By Rivky Shimon 

If you have never accomplished anything in your life, chances are you have low self-esteem. You don’t know the challenge and you don’t know the great feeling you get from meeting the challenge. You’re not alone. Life doesn’t always afford everyone the opportunity to actually accomplish anything.

Most individuals find themselves lumped into a certain category, following a predestined path. Get a good job. Start a family. Work toward retirement. Raise your kids the right way. Nothing at all is wrong with a life like this. It’s solid. It’s stable. It’s reliable.

But, it has its pitfalls. Psychologically as you grow older, you realize you may have missed a true calling. You might start wondering if there was anything you could have done better. You look at the handful of people who have achieved great things and you wonder why that couldn’t have been you. This is not positive thinking. But, it is normal.

Pick up a brush and stare straight at a blank canvas. Get the feel for an image you have in your mind. If you have to, use this negative thinking that you have for the good. Imagine yourself running across a finish line first. Imagine yourself climbing a mountain. Now, paint that picture that’s in your mind.

You’re on your way to achieving a great thing, the greatest thing. You are creating. Not only that, you are learning that life isn’t over. You haven’t missed a thing. And you did your best, nothing to regret. Instead of wondering why it couldn’t have been you, it is you. Look at your canvas. You’ve achieved.

Kids who start out early in life loving art have a better chance at moving right past those awkward years where they begin to question themselves. Normal childlike thinking has the ability to set kids back and keep them from trying something where there is a chance they might fail. Kids who love art know that there is always another blank canvas and they start to look at life that way. They learn early that you can’t always succeed. The glory is in that you tried.

Adults also benefit from picking up the brush even if they have never done it before. They might catch on to this great benefit a little later in life, but it’s never too late to learn such a great life’s lesson. The sense of achievement proves to us that we can do anything. The loss or failure is taken as a calculated risk, often an enlightening one. Artists are less likely to be depressed although there are a few instances that exist to the contrary. Art breathes life into them. The next conquest, they love the challenge.

There are so many benefits to art that it is too numerous to try to count. Building a sense of self and a high self esteem is one of the better ones. Everyone should feel the feeling of being proud, enjoying life’s challenges rather than cowering to them.

As Pablo Picasso once said, every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. A school age art activity can help develop the child’s concentration, creative-thinking, artistic, organizational and manipulative skills. An art activity encourages kids to experiment and explore the world around them. They will see color, shape and form in sky, trees, buildings and people in their environment. Art can help them to think “outside the box”.

Provide a variety of paints, paper and tools to create with. Tempera paint works well for most school age art activities, but introduces them to watercolor and acrylic paints. For paint tools, have the kids try different sized brushes, sponges, feathers and string.

There many types of paper they can paint on such as plain paper, construction paper, newsprint, shiny paper, cardboard, fine sandpaper and coffee filters. For fun try painting on tile, wood, fabric, clay pot, glass, or a rock. Let the child experiment with how different media on different objects turns out.

Begin a kid art activity with color. Review the primary colors, red, yellow and blue. Discuss what primary colors mixed together make the secondary colors, orange, green and violet. Have the children experiment with mixing colors. I recommend using plastic or foam disposable plates for mixing colors. Provide plain paper to make sample swatches to see what colors they have made. Show them how to add black or white to create shades and tints.

Abstract style paintings are easy to experiment with. Let them paint strokes, shapes and lines to create a unique painting. Landscapes are also easy to introduce. Show them photographs of landscapes in different seasons so they can see different colors in nature. They can paint a sunset, rainbow, snow scene or spring flowers. Make a frame with black paper to display their art.

All children love art. Encourage kids to practice and try new ways of using color to express themselves. It is also important let kids know that there is no right or wrong way to create art. Finally, plan an art show and invite friends, family and neighbors to come and enjoy their artwork.

Can you draw a straight line? Most adults don’t consider themselves artistic. Parents do, however, worry about their toddler’s art abilities. As a child care provider for the past 10 years, I’ve had many discussions with parents about ‘how their toddler is doing’ as far as getting ready for preschool or kindergarten. They worry a lot about the final product of their toddler’s art projects. I try to explain to them that art is not just knowing how to draw a flower or a puppy, or whether or not little Jason colors in the lines. Little kids need to experience self-expression and the ‘doing of art’ more than having a page from a coloring book to hang on the refrigerator.

