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My goal in writing that post is to help you help your kiddos create successful art and to help them value the quality of their work. First, I want to emphasize that creating quality work isn't just about having refrigerator-worthy art.
It is about helping your child to develop the trait of what I call patient persistence. I have often heard it called "grit". I don't like the word "grit ''. ...It sounds like something you should get medical treatment for.
Reasons a child's art can be less than gorgeous:
Fine motor skill development -their little muscular and nervous systems are not fully developed yet
Work habits issues
Delayed or "unique" aesthetic taste issues -the mental skill to be able to judge what is or is not visually effective or appealing
Unclear expectations
Inadequate instructional support
Let's first talk about issues that are not within your child's control and have nothing to do with "grit" or lack thereof.
FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT and Physical difficulties:
As I mentioned in the previous post, often boys in particular can lag a bit behind in fine motor development. You will be able to tell if this is the case by watching your child work, if they seem deeply focused ( hunched over their work, sometimes even a tongue will work its way to the corner of the mouth), your learner is concentrating and likely working at their current fine motor development. Therefore, as I said in my earlier post, the best way to develop fine motor skills is to use them. Give them time to develop.
Meanwhile, it is usually helpful to have them work a bit larger. We try to find the right balance with the size of the projects, large enough to accommodate kiddos with fine motor skills issues, yet not so large that hand strength (clay) or stamina will give way.
If you find your child is shaky, a good trick is to rest the working hand on the other hand. This will help to keep the hand and arm relaxed especially when painting.
A related concern is that some friends tend to draw the way that they write, resting their hands on the paper and drawing only using the small muscles of the hand. As they age, their art will sometimes get very, very small.
A strategy to use when they are painting or drawing a larger image is to remind them to use their arm and shoulders when working. Have them imagine they are stirring a "big bowl of cookie dough" paying attention to what their bodies are doing. This will help with the kinesthetic awareness of what muscles they should be using to work large.
Finally, at about 2nd or 3rd grade, encourage them to let their hands float lightly over the paper keeping their hand and arm soft and relaxed. Tell them to hold their pencil or paintbrush softly.
At 4th or 5th teach them to hold their pencils further back like artists do. Some will latch onto that right away, others will need more regular reminders, and some never really get it (that is okay too!). Holding your pencil correctly helps them to draw lightly. A light sketching line is easy to erase and allows artists to experiment with lines and ideas.
Now let's talk about strategies to help your child learn to value quality in their work, and develop that "patient persistence" mentioned earlier.
WORK HABITS ISSUES IN ART:
The speed racer:
How to slow your child's roll: I found several effective strategies you can employ with those "need for speed" learners. First, you can sit beside them and help them to count while they are working. Challenge them to take 3 or more seconds to draw the line or 8 or more seconds to paint the edge of a shape. Another strategy is to encourage them to draw or paint to a waltz beat..1,2,3. 1,2,3. Usually, kiddos that work too quickly tend to do everything with 1 count beat.
Some friends tend to hold their breath while working. That is a good thing to double-check. I found that simply pointing out that they need to remember to breathe while they work was a relatively quick fix. Art should be a fairly meditative process. Taking a moment to take a breath and reflect on their work should be baked in.
The over-enthusiast: (overstimulated)
Although enthusiasm and humor can be great in the art room, if you are picking up a frantic level of energy or giddiness, remind them to focus and take their time to create quality work. Sometimes, we would stop and take a deep breath while raising our arms and slowly lowering them as we exhaled "like snow gently falling on the ground". Sometimes we would even do yoga if the room got too wound up. Even taking a water break can do the trick. There is a whole lot of information on classroom mindfulness out there, which I will not get into here
The "I done" (when they are clearly not done), fast finishers:
If they hand in work that seems unfinished, look for "dead zones" where they perhaps have not added anything. Encourage them to balance their work by adding something in that space. Related to that, look for details that may be missing like, "Don't sharks have gill slits?", to get them to consider their work more carefully
"I already know what I want to do" -planning and prep adverse learner:
Often older learners want to skip the preliminary work like brainstorming and working up sketches to jump right into their final project. That is where setting specific tasks for each day can be helpful. If their task goal for that day is to develop two sketches and that is it, they will be far more inclined to face that task more earnestly.
The "I don't know when to stop" learner:
A phenomenon that could be best described as "media addiction" can occur. Sometimes kiddos can get so entranced with the sensation of working with a material that they will keep adding and adding until their work is ruined. As every artist knows, the hardest thing in art is knowing when to stop. This is particularly bad when painting or working in clay. This is another occasion where stopping to reflect on their work from time to time is so important.
The "I am doing great, always, every day, all the time, I just don't know how this could be better" kiddo:
Sometimes we all need to be poured a nice cool glass of reality. Building assessments and self-assessments into your kiddos' art experiences is important. I address assessing art in another blog, therefore I won't go into depth here. However, providing them with specific feedback during work time and encouraging them to reflect on their progress at the end of a learning unit (portfolio evaluation) is essential.
AESTHETIC DEVELOPMENT: ...IT JUST LOOKS WEIRD!
There is a danger of being overly concerned that a child's art is visually appealing or cute. Sometimes, kiddos simply lack that "critical eye" allowing them to see what is or is not working in their projects and/or the ability to know how to "fix it". For most learners, a quality art program can over time build those thinking skills.
They also could have a unique taste in art. In other words, it doesn't fit into a cookie-cutter idea of how children's artwork should look.
Therefore, it is important to ignore how attractive a work of art is and focus on the learning and thinking it shows. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If I am honest, I have no time for Picasso's work. I know he is a great artist, but I don't care for it. I hope young Pablo was in my classroom, I would appreciate the thinking that went into his work and look past my tastes and preferences.
UNCLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND INADEQUATE INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT:
Finally, unclear expectations and inadequate instructional support can contribute as well. Some students must have explicit expectations (success criterion) to guide them toward more successful work. If you don't tell them what you want, don't be surprised when you don't get it. Also, providing instructional support makes it easier for them to bet a foothold on success. Visual resources like idea sheets and opportunities to view and evaluate examples of successful and less successful projects are helpful in this regard.
IN CONCLUSION:
Sometimes intervention is necessary. It is important to periodically check to see how your students are progressing, take in their state of mind, and act.
We want our kiddos to grow up understanding that any job worth doing is worth doing well.
I sincerely hope this helps.
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