Why Children Need to Be Exposed to the Arts

In my years in the classroom, I have had the pleasure of pedagogy several children who take either one or two artists as parents. These children, who have a college than average exposure to art and the media for creating information technology, possess some qualities that many other children do not have: in add-on to their artistic talent, I have observed that they commonly read and write better than their peers. My decision is that their exposure to art affects other aspects of their learning. This led me to a discussion with Aiko Cuneo, an artist who works with children in public schools, to hash out the benefits of arts didactics, both in and out of schools.

We propose that parents expand their definition of art. If you are a bakery or a cook, if you like to suit flowers, if you enjoy the harmonious organization of objects in your domicile, yous are an artist. These expressions of inventiveness are as legitimate and valuable equally those of painters and the other people nosotros phone call artists. If you lot are a scientist and enjoy inventing and experimenting, you lot bring an creative sensibility to your piece of work and may include yourself in the definition of artist.

Art is a delightful way through which you tin can record the evolution of your kid's growth. Just as you will detect that writing and reading improves with age, so does artwork. The role of parents and teachers is to expose children to a variety of materials so that they can create fine art. Once the diverseness is offered, children will and then have a option as to whether they want to apply the materials or not. But without the exposure, at that place is no selection.

Creating fine art is a fine way for children to make choices and solve problems. Every step involves making a decision: what color to use, how to make a line, what size to make something. With every choice the object becomes more and more their own.

Everyone has an imagination. Art takes it a step further. Through art, children create something that, until that signal, was only imagined. Thus, they create visual manifestations of abstract ideas.

Children who may exist having difficulties in other parts of the schoolhouse curriculum may find an expressive outlet through art. It'south a way to uncover talent that may not be seen otherwise. Fine art is a means of communicating ideas, feelings, and solutions in a manner other than verbally or written

In a ten-year national written report by Shirley Brice Heath of Stanford Academy, information technology was discovered that young people who are involved in highly effective non-school arts-based community programs in under-resourced communities, in comparison with a national sample of students were:

• 4 times more than likely to win an bookish award, such as being on the laurels curlicue.
• Eight times more likely to receive a community service award.
• Three times more than likely to win a school attendance laurels.
• 4 times more than likely to participate in a math or science fair.
• Likely to score higher on their SAT college admission exam scores if they take been involved for more than four years of after-school arts study.

It is typical that those who fund school programs have seen the visual and performing arts as frills — programs that can exist added only when there is enough money for them, as well as the first to be cut if there is a budget crisis.

Families tin create a harmonious rest in their children's lives when they brand provisions for the arts. Following are ideas to incorporate them into your domicile life.

1. When you read to your children, be dramatic. Act out stories with props and costumes. Encourage them to create their own stories to act out for you lot.
2. Save sometime Halloween costumes for dress-up fun. Add to the collection with wearable you lot no longer need: hats, scarves, purses, shoes, and items you can find inexpensively at garage sales.
3. Put together an "art studio" in your abode. Stock it with a variety of tools and materials: crayons, markers, finger paints, pair of scissors, pastels, watercolors, brushes, glues, papers of various sizes and textures, intriguing constitute objects, leftovers from your own home improvement, boxes and containers of all sizes.
4. Expand your musical repertoire at domicile and in the car. Venture into unknown musical territory then that you and the children tin can hear something out of your usual fare. This can be easily expanded by turning to different radio stations and by checking out cassettes and CDs from the public library — all for free!
5. While the music is playing at habitation, dance together. Teach your children traditional dances you lot know or improvise with them. Body movement is fun and good exercise.
6. Sing together. Teach the kids your favorite songs. Many of them allow for verses that tin be made upwards, such equally "Down by the Bay," which can have an countless and hilarious number of rhymes added to information technology.
7. Look for arts programs afterwards school, on weekends, and during vacations. Many community park and recreation departments offer these. Summertime camps based on the arts are a good difference from the typical competitive sports camps.
8. Create a scrapbook together. Put photos, memorabilia, drawings, and captions together creatively. In doing and so, y'all will not only take a shared experience but a memory that volition terminal for many years (if you use acid-gratuitous newspaper).

The nearly important ingredient in the recipe is your interest. Be there to appreciate and encourage during every stride of the artistic process.

This article has been incorporated and expanded inTeach Your Children Well: A Teacher'southward Advice for Parents.  This article is reprinted with the author'due south permission.

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Source: https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/multiple_intelligences/the-importance-of-the-creative-arts-for-children-and-teens/

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