops for your kids, then let them help mix the paint and then spin away! All you need is plain yogurt, a plastic top (could be from the yogurt), a long tooth pick, food coloring, and a surface to create your art on (paper or an old sheet cut-up into small squares).
Idea from: babbledabbledo.com
2. Spray Bottle Painting
Use spray bottles to create a work of art...while building hand strength. Simply add some paint to an empty spray bottle and squirt away!
Idea from: earlychildhoodlearning.com
3. Diffusion Art
A simple color mixing experiment featuring science! Using just markers, water, and a paper plate!
Idea from: babbledabbledo.com
4. Color Mixing
Perfect for a hot day. Freeze some cubes of paint (in 2 or 3 of the primary colors - red, yellow and blue) and take it outside in the sun to melt as the kids paint. When they run together, see what colors it makes!
Idea from: HandsOnAsWeGrow.com
5. Scratch Art
This is created by covering crayon artwork with a layer of black paint. Then scratching through the paint in various shapes or words to show the colorful crayon wax underneath. Grab white card stock or poster board, crayons in bright colors, black tempera paint or poster paint, a paint brush and craft stick (or wooden skewer or toothpicks). Also, suggest to put some newspaper underneath your art paper for easy clean-up!
First, color your card stock or poster board using the crayons. Cover the entire paper with lots of random stripes and/or blocks of color. When finished, give it one coat of black paint. The crayon may resist the paint at first, but keep painting. When the crayon is entirely covered with black paint, set it aside to dry.
Now time to scratch your art using the craft stick, just like you would with a pencil! Draw pictures, write messages
Idea from: happyhooligans.ca