It has always been one of my dreams to teach art to children. Homeschooling gave me the chance to teach and share my love for art to our kids. I love seeing their happy faces beam with pride as they showed their artworks to everyone in the family.
Armed with art books, online tutorials and wild imagination, we explore art within the confines of our home. I hope they enjoy it as much as I do and as with other subjects, I always wonder how to best teach art to children? I want them to enjoy the process and grow up loving art. I want them to know the reason why they make art. I want our art classes to go beyond just making pretty things.
Growing up, I was exposed to different forms of art at home. I can say it helped that everyone in the family was into some sort of art. My dad was always busy creating something during his free time. I never saw him idle as he was always tinkering: a broken electric fan, a DVD player that had a tape jammed in it, pants that needed some sewing, broken ceramics- name it and he can build or fix it. He always dropped by a hardware store to buy the parts he needed. During those trips, I got to touch and see a myriad of nuts and bolts needed for home repairs. On lazy weekends, he propped his wooden easel and spend hours painting with oils. He painted most of the framed paintings around the house. Oh, he also built wooden furniture with his hammer and power tools. Such a handy-man!
During holiday seasons, my mom would DIY our Christmas tree decors and sew plush toys to sell at bazaars. She sat in front of a huge table filled with beads, buttons, plastic eyes in all sorts of shapes, animal patterns, velcro tapes, and scraps of colorful fabrics. I loved hanging out in her workspace! My favorite part was packing and arranging her finished products on display at the bazaar. Her cuddly plush puppies were a big hit.
Looking back, I know that my parents’ constant tinkering at home taught me so much about art. The surprising thing was although they didn’t really teach me how to do any of those things they were good at, just seeing them regularly work on their crafts was enough to make me want to create something too. It helped to see that they were enjoying the process. When I try to look back at this aspect in my childhood, I believe it could be why I grew up loving art. The nice thing about it is that the learning came out naturally. I wasn’t forced to cut and paste stuff or anything. I just saw them enjoy the process of making something with their hands.
I think that in art, being able to inspire and spark a child’s imagination is a good enough start. That contagious itch to create something after seeing someone paint a beautiful picture, for me, is the essential starting point. In teaching art, that is where I hope to begin.
Selah Soul Art 