Recently a parent informed me that the only thing that her daughter was bringing home was art work. I informed her that art was a vital part of our program and that her child was also working on letter recognition, math and other vital skills.
The mother still did not seem to understand the importance of art. In fact, she decided that her daughter needed to go to another school that she felt will challenge her daughter.
I decided not to keep trying to convince the mother that we had a quality program and talk about our Accreditation. In fact, I decided to educate parents on the importance of art and assess how are is really helping the children in my program.
As I prepared for this blog post, I decided to review one of my early childhood books that I have titled, “Teaching Young Children.” In the book, I found an entire chapter on the importance of Early Childhood Art Curriculum and here is a wonderful quote that I found about the importance of art in curriculum:
“The arts motivate and engage children in learning, stimulate memory and facilitate understanding, enhance symbolic communication, promote relationship and provides and avenue for building competence. The arts are natural for young children. Child development specialists note that play is the business of young children; play is the way children promote enhance their development. The arts are a most natural vehicle for play.”~The Task Force on Children’s Learning and the Arts
Eight years ago I completed an early childhood class called, Creative Activities. After completing that class, I realized the importance of art in preschool curriculum. I am also convinced that children need art on a daily basis, because art is therapy for young children.
I want to share with you materials and equipment that I incorporated in my art center; and that you can add to your art center. Most importantly, the items that you add will encourage creativity in your preschool program and the children will love it!
Equipment needed in your Art Center (s)
- Tables to seat at least 3-4 children to work in small groups
- Child size chairs
- A shelf to store art materials
- Trays for holding paper
- containers for holding markers & pens
(Open-Ended) Materials to add to your art area:
- White paper
- construction paper
- crayons
- markers
- colored pencils
- pencils
- scissors
- hole punchers
- staplers
- glue, glue sticks
- newspaper
- magazines for cutting
- felt, yarn
- Play-doh
- Paint, paint brushes
Three Things to put away
- ditto sheets and pre-marked papers
- coloring books
- avoid cook book art activities
Enjoy the freedom that basic materials provide. Moreover, strive to offer more open-ended materials in your art program and focus on the process not the end product. Feel free to share your thoughts about this post.
With Art in mind,
Shiketa
The Child Care Business Owner Institute 
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