I have to admit that my hubby has thought I was crazy to allow our children to experience art so young. Yes, it might be a little crazy to allow a 6 month old the opportunity to paint but I think it’s a good idea. Maybe it’s the Preschool Teacher in me but I’ve allowed all of our children this experience. It is almost Baby C-4’s turn! As soon as my baby’s can hold themselves in a sitting upright position I allow them to paint!
Unfortunately I was unable to find picture proof of all of their earliest art experiences of the oldest three, but did find Eldest’s. I searched high and low through multiple Cd’s of pictures to no avail. I provided Eldest with some washable finger paint right on his tray. This way he was strapped securely in his seat so I could help ensure his safety and easily to clean up.
I will share with you another art experience I did find of both Eldest and Princess. These pictures were taken when Eldest was 4 years old and Princess was 2 1/2 years old. They are painting picture frame mats for Mother’s day I think.
Why Art at an Early Age?
Well, first of all childhood should be all about PLAY and exploration. Children who are given more experiences will be ahead of the crowd in a lot of areas of growth and development. Art helps with color exploration and fine motor control. Eldest has a great pencil grasp on his paint brush and loved mixing colors.
Princess has a deep concentrated expression on her face while she figures out how to open the bottle of paint. She has to concentrate on squeezing just the right amount of paint into the palette.
Looking through these old pictures makes me realize how much MORE art we need to do. I have had Lil’ Red draw things before. Just the other day he wanted to play Minecraft to update his “world”, but I asked him to draw the things he wanted to change FIRST! He did do a wonderful job drawing and then narrating what he drew.
Do you have Little or Big artist in your family? Be sure to enter to win a nice set of resources from See the Light! (affiliate)
I found a picture of my daughter’s first finger painting at 2 and a half and I was thinking that I wish I had started exploring painting and art things with her earlier. I think it’s a great idea to begin young – not so they can be world-class artist, but like you said, just as a new material to explore!
Both my 19 month old and 4 year old love to paint- I have found that yoghurt painting works really well as the youngest still likes to lick his fingers or eat the crayons!
Thaleia, I love this so much! Let me just say that again – I love this post! It’s so important for children to be exposed to art! Even as young as six months, it’s just fantastic that your children are given the opportunity to explore art. I remember one of the first times my son painted was for father’s day. I put some tape on a canvas and spelled out I love you, and I let the kiddo go to town getting his hands wet with paint and then touching the canvas and ‘drawing’ all over it. He was about seven months old at the time. He found it so mystifying and we’ve been loving art ever since.
Thank you for sharing this!
I love this!!!! I let mine paint at a really early age as well! They enjoyed it so much. My mom was the one who thought I was crazy but hey, my 10 year old is entering an art competition next month! 🙂
It’s wonderful that you introduce art so early. You never know what might come of it. And it instills a memory in the child that they have “always” done it.