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Creative activities can be a joyful experience for young children. The child can focus on creating, examining materials, and developing skills. Young children benefit from creative opportunities that allow unstructured time for exploration and self-expression. This approach encourages creativity, fine-motor development, planning, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, imagination, emotional expression, and relaxation.

Often, the best way to encourage children to engage in process-focused art is for adults to offer a variety of materials and see what happens. Examples may include painting, sensory art activities, construction, design, clay, weaving, beads, stamps, collage, or drawing. Allow the child to come and go from their art, providing plenty of time for children to explore. For supplies, consider nature objects, recycled materials, loose parts, glue, scissors, paper, markers, paints, homemade dough, cloth, string, and other interesting materials.

Even as your young artist directs their own experience, adults can contribute by asking open-ended questions based on what they see the child doing. Open-ended questions are inquiries that do not have a simple “yes” or “no” response. Instead, they prompt children to think about their process, try to explain in their own words, and consider encouraging next steps they can to try out.

Can you think of another way?

What might you try instead?

What can you tell me about…?

What does it remind you of?

What does this make you think of?

What would happen if…?

What do you think would happen if…?

How did you think of that?

What can you tell me about the things you have?

What are you going to do with that?

Can you show me what you could do with it…?

Is there anything else you could use?

Process art is different from project art, which is adult-led, has guidelines and instructions, and usually only one outcome or final product in mind. Process art emphasizes expression, experimentation, and exploration. By providing a variety of materials and lots of time, the child can focus on their experience and create whatever they want, which is valuable for increasing confidence and autonomy.  

Need some fun ideas for process art with young children? Check out what children’s librarian Jaime at LearnPlayRead offers on her website. Merri Cherry also has 50 activities for kids that you might get some inspiration from. One of my favorite activities is Play-Doh in a variety of colors. Need a recipe for a no-cook version? Check out Laura Tuck’s recipe on the Inspire My Play website.

If you are feeling left out, remember that process art is not just for littles! Try out some fun exploration with materials yourself!

“You are an explorer. You understand that every time you go into the studio, you are after something that does not yet exist.”
― Anna Deavere Smith, Letters to a Young Artist

Aoife Rose Magee, PhD, earned a doctoral degree in Special Education from the University of Oregon Early Intervention Program. Her personal and professional interests have been largely focused on the social-emotional development of young children and how positive parenting and teaching practices may contribute to healthy development, promote resiliency, and mediate risk factors. Aoife is professional development specialist for students and practitioners in the areas of Early Childhood Education, Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education and Parenting Education.  Aoife serves as a Master Trainer for the Oregon Registry and frequently provides community based and private workshops for early childhood educators, parenting educators, and other professionals. For more than thirty years, she worked directly with families as a parenting educator, and she is a former Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative Hub Coordinator for the Parenting Success Network. She currently teaches as a full-time faculty in the Early Childhood Education Program at Lane Community College. She is also the mother of a fantastic young adult son and enjoys nature and creative pursuits in her spare time.

There are all sorts of ways to encourage your child to express their creativity. Performance arts, such as dance, acting, or playing an instrument all begin with your baby moving to music or rhythm, or your toddler’s first games of make-believe. Visual arts like coloring, painting, drawing, using markers or different types of paints start with your child experimenting in a variety of mediums. Woodworking, sewing and design have their roots in block play and letting your child choose their clothes for the day. Storytelling and poetry, rhyming and songwriting all begin with encouraging your child to use their voice to tell the story of what happened, doing finger plays and singing together. Creativity is all around you and your family! 

One of the first steps in helping your child get creative is to give them a wide variety of experiences and exposure to different types of expression. It is important to let them tell you about what they have created or done, and to describe what you see. For example, “You really used a lot of red in your picture. Tell me about what you have drawn.” When we avoid putting our judgements on their creation (i.e. good, beautiful) it will be a true expression of themselves, rather than them learning to do it “right” or to please you.

Ask them if there are any types of art they are interested in learning or practicing. By giving them many “tastes” of different activities, they can figure out which activities and mediums they enjoy and would like to do more of. 

If your older child is showing an interest in learning a certain type of art, help them get involved and show them the process. Sometimes, children just want to do something but don’t understand how time consuming it might be or what is involved exactly. You are your child’s best resource of knowledge. If your child is interested in something that involves equipment or materials, take your child with you to go and see the equipment or go and find the materials. If it is out of your price range, see if your school, neighbors, or a company has access to the equipment or materials, even if you have to rent it.

Just because your child is interested in one activity doesn’t mean that they will stay interested in that activity. Remember, your child is still learning about the world around them and they are trying to figure out what they like and what they don’t like. This is a time for them to explore. 

One of the ways to instill resilience in our children is to encourage them to follow through on their commitments. We want to encourage persistence when an activity is challenging, so sticking with the activity is important. Sometimes this takes lots of encouragement from us, like, “you can do it!” If your child is feeling discouraged, talk it through and support them to share their feelings. When we can name our feelings, it helps our brain be able to regulate and we can stay calm and access our creative mind. Take a break and try again. Confidence comes with practice over time. Self confidence comes with being proud of what you can do, which takes practice and persistence.

Try to keep the focus of any creative activity on the process or experience rather than the outcome or product. We know that we will stick with an activity when it is enjoyable. This leads to more practice and experimentation, which over time leads to mastery. Creative expression helps your child integrate their experience of the world into their brain and make sense of their emotions. 

Some ways to help your child find an activity that will help them develop their creativity is taking your child to go and see a variety of ways others express themselves. If your child is interested in dance, attend a local performance, or sit in and watch a dance class.

Have a dance party together as a family and enjoy the rhythm of the music, the melody and harmony, or the timing. Sing along and have fun together! Try different types of music to see if your child likes one type of music over another. Have a make-believe day as a family and dress up. This encourages dramatic play.

Try going on a walk and talk about all the details of the world you see. These details will help you understand what your child sees and what else you can help them discover. Does your child see the pattern of trees or a bug floating on the breeze? What color are the leaves during different times of the year? When you return home, they can create a picture of what they saw, act out the movement of the leaves in the trees, or make a rhyme using what they saw.

There are many different museums and galleries in our community. Take your child to a gallery and talk about what they see and what feelings it may evoke for them. Since children learn and experience the world with their whole body, you will need to remind them to keep their hands to themselves, and that it is important to respect what other people have made by looking with our eyes only, not our hands. This experience might spark ideas for other creative outlets to try as a family. Taking your child with you to plays, concerts and performances will also spark creativity.

Going outside the norms and trying different types of art are not only fun for your child but also fun for your family. Remember, creativity is all around you and is something new for you and your child. Have fun together!

This article is brought to you by Parenting Now Parenting Educators and authors. Parenting Now offers parenting groups and drop-in programs for families with children 0-8, and is passionate about fostering happy, healthy families. For more information about Parenting Now please visit their website (https://parentingnow.org/) or contact us at info@parentingnow.org.

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