Art + Kids= Some Pretty Good Stats!

"The only time I feel alive is when is when I'm painting." - Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night

I could stare at this all day. It reminds me of my sister who is an AMAZING painter and beyond talented.

Recently I came across some pretty crazy stats about kids and art. Side note...I'm a sucker for stats. If you're trying to get your point across to me give me a stat and I'm all ears!

In the January 2011 Today's Parent issue they have an article under their 'Steps & Stages' section called 'Encouraging creative play' (under the 3-5 years on page 93). They make suggestions for different types of creative play (art, drama, music, building and book corners).

Carol Reid, professor of Early Childhood education says creative play is valuale for preschooler because:
promotes problem solving
develops critical and abstract thinking
enhances kids' vocabularies and verbal skills
develops important social skills

Above was taken from the 'Encouraging creative play' from Today's Parent January 2011 article.

Last winter our 'toy room' consisted of a basketball hoop, a hockey net and a zillion other toys. James didn't touch any toys and only wanted to play sports (which is great but would have been nice for him to pick up Thomas every now and again!). This year he is all about the toys and imaginative play. Sometimes I can hear him acting out each of the toys character's and I don't think there is anything quite like a child's imagination.

We've been going to Family Sundays at the Kelowna Art Gallery for the last couple weeks. James absolutely loves it. The environment is perfect and the crafts are always much more exravagant that I would ever consider doing at home. It's an amazing program and we've now included it as a permanent weekend plan.


Another option is 4 Cats Art Studio. I know Jemma (Sarah's daughter) loves this place and had her birthday party there this year. James and I are hoping to try it out in the New Year!

Then comes the decision of how to display all this art work. There's always that good old fridge door!
Many months ago amidst my blog reading I came across something that I knew I had to do. It seemed like the perfect solution for us because our 'toy room' is technically our dining room. Clearly we aren't hosting lavish dinner parties at this stage in our lives and quickly gave it a new purpose. Our toy room is an open flowing room to our living room. So I needed something simple and classy.
I'm so excited with the result and how it turned out!!

I think he likes it too!
I custom ordered the wall vinyl and then proceeded to hang it crooked (major ugh!). Found the frames, cork board (thanks Devon!) and James painted them black.

Got out my trusty glue gun, a little bit of hanging and tah dah!! 

'James the builder' even helped put his artwork up. 


I'd love to hear about how you display your children's art and any wonderful art opportunities out there for my budding van Gogh!


Wishing you all a stress-free weekend before Christmas!