Much more than just drawing and painting
SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG
'The parents who want to instill the love of art into the minds of their kids should bring them to the kitchen to help with the cooking. Art is not limited to drawing and painting. It is also in the daily life activities as well."
Many parents send their children to art schools, hoping that the experienced "art teachers" will be able to teach art appreciation to their children. The parents are typically not confident that they themselves, too, can teach art to the children.
Professional art teacher Sajja Jantim or "Khru Laem" has a different opinion. The owner of Laemkom Art School believes that the family is the most important influence on a child's appreciation of art. He said art for children is much more than just drawing and painting.
"There is art in all daily life activities. In the morning, we wake up, take a shower, and get to make decisions of which clothes to wear and how to match up the pieces. That's art in daily life," said Khru Laem.
"Instead of bringing their kids to drawing classes at school, the parents should first teach the kids the art of dressing. They can teach about colours or mix and match techniques. This is how you can insert art in daily life activities, which is a valuable way to learn art.
"You must remind yourself that art needs time. The modern days tend to make us we rush the paces of our lives so much that we have lost art in daily life. Perhaps if we slow down the pace a bit, art will come back."
Khru Laem said some parents send young children to art school to substitute their own lack of childhood art experiences. In these cases, Khru Laem suggested the parents themselves should attend the classes rather than living vicariously through their children.
"Adults should not feel embarrassed to take a beginning art class. Learning should not be limited by age."
According to Khru Laem, parents send the children to art school because they feel compelled to do so. It is becoming a fashion that a child must study the trio of "art, music and sport", in addition to the general education.
But the children will not end up appreciating art if they are forced to learn it. Art should be fun and enjoyable, emphasized Khru Laem.
Learning art through cooking
One particular family activity that could significantly encourage art learning is cooking, even if it can be done only once a week. Cooking provides a chance for the children to experience various forms of art including shapes, tastes, scents and sounds. Unfortunately, modern families often turn to packaged foods and miss the opportunity to learn art from cooking.
Steamed egg cooking, for example, is a process involving simple steps and a few ingredients but can often be a great way to teach art to the children.
"The parents can simply ask the kids how they want to beautify the steamed egg. The egg, which is normally pale yellow, can be made orange with carrot, or red with tomato. Green can also be added by using vegetables," explained Khru Laem.
"The kids can also be asked to make small cubes out of the egg and learn how to present the food as well as the installation of the dinner table.
"If the kids are really young, they can learn by watching the parents cook. If there is time, the family should go shopping for ingredients at the fresh produce market. The market, with its multitude of colours, is a great place to bring the kids," said Khru Laem.
In Khru Laem's opinion, the children aged three and higher have developed muscles required for drawing, painting, and writing, but their school environment generally does not encourage them to learn creative arts. On the other hand, the school art classes are often boring and mired with unnecessary rules, resulting in the popularity of alternative art schools that use more positive and fun approaches to teach art.
The parents, however, can prepare their children for art appreciation even before they reach school age. This preparation is done by setting up a suitable home environment.
Art corner for children
A small corner of the house should be arranged as the place for the children to do various activities and arts. The parents should encourage their children to use this corner and prepare the necessaries, such as covering the floor and walls of the corner with drawing papers.
The children should be allowed to express themselves freely in the art corner, but the parents must make sure they know where the designated corner ends. The children will have the opportunity to use their imagination as well as learning the rules of the house at the same time.
The accessories provided at the art corner should include colour pencils, crayons, pastel sticks, play dough, papers as well as natural materials such as leaves, pebbles, and in the case of an outdoor art corner, dirt and sand. For older children, the accessories may include scissors, glues and old magazines that the children can tear or cut and paste.
"Parents must always keep in mind that art is more than painting and drawing. They should give the kids some freedom and time to create art by themselves. The parents do not have to be with them all the time, as the kids will have better focus when they are doing the activity alone," said Khru Laem.
Once the children have finished their arts, the parents can talk to them and ask about their "works" to let the children explain what they want to express and why they choose that particular method to convey it.
Finger painting
One easy technique to allow the children, including those that have not developed strong muscles, to enjoy creating art is the fingers painting.
This particular kind of art can be done simply by painting the children hands with primary colour paints, which are red, blue and yellow, then let the children press their hands on the paper to create various prints.
"The feeling of paints on the hands will excite the kids. Therefore, fingers painting can be of tremendous fun, and is a favourite activity for many children. It can be a good start for them to art appreciation.
"It does not matter what images the kids are creating by fingers painting. It can be absolutely meaningless shapes. But the important thing is that they are having fun."
Once the children have created the painting, parents can perhaps make suggestions on how to improve their works, such as adding lines or simple shapes to the image. The children will be excited to learn that their fingerprints can make rabbits or flowers.
Parents should also collect the works of their children as they are records of the children development as well as reflections of emotions and feelings in different ages.
For the special or challenged children, the parents can often observe the signs of their conditions early on by observing their art. Repeated or excessive use of a single colour or shape can often indicate some conditions of the children. Such works should be brought to child psychologists for further examination.
To check out more of Khru Laem's work with children, visit http://laemkom.multiply.com/.
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