5 Cool Ideas Parents Can Use to Draw Their Kids Closer to Art and Learning

5 Cool Ideas Parents Can Use to Draw Their Kids Closer to Art and Learning

Hello there, Mr./Ms. Parent! What if I told you that inside your little Timmy, or your dear Molly, there’s a huge potential to be the next Picasso, the next Beethoven, the next Isabel Allende, uhh, Tarantino, etc? What would you say? Maybe you would reply “Sure, I know that” with pride in your tone, or maybe “Sure, why not…” with doubt. But regardless if you believe it or not, the fact is that everyone has a hidden talent. So, why not helping your child to find it?
What’s that? You want to know how to do it? Well, you are in luck, because now I will present to you 5 cool and fun activities that you can disguise as games for your children that will help them to stimulate their artistic side, while also learning some stuff at the same time. 2 for 1!

ACTIVITY 1:
CREATE YOUR OWN BOOK COVER

This can be done in 2 ways: In one, you read your child a short, 5-10 minutes story from your cellphone (no images), and then you challenge him to be the illustrator of the book. After finishing reading, you can ask him “If you were the creator of this book, what would you like to have in the cover art? How would you summarize the plot and theme of this story as an illustration?” and then you give him a canvas or a sheet of paper with materials (pencils, paint, brilliantine, etc.). After he’s done, you congratulate him and ask him to explain why he decided to draw/paint what he did. You can also challenge him to illustrate certain key parts of the story, or the beginning, the middle, and the end. His favorite part works as well. The idea is to encourage him to produce art using his own unique, abstract interpretation of what he listened.

The second way you can do this is by making HIM tell you a story about himself (how was your day, your favorite birthday, last vacations, etc.) and then challenge him to tell that story by making a book with only 3 drawings, like the books that contained only pictures that he used to enjoy when he couldn’t read yet. 

What will this activity develop: Artistic abilities, storytelling, comprehension and interpretation, etc.

What you need: Sheets of paper (or a canvas), pencils, paint, etc.

ACTIVITY 2

COMPOSE YOUR OWN TUNE

 Remember those catchy, repetitive tunes that lasted for a few seconds in those old Nokia cellphones? Me too. And who knows, maybe your child does as well. You can begin by showing the tunes to him with your cellphone (they can be found in Youtube as well), and then ask him: “Hey, why don’t we create our own tune?!”. Alternatively, you can challenge him to create his own theme-song, based on his self-perceived personality. Like, “if you were a cartoon character, and a 10 second theme played whenever you appear on screen, how would it sound like?”. Now, it doesn’t matter if your child doesn’t know how to play any instrument at all (but if he does, that’s even better), the important thing here is that he interacts with it and produces his own music, his own creation (regardless of the quality). You present the activity as a game, and you challenge him to compose it under 5 minutes. You can give him a flute, a guitar, a piano, any instrument (even with just clapping or tapping a pencil on a desk with rhythm). After he finally composes his own 10 second tune, you congratulate him and encourage him to learn any instrument he would like.

What you need: Cellphone, instruments, or your own hands for clapping.

ACTIVITY 3
 CREATE YOUR OWN BOARD GAME

I bet you have had a lot of fun playing Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, Guess Who, Scrabble, Mario Party, etc. with your son, but have you ever thought of how cool it would be if he used his unlimited imagination and creativity to make his own board game? That would probably sell out of stock in a matter of hours! Challenge your kid (and when I say challenge, I mean propose him the activity as a fun game) to create his own board game, using his own rules, his own theme, and his own characters (it can be his friends, grandparents, dog, uncles, favorite cartoon, etc.). Of course, you provide him with the necessary materials to do so, such as cardboard, scissors, glue, paint, dices, etc. After he finishes it, all the family can sit and play a couple rounds and tell him how amazing and creative his game is.
What you need: Cardboard, colored pencils, dices, etc.

ACTIVITY 4:
CREATE YOUR OWN HOLIDAY


Your son’s favorite holiday is probably Christmas, and rightfully so, but what if there was a holiday in which everyone had to do his favorite activity, play his favorite videogame, watch his favorite cartoon, eat his favorite food, etc.? I bet he would love it. So why not play a little game in which he gets to be the mayor and invent his own holiday? You can ask him to create a big poster that explains what his holiday is about (providing him all the necessary materials) and to highlight the key words that describe it best, or you could give him a worksheet in which he writes about it as well. If it’s not too crazy, you could even actually celebrate it with the family!
What you need: Colored pencils to make the poster, a big sheet of paper, worksheet (optional)

ACTIVITY 5:
CREATE YOUR OWN DANCE USING VERBS


This activity is ideal if your son is learning verbs in school. You can help him to further internalize the concepts by making him physically reenact them as steps of a dance. For example, if he is learning verbs such as “Jump, Swim, Turn-around, Crouch, Jump, Fly” etc., you can identify those verbs, make a list with them, and then challenge your child to create his own dance using that list. With this, you ensure that he successfully understand the action behind the verbs, as he creates his own steps for the dance using at least 10 verbs. You can challenge him to create 5 steps and then combine them creatively and rhythmically to produce his own cool dance! A little bit of camouflaged TPR doesn’t hurt anybody, and besides, it’s fun.
What you need: Verbs (list, flashcards, printed images, etc.), lots of energy to dance with your child.



Art is not necessarily limited to only painting or making stuff with your hands and using materials, that’s a misconception. Art in general is everything that your own imagination and creativity can express, in any way or form, ranging from physical movement, to music, to cooking, to storytelling, drawing, etc. Promoting art by doing fun activities that can help your son learn and enhance the retention of basic stuff he’s seeing in school is a good way to nurture the inner star we all have inside. I hope you like these activities as much as your children will!


-Franco Gonzalez