Picasso said that every child is an artist. The question is how to remain it when we grow up ... A child wants to get to know the world and learns it with all senses from the moment of birth. He observes, examines, checks, observes, learns, creates, corrupts and builds again.
Our role as parents is to help children nurture and develop their natural talent. Does this mean, however, that our child will choose art as his path in life and career? No, and it doesn't have to. However, we can help him grow into a human with high visual-spatial intelligence. What does it mean?
The founder of the theory of multiple intelligences, Howard Gardner, distinguished eight types of intelligences. And one of them concerns such abilities as a rich imagination, thinking with pictures, visual memory, a sense of proportion, good orientation in the field and sensitivity to art, beauty and a general sense of aesthetics. Gardner argued that every human being has all types of intelligence. Some are only more or less developed. This is good news for us parents!
What to remember if we want to support an artist in a child?
Artistic sensitivity starts with AWARENESS. It is worth taking the time to be mindful. It is worth pausing together with your child and focusing your attention on interesting elements of the world that surrounds us. No theories or big words are needed here. It is enough for a child to see that we ourselves can direct attention and admire how a flower smells, how a ladybug spreads its wings for flight or how wonderful it is to feel the grass under our bare feet. Mindfulness is best taught by example, not by lecture.
Creating art is related to FUN. After all, artists, in a sense, play with materials, forms, colors, and also with their ideas. Like a child making mud cupcakes, a shoe box house, or a drawing of a rainbow. It is a time full of free and creative energy for a little artist. If you want to support your child, it is important to focus not only on the result of the game and on the final product. First of all, you have to pay attention to the creation process itself. "Will you show me how you drew it?" "Interesting that you chose the green color here" "Is drawing with these felt-tip pens nice?" These are a few ideas that can make it easier for you to contact us during creative play. It builds the courage to create.
We also build artistic sensitivity with the WORD. "Whoever reads lives twice," said Umberto Eco. A child listening to a parent's story develops the ability to concentrate and broadens the vocabulary. More importantly, he meets the heroes he accompanies in their world and in their adventures. He gets to know their needs, emotions, learns to distinguish good from evil. In this way, he gets to know the world and human nature. Maybe in the safest place - on the parent's lap - experience the most difficult adventures with the protagonist and deal with the biggest problems. All thanks to words and imagination.
Artistic sensitivity and the courage to create help small and large people better understand the world around us. Art can be a language to describe how we feel and understand others.
Picasso was right - children are artists. Looking at the children every day, I have no doubts whatsoever. Let us observe with what courage and ease children create and how beautifully they enjoy it. Let us support them in this every day!