If your child shows signs of a creative or artistic tendency, the question becomes: how do you best encourage and nurture that creativity? In 30 years of teaching private art classes to creative kids of various ability levels, I put together some tips for parents:
1: RECOGNIZE THE SIGNS
Recognizing creativity in children isn’t always obvious. The creative child comes in all ages, sizes, and temperaments. Some draw. Some build. Some put careful attention into how they arrange things. The two things they all have in common are curiosity and production.
Their curiosity shows because they love to look at and study things. They will point out small details you may have to really examine to notice. Creative children often ask surprising questions and take deep interests in particular topics or activities.
Their production shows in that they produce things for an audience — even if that audience is only themselves. Often times, they like to produce an image of something they’ve seen, either in real life or in their imagination.
2: KEEP BASIC SUPPLIES IN STOCK
Here’s some good news: you don’t need to become a licensed distributor of 25 lb bricks of stoneware clay to keep your creative child engaged. Encourage your child with crayons, street chalk, whatever you have or can afford. And LOTS of paper. Rolls of brown kraft paper taped to their bedroom wall, pads of newsprint from an art store, old sheets you’ll never use anymore can be cut up. Provide surface to work on and something to work with — even pencils.
One fun way to do this is to keep a Mystery Box that holds one item they can use to inspire a new work. One week it might contain a new pencil, the next a leaf, the next a yard of fabric. It may be junk to you, but to your creative child this can become a great inspiration.
3: EXPECT THEIR CREATIVE MEDIUM TO CHANGE
One mistake I often see parents make is to hold fast to whatever creative medium their child is inspired by first. Creative children come in to my art classes thinking that they only want to draw or only want to do watercolor. Kids often fall more in love with a different medium once they’re exposed to it. Every kid will have their favorite and least favorite mediums, but allowing a child to get stuck in one medium doesn’t encourage or teach creativity — it only encourages and teaches one skill. Expect that — either through exposure, training, or just natural exploration — your child who loves drawing may begin to love painting or sculpture or diorama.
4: BE THE CONNOISSEUR, NOT THE CRITIC
Creative children almost always look for someone to appreciate what their curiosity and hard work have produced. The key to doing this is twofold. First, find easy ways to recognize what they’ve created. Turn the refrigerator door into their first gallery showing. Dedicate a table in the living room or a spot on a wall to their latest piece. This costs little to nothing and provides tremendous encouragement. Second, while most creative children want both encouragement and critique, let others provide the critique. As parent, simply appreciate what they’ve created and ask questions about the choices they made, the process they undertook, and how they feel about what they’ve made. As parent, keep the technical feedback to yourself and provide unconditional support. Reward their creativity; let others reward their achievement.
5: EXPLORE IF CLASSES WILL HELP THEM GROW
You’ve probably already considered training of some kind for your child: sports, music, or the like.
Art classes aren't right for every creative child, but they can be good for creative children for three reasons: a) your child gets the support, training and critical feedback to deepen their enjoyment of creativity, b) they learn how to turn inspirations into actual art works, and c) they learn skills of seeing and creating that they’ll take with them forever, even into their professional lives.
Skill level does not matter at all for considering art classes. What matters is whether or not your child would enjoy spending more time (or getting more out of the time they already spend) in being creative.
(The best way to find out, of course, is to try it. If you'd like to schedule a complimentary, no-cost, no-obligation art class for your child at Scarfo Art Classes in Downingtown, simply fill out the form on this page or call (484) 354-3103 and we’ll reach out to schedule a time convenient for you.)