Art for very young children

I have another budding Art Princess on my hands. Abigail wants to do everything Amanda does, and that means lil' sis is disrupting the big sis' art in progress. There's gotta be something for me, Abigail's thinking as Amanda yells for me to remove the pesky lil' sis. This is where the early childhood education steps in. Drum roll please! Abigail, you too can draw!

Our Abby is not quite a year old, so her fine motor capabilities are not well developed. To aid her in this department, I taped the corners of the paper down on the table:


This is a grand opportunity to add language development (pre-reading, writing) to this simple activity. As I wrote down her name and the date, I named out loud all the letters I wrote - "A, B, I, G, A, I, L. And today is January 23, 2008" (I did this activity last month). This teaches that the symbols I write actually have meaning:


It's okay if your child wants nothing but to tear the paper off.

This is simply an introduction. Don't be afraid of scribbles on the table... the scribbles of today are your child's future Picasso pieces and Pulitzer prize winning writings:


Let your child have fun! Abigail thought she was absolutely cool now that she was like Unni (big sis in Korean):


(click all photos for larger images)

Be the best Abigail you were meant to be, my sweet little girl!

And may your child be the person that God meant him to be, fulfilling all potential, exploring all worlds of learning.