Natural Born Artist

It’s official, coloring and painting is good for you!  Whatever your child’s age, whether it’s shading a picture with colored pencils or “dabbing” in color as an Impressionist’s painter, studies have recently shown this activity stimulates brain areas related to motor skills and creativity in children.  Some children may need to have movement to think, who knows you may have the next prodigy in your class.
As educators, have you ever received an assignment back from a child with doodling on the back or an array of super-heroes in the margins?  These creative, talented minds are artists at work.  In my opinion, given the right setting and environment, they will thrive.  Let their imaginations run wild.  What are we to do?  Have our students sit on their hands and tell them to, “calm down.”  This gift of the human imagination is a talent that I feel as we grow older tends to get lost in our over-stimulated world.  We need to allow these natural talents of our children to flourish.  Maybe instead of undermining this creativity, we as educators, should nurture this creativity.  Some educators believe this creativity is as important as literacy.  The hierarchy of subjects across the globe, unfortunately, has put the Arts on the bottom of the academic ladder.  As in everything we all practice in life, we need a healthy balance for our children.  As the famous Pablo Picasso stated, “All children are born artists.”
Furthermore, art and painting can work as a relaxation technique- calming the mind and occupying their hands it can help students enter a free state of being.  Do you have a student who loves to doodle?  Put your worries on hold.  Have this child pick up a paintbrush, colored pencils, felt-tips, and allow their creative side to go to work.
For more information, please call Thinking Tree & Learning at 1-844-READSCV (732-3728) and visit online at www.ThinkingTreeUSA.com.