Encouraging the Artist in Your Child (Even If You Can't Draw)
101 failure-proof, home tested projects for kids 2-10!
Not only for moms and dads, this book—in print for sixteen years now—has been embraced by desperate babysitters and teachers, too. It offers a variety of kids' art projects that actually have some art in them. Long-time artist and art teacher Sally Warner believes that the approach to creativity outlined in this book will help kids keep on making art long past the age when they usually quit.
This is not a "darling projects" book; rather, it is an approach to making art that is a real foundation for any child. Divided into Part One (art for kids ages 2-5) and Part Two (for kids ages 6-10), each of these parts contains both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art projects that kids can do at home, or in almost any setting. Drawing, painting, collage, yarn art, and sculpture -- there's something for everyone! Safety in both materials and methods is always of primary concern.
"I taught the art education courses for ten years at Pasadena City College," Sally Warner says, "but it is really my own experience as both parent and visual artist that I bring to this book. I'm told that it's easy to read and understand, practical, and even funny at times. People seem really to like it. . . I guess that's why it's stayed in print so long! I love to think of all the kids who have had fun doing these projects -- and who've continued making art."
Each of the art sections includes lots of suggestions for further activities, and each ends with a list and explanation of related art words as well as some artists to look at (in books or museums) who work in ways similar to those just experienced by the child. Most projects include suggestions for displaying the art.
(By the way, teenagers and adults have had lots of fun doing these projects, too!)
Download the text from the chapter "Drawing for children age 2 to 5".
Published by St. Martin's Press
Photographs by Claire Henze