After School Art with Hand Made Kids Art is a weekly video series focused on creative ideas to help promote problem solving and critical thinking skills in children.  Each week I will post a new video prompt to help spark creative thinking .

The Why:

I started this series because in schools all around the country Art is being diminshied or even eliminated. I saw it happen in my own school district affecting the amount of time I had with students. All students need exposure to art to help develop their creative thinking and problem solving skills. How else can we prepare them for future jobs that don’t exist yet? Without art in our schools, students are missing out on opportunities to learn there are different ways to interpret and see the world, problems may have more than one solution and time to explore new ideas and materials.

How the series works:

Every week a new video with a  creative prompt will be posted.

What do you do?

I suggest parents/caregivers watch the video first and then watch with your artist.  I encourage you to watch the video first so you are familiar with the prompt and you can ask open ended questions as your artist is drawing to help spark creative ideas.

Go ahead and grab a paper and draw along next to them (although don’t draw on their paper)! Model how you add details to help tell the story of your drawing. Don’t worry about your drawing skills…I promise your child will not care. Encourage them to fill the page and add color if they wish. To finish they can sign their name and think of a title that help describes their artwork.

How long will this activity take?

It is up to you and your artist! The videos are short, so the majority of the time your artist is thinking and drawing.  Allow your artist to take the time they need. Some artists may finish in 5 minutes and some artists may keep going back to the drawing throughout the week. Let them lead in the amount of time it takes.

Ready to Start? Week 1 Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOT_Kz01pw&feature=share

Share!

I would love for you to share your final drawings with our Hand Made Kids Art community. You can join our Google + commmunity, post to our Facebook page or upload to Instagram (#handmadekidsart). No pictures of your children needed just the artwork!