A weekend community Art In The Park event is inspiring today’s summer fun and kindergarten readiness activity of Art In The Yard. Children’s art is surely self-directed play and kids can explore and create in a variety of ways.
Recipes for children’s paint are vast: finger, popsicle (frozen food coloring/water mix), sidewalk, puffy, fabric, flour, flower, and more. Instead of just paper, kids can paint on boxes, sidewalks, wood, and even old sheets. Brushes could be feathers, q-tips, marbles, spray bottles, hands, feet, straws, and toothbrushes, the old ones that is. Plus, there’s no limit to what kids can paint about!
Many of children’s play creations have a limited “shelf life”. Block structures get made and unmade countless times. Sensory play in water, mud, sand, shaving foam, rice, or other material, is highly creative without creating an object to keep or display on the fridge. But art play does have some sort of picture or visual item that kids make. Whatever it is, it stays the same and does not change; it will look the same today, tomorrow, next week and next month.
This is a very significant point and important for children. Something that is written does not change either. Language that is written down is permanent. Kids need to have an experience of something that people make that is permanent and stays the same. Art projects are, for the most part, the same: permanent and unchanging.
Also, making actual pictures and other visual items helps children make pictures, shapes, and colors in their minds. Visualizing and imagining are valuable learning skills and not just for early childhood. For a play-of-the-day what art might your child create right in the yard?