Painting For Kids - 7 Benefits To Doing Art As A Family

Easy Painting Crafts For Kids

7 ways art can improve your family dynamics

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Here are the best painting crafts for kids. They’re free, fun and easy to follow and will make painting at home a favourite activity for all the family members! Read on past the links to learn about the importance of creating time for the visual arts at home, and the 7 remarkable ways art at home will improve your family dynamics.

Easy Painting Crafts For Kids

Here are my top five painting crafts for kids:

Andrea Nelson Art – Her projects are so colourful and kid friendly! A must if you want to create simple and fast paintings with your kids. Lots of use of colors, and a great way for kids to express themselves quickly!
BestIdeasForKids – Super fun and extensive list of easy painting tutorials you can try with children of all ages!
Creations CeeCee – The cutest, funnest most creative way to paint adorable birds. Honestly, the cutest I’ve ever seen! A super fun tutorial for kiddos!
Rainbows, galore!! – Here’s a list of the easist rainbow tutorials I’ve come across! My kids just love these!
Art for Kids Hub – If you have kids and a TV, you probably have heard of these guys. They’re great simple drawing videos to help your kids lean how to draw all kinds of objects! Super fun and easy to follow. They also paint in a group setting, as a family and I love that my kids get to see that. My 6 year old has watched more than I’d like to admit!

We all know that creativity and artistic expression for children has proven to help with concentration, negative emotions, confidence, emotional regulation, social skills, child development and mental health conditions.. But what about family relationships, parent-child relationships specifically in young children? One of the most positive surprises since starting my business and painting from home has been how much our children have been able to experience and learn and how our family has grown as a result of this shared experience. We’ve been talking a lot about this at home and some of the positive change that we’ve formed because of it. I thought it was worth sharing here because they are unique shifts that have helped us bond in the most unlikely of ways.

The beginnings days and the lessons learnt

It all started during the pandemic. Like everyone else, we were sheltered up inside our home together, balancing life and all that it entails – work, play, rest… About halfway through though, I decided to pursue the arts as a full-time business, in turn needing a space in our already crowded house for creative thinking, painting, packaging ang selling my artwork.

At first it was a small desk in our bedroom, but then it quickly grew to expand to an entire room off the kitchen dedicated to my studio. As the business grew so did my needs. Packing boxes, equipment, painting table, supplies, packing area, storage… Often times the girls came back from school and needed to step over a stack of boxes or a blank canvas that I had yet to find space for.

I worried it would cause chaos in their lives. A mess that wasn’t tamed.

But three years later, with the mess still very much in tact, the girls have seen first hand how both creativity and hard work can bring us happiness and self-worth. Art making has become a big part of our daily lives and a creative outlet for each of us.

Here are the 7 INCREDIBLE LESSONS that our kids are learning through creativity and entrepreneurialism.

1. Differences are a good thing – creativity is very unique.

When we all sit down at the dining table and draw something that makes us happy, we will each draw something different. Sometimes its a place, or a treat or a memory… The way in which we express ourselves through creativity is very individual and having these discussions at home makes for these positive conversations and lessons. A year ago we started some work with an art therapist with our oldest daughter because we found, along with the therapist that the best way for her to express herself was through art-based therapy in a safe environment. She would draw and it was much easier for us to understand her thought processes. That’s the power of art and art therapy techniques. After this, we would try to recreate this type of method at home as a form of anger management for her.

2. Opinions and likes are very personal.

Our tastes, needs, likes, dislikes.. all of those things make up our personality and by having a place or time in your family to express them without judgement, defensiveness or effect is a really important lesson to teach our little ones. We can all coexist happily and respectfully but have different opinions. Mutual recognition and a channel of expression make for positive relationships amongst our family members but also skills they can translate to their friends.

3. Creative expression is very important for mental health.

This one is a big one in our family. Both my husband and I use creativity as an outlet for when we feel stress or anger. Mine is painting and creating with my hands while my husband’s is music. When one of us need a little mental break we often retreat to our creative space and focus on the thing that make us calm and happy. It’s a type of therapy for each of us.

We’ve noticed that our girls have begun to do the same when they need it. Our oldest daughter will write or draw, while our younger one will grab one of my watercolour brushes and draw large colourful shapes and patterns. They both use their hands to still their minds.

4. Making time for each individual person and respecting our own time and priorities.

I think it’s been really healthy for our children to see that every single person in the family needs to have their own time and space. In the case of work, I’d often feel guilty when my kids would sit beside me while I worked. I felt like they didn’t feel as important or that I didn’t care. So I’d try to hide the fact that I had to work.

