Art is the expression of life by creating drawings, sculptures, paintings and much more.

Arts & crafts shelves

Creating a space for the young mind to be introduced to the artistic process of coloring and painting is simple. Handing a toddler just a few crayons and showing him/her how to hold them is all it takes. Children are fascinated by new concepts. They like to see color come to life on a piece of paper. Scribbling is the first step in practicing drawing. Give the toddler a short time to scribble. Then show him/her how to make shapes, lines, and squiggles. Connect the shapes, lines, and squiggles in their imaginations by creating objects from them. The circle becomes a sun, the square becomes a house, the triangle becomes the roof of the house, the long rectangle becomes a tree. As attention spans grow into art, so will their imaginations. A piece of paper becomes their new world to create and express their emotions.

As the toddler grows into the pre-schooler, his/her desire to use other mediums will grow too. Having an organized place in the home where a child can go and easily get the art supplies lets him/her turn to art whenever he/she pleases. Most adults still color like they did as children. Most of us never practiced our art skills past the school age years. Sitting down to do art along with your child is also a bonding experience. Creative art also includes many projects that are three dimensional. For example, creating a leprechaun out of construction paper on St. Patrick's day requires many steps: Choosing different colors of paper, cutting out a head, body, arms, legs, shoes, coat, hat and belt buckle. These steps teach children how to be patient in putting together an entire project.

Creating art projects for holidays throughout the year shows children a few ways to celebrate life. Children look forward to decorating the home with projects.

In the Makeovers Preschool Curriculum, adults are given a simple plan on how to introduce and maintain the passion for art in a child.

Makovers Curriculum samples are viewable with Adobe Reader. If you need to download Adobe Reader, click the Get ADOBE READER button. The Adobe Reader download page will open in a new window.