Monday 13 April 2015

Art Journaling with a 4 year old

I have pondered how to do this for sometime, wondered how to keep my grand daughters attention and to encourage her to follow instruction without sucking the fun out of art.  I have looked on pinterest, oh my goodness I could get lost all day on that site lol but soooo glad I finally took the plunge and set up an account.  There is a wealth of ideas and inspiration for all sorts out there.  It really is like having your own electronic pin boards.  I have several categories to keep a better track on all I like and pin :)  So anyway I came across this article that spoke about the word side of art journaling and children. click here to read the full article. I was delighted to read that it is possible to encourage the word side of art journaling with children as soon as children can begin to form lines on a page.  This can be very early on in life.  There is, it would seem, no age limit.

Of course children are not going to produce professional pieces of art and depending on the age will not write sentences or even full words to begin with (if the child is not at that developmental stage of being able to write) But what they can do is form shapes and gain confidence in writing letters then words from practise in a fun way.  Certainly in Scoltand, children at nursery (children can start nursery at aged 3 in Scotland in some circumstances) will be encouraged to write their names on their art work they do at nursery.  I don't produce professional pieces of art either so as long as you can let go of pre conceived ideas of what your child should be able to do in a journal the more freeing and fun the experience will be.  I have three children of my own, all grown up now.  I used to love having art and craft sessions with them.  However I did not do journaling and that is something, if I had known about then, I would have done.  For me the bonus is I now have grandchildren so my intention is to start art journaling with each of them as and when they are ready to begin.  We will go at their pace and stop if they do not wish to carry on.  Having said that, they are my grandchildren so why would they not be artistic with fantastic imaginations? lol

I have had my first art journal session with my granddaughter aged 4.  Here are some photos of the mini art journal she made, with a tiny bit of help from me and jennibellie of course as we used the inspiration station free tutorial  click on the link to view the information video showing how to access the free class on jennibellie's journal workshop community.  Alternatively just go straight to jennibellie's journal workshop The inspiration station class speaks about having a single box full of inspirational art supplies as well as having favourite items to offer inspiration in times of losing your mojo :) This box is separate to all your other art supplies and what you want to make it.  This is ideal for children as it can be their own art supplies and items to use in their own art journal as well as make the mini journal.  I see this as a single box that will be easy to get out and use at any given time.  They will know exactly what they can use and it can be full of things that are childproof.  As well as things that won't matter if  they destroy them in the name of art :) They can even decorate it themselves, a project in itself :)

I have not organised an inspiration station box for my granddaughter to use yet but here are the photos of the mini journal made.

 
 
 
The shapes I drew for her and she cut out.  The stickers used are the stickers she chose.  The painting is all done by my grand daughter without interference from me.  I encouraged her to write letters on her pages, I am hoping if you look close enough you will see the letters and there are numbers in there too.  We had such fun so will be doing it again for sure and maybe this time we will get a box and organise an inspiration station.  Watch this space :) as my grand daughter is coming to my place on Wednesday :)
 
Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed your stay and left with some good inspiration of your own to go art journal with your child(ren) :) T x
 




4 comments:

  1. What a beautiful journal. A very talented young lady. I love the painted background. I think a star has been born. :-)

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  2. Hi Tania, I typed out a long comment and it just disappeared, I was just saying I think it's great you're helping her discover art journaling and just art in general at such a young age. I did the same with my daughter. Not art journaling but just arts and crafts, drawing, painting... and she is almost 20 now and is a very talented artist. Keep up the good work. :)

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  3. Thanks for your lovely comments ladies :)

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  4. Nice work from your grandchild. I think kids have so much imagination they don't need much help from us! Valerie

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