When a two-year old puts his chubby little hand in a tub of finger paint and happily smears all of the colors together on the paper or when he makes yet another ‘snowman’ out of play-doh, he’s creating. Granted, he will certainly tell you that his painting is his dad’s truck even though you ‘just can’t see it.’ The important thing to remember is that by allowing our little kids to experience art in their own way, we let them show us how they see the world around them, how they feel and think.

I always enjoy art time with my toddler and preschool age groups. Yeah, they can make a mess, but they just wiggle with excitement when I take out the ‘arts & crafts’ tub of supplies! Having been a military wife and lived in a few different places, I’ve always returned to providing home day care. As a result, I’ve had to make do with whatever space I can find in the various homes we’ve lived in. There’s not always a lot of room, but art can take place just about anywhere. I’ve found that the activity is most effective when it’s pre-planned and when I’ve set goals for the activity.

Art is important for toddlers because of the way it makes little kids feel special and good about themselves. When your toddler finishes a magazine cut-out collage and holds up his masterpiece to you with that beaming smile doesn’t that make you feel good about both of you? Through creating simple art projects, that same toddler is not only learning to take pride in his accomplishments, but also to think and refine his hand-eye coordination and physical skills. Through art, children learn to identify colors, cause-and-effect, shapes, problem solving, sharing and cooperation among many other skills.

Parents must remember to ask toddlers or preschoolers questions about their projects that will make them think about what they’ve made rather than ask them ‘What is that?’ For example, ‘C.J., tell Mommy about your painting.’ C.J will start to talk about his work or anything else he feels important at the time! This also shows your child that you are interested in what he thinks and aren’t’ just confused about what you see! Make sure to hang the art work up in a prominent place in your home so the entire family can enjoy it.

Art experiences are a major part of a toddler’s daily activities. They have grown enough to grasp objects and tear paper and hold crayons and brushes. Naturally they are thrilled with the anticipation of a new art project, and most importantly, with the quality time spent with the important adults in his/her life.

Schools are failing miserably even though they won’t admit it. Standardized school tests are designed to grade the achievement of the schools. But while many students are producing work far below their grade level, schools are getting grades that seriously deceive the parents. A school that gets an A on its cumulative standardized school wide test could have a great number of high achievers or a high number of students who were able to show improvement.

That means that a school of students who are averaging below grade level performance could simply raise their achievement levels a grade and the entire school receives an extremely high grade. This is not an accurate portrait of how a school is performing. If all of those students were failing last year and now they are performing just below grade level this year, the improvement is how the grade is calculated. In other words, a high achieving school with above grade level performers looks the same on paper as a failing school that was able to motivate enough students to simply improve.

This problem has many parents looking for answers outside of the school system. Parents are looking for tutors to help their kids understand their homework. Parents are placing their kids into night and summer schools that keep a child’s learning active. But, one solution has proven to be even more effective than all the others. Parents aren’t going off the wall when they look for art workshops to help their students learn.

When a child starts to explore her creative side, she opens herself up to other ways of learning. Ways that start to intertwine themselves across the education curriculum. A student performing low in math will learn how to teach herself, and with that her grades will improve on their own. It’s like a new world becomes accessible to her, doors of reasoning are easily opened.

Art impacts the cognitive abilities in such a way. That’s because art is not repetition and memorization. It forces people to discovery. Solving problems and learning how to learn are the result of exploring artistic expression. Adults have found art to be therapeutic and empowering. Experiencing art is recreational as well as productive. But, the creative process is far more rewarding educationally than memorizing facts and repeating low-level math processes.

With schools failing to give our children what they desperately need, parents are going to have to be educated about the benefits of art to the learning process. Art workshops can fill in the gaps where schools are breaking down. When parents learn that art will greatly benefit their children, art workshops will flourish across the country. Knowing this is coming, wouldn’t you want to learn how to get ahead of the trend and start your own art workshop?