It’s so important for your child to not only experience art, but to use it as a jumping off point for other skills.  Language, social skills, and fine motor skills can all be fostered in creating works of art together. 

Every child is an artist.  Every child is born with the curiosity, imagination, and wonder to create beautiful masterpieces.  From finger painting, to coloring, to sculpting, when children experience making something of their own, it brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.  I know our son LOVES to do “projects”, as he calls them.  He has been making art projects since he was little, starting with finger painting process art, to now, beautiful watercolor paintings.  We took him to a local art show this year and he was in awe! He kept walking around pointing to paintings and pictures that he thought were “cool” or liked their bright colors.  It’s never too early to begin exposing your child to the arts, and works of art.  That’s why we are so passionate about arts education for children and we were so inspired to create our “My First Masterpieces” coloring book, full of beautiful adapted famous works of art specially designed and perfect for little hands to color.  

Our last blog post featured Matisse.  Our featured work of his in our book is The Sheath.  Crayon Kid and I were looking through some Matisse prints earlier in the week, so Matisse was fresh in our memory! This Fourth of July weekend we spent a lot of time outside.  We visited Woodcock Dam in Meadville and went fishing in a pond nearby.  We were excited to see a ton of different trees that we don’t typically see up in Erie.  Taking advantage of this opportunity, we gathered up a ton of different types of leaves and took them home, with project plans brewing away in our minds!  We decided to make leaf prints inspired by Matisse's Sheath painting because of its leaves. 

It was so simple and lots of fun.  After getting our canvas, paint, rollers, and a foam brush, we were ready to go! All you do is pick your leaf, and you can put paint right on the leaf, or dip your roller into some dabs of paint on a paper plate.

Roll the paint all over the leaf and then press the leaf face down on your canvas.  This is where you can use the foam brush to press the leaf down, or simply use your hands!  Lift the leaf up, and voila - A beautiful leaf print.  We continued to make leaf print patterns, like “The Sheath”, though we weren’t as conscious to make specific patterns. We just had fun choosing colors and creating our own designs.

They turned out great! Now we have our own Matisse like painting we can hang in our house and enjoy.  Crayon Kid loved it as well.  I showed him The Sheath coloring page later and we talked about our leaf prints as he colored it.  I love sharing these experiences with him and making these connections.  It’s so important for your child to not only experience art, but to use it as a jumping off point for other skills.  Language, social skills, and fine motor skills can all be fostered in creating works of art together.   

I hope you all take time to get outside, get creative, and experience making art and memories with your children.  Check out of blog for more ideas craft ideas that help your child practice fine motor skills AND engage in some purposeful play!  If your child is ready to express his or her artistic skills other ways, our line of early learning crayons are the perfect addition to your art box of supplies!  They can be found in our shop.  

Till next time,

Nancy

Nancy and Jason Morris are business owners from Erie, PA and the makers of Effortless Art Products, a line of inclusive, adapted art products.  They are owners of Two Sparrows Learning Systems.  Learn more about their story on their site.  

Remember how you felt when you opened up that brand new box of crayons? I'm sure you have fond memories of hours spent coloring and creating the perfect picture that eventually would find a spot of honor on the kitchen refrigerator for all to see and admire!

I know we can all easily see that coloring has incredible benefits for children, such as opportunities to express themselves and to inspire creativity. Coloring can be a social activity shared among friends. Teachers call Effortless Art Crayons the great equalizer for students with a disability or fine motor delay, as they support students in participating in inclusive activities with their peers, such as art or coloring. With more positive experiences like these, comes more self-confidence. Coloring is also a naturally calming activity and lends itself to helping children regulate emotions and express feelings appropriately.

In a recent study, children in an autistic support classroom who had fine motor delays using our crayons demonstrated increased engagement and attention over 10 trials with increases from 20% - 60% from the baseline (Morris, 2017).

But did you know of the other amazing benefits of coloring? I'm sure the OT's reading this know! Here are three more benefits of coloring for children, and you will be amazed at just how important coloring is to a child's motor development!

Pre-Cursor to Writing

Coloring requires hand-eye coordination, as children need to coordinate their movements as they draw, make thick or thin strokes, and color in large or small spaces. Controlled movements are required for handwriting and proper letter formation. The key to helping your child prepare for handwriting is TO NOT PRACTICE HANDWRITING! Tasks like coloring are a perfect preparation for children's muscles and motor skills. 

Sensory Input

Coloring with crayons allows children to practice pressing hard or light, getting different sensory input. For children that use really hard pressure, most crayons will break - NOT OURS! The thickness, shape, and 6 points are perfect for durability and sustainability. Additionally, our crayons are "wrapper free" and textured, to provide additional input for children who need it. 

A recent FB reviewer noted, " My rough and tough almost 2 y.o. met his match. Crayons he can't break in half. No tip to break off, either. Love it." ~Jess Lynn, Erie, PA

Endurance 

When children color, they build up their fine motor skills, which in turn will lead to building up their endurance in completing writing tasks. Children can build up the small muscles in their hand when they color in small spaces, or make small movements, like circles. This lends itself to leading up to making strokes for letter formation and writing, and ultimately being able to sustain in a writing task. Having your child color laying on their belly, propped up on their elbows, or drawing on an easel can also help to build up more muscles that connect to a child's stability.

Who wouldn't want to give their child an Effortless Art experience coloring knowing that all that fun being had creating, is really helping to support a child's development? I know that using Effortless Art Crayons have been so beneficial for our 4-year-old son, who has been using the crayons since he was 1. Here he is pictured, only 2 and already on his way to achieving a tripod grip! We are so excited and have loved to watch him grow and develop!  

We have recently launched a pen grip for your young adult and adult users to enjoy.  Check out Dex The Effortless Pen Grip in our product pages.  You won't be disappointed.  

Till next time,

Nancy