The truth is though, I now believe that they can learn from watching their parents be dedicated to something they love and to have balance in the family that includes everyone’s needs.

I am still very mindful of time and family obligations, and of course their school, homework, activities, parties and all good stuff that make up most of our time but every once in a while, my work is the priority and they understand that sometimes that means a sacrifice.

5. Creating space in the home for each person’s interests.

While we’re still abroad, we’ve had to get pretty creative with using different space in the house for all our activities. In the home we’re currently in, my studio is right next to the kitchen and often times, creeps over onto the dining table. While my OCD brain hates this mixed use of space, it teaches our children to respect that each person deserves and has their own space that is meant to stay theirs regardless of where it might be in the house. Any that sometimes means sharing another space to make it work.

That sometimes means no touching, or eating next to something, moving things around or just respecting something in that place as they found it. They’ve learned to be careful around a painting that is drying, asking before using something that isn’t theirs and being flexible with sharing space.

6. Learning from each other’s failures.

A failed painting, a crumbled up sketch. A mistake. Art is at the same time completely forgiving and relentless is pointing out of failures. The smallest of details can throw off an entire painting and the personal energy we put into each piece makes it that much more challenging. When we fail, we start over.

We learn. We adapt. We grow. We don’t give up.

Especially when it comes to business. By running my small business from home, the girls see me fail, succeed, try and try again.

I want them to learn that they can create and build something, ANYTHING they want if they work hard and persist.

7. Cleanliness and organization are key in the home.

Since the pandemic, we’ve all found ourselves having to share a space to make life work, right? From bedroom to office, dining room to conference room, family room to classroom, we’ve all had to give up a little space.

And in those moments, we all lose a bit of order. I think that’s normal. Our home is not meant to be a museum. Our dining table turned into an office/homework space/remote learning/craft table/puzzle making area. A creative oasis! Having said that though, I think it’s absolutely important to teach our children that making time in our day to keep our space tidy and organized is important for the current moment we’re in but also for tomorrow and the next day.

To know where things are, to learn how to take care of our belongings and respect our home are really great lessons when we’re all sharing the same space.

Twice a week, I teach watercolour to kids. The last 10 mins of each class we take the time to wash and dry our brushes, clean our surfaces and put our supplies away. It’s absolutely the least favourite part of the class for every single kid you’d poll, but it does teach them to respect their materials and know they’ll come back to a nice and organized work space the following day. It’s part of our artistic skills, to be able learn the proper use of materials, clean up and the unique value in being grateful for the time we have to do this.

But don’t take my word for it, here’s what they said…

We wanted to get our kids HONEST opinion about this so we asked them the following question:

What do you think or feel about about making art at home? By yourself and also with your family?

Camila, 8 years old: “I like it because its fun to do. I like painting the most. I like it more when we draw together instead of by myself but actually, also by myself because then I draw stories. I like to do my own things.”

Elena, 6 years old: “Like your paintings? YES! With you. Like mama. I want to be an artist. We spend time together making cards and drawings for our family”.

The takeaways and how to create as a family…

Sometimes, it is what we do not communicate verbally that best expresses who we are and what are our true selves are like. I think the most important thing to takeaway in all of this is to create space for every single family member to express themselves in whatever way they need. Knowing you have people in your life that allow you the space you need to be yourself is probably the greatest feeling we as parents can give our children. Art can be an incredibly powerful means to deliver that message.

So, how can you make time in our already crazy schedules for art?

If it helps at first, schedule it in. Perhaps two hours every weekend is dedicated to creating artwork. Create a little art box with supplies – paper, pens, markers, paints, brushes… and start with some simple YouTube videos that are follow-along type videos on how to draw ____ .

Laugh. Be Silly. Experiment. Your kids will love it!

Later you can expand to trying a family artwork, but if you go this route make sure each person has the ability to contribute their own interpretation or expression. We’re not quite at that stage yet, so we give each our girls their own paper or surface. With time, I’d be nice to see them make something together but right now they’re still focused on their individual piece.

Remember it’s about the process, not the outcome.

We’re not all naturally good at art. It takes time and for some, it can be really frustrating so if you have a kid that struggles with perfection or patience, a really good way to start is with abstracts, patterns, shapes and colours. Watercolours are really great for just playing with colour and patterns without worrying about form, perspective or accuracy.

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ABOUT THIS POST

This post is written by Donata Delano – A Professional Artist, Graphic Designer and Architect based in Canada and Mexico. She specializing in visual communication and web design, creating branding solutions and websites that are thoughtful, unique and aesthetically pleasing.

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