All of them decided to spend a few moments sitting around drawing pictures and I found it enjoyable to be able to look at the little artists that had turned my living room into an art studio. It really brought home the last two posts that I have made about your budding artist and it sparked my interest in finishing off the stages of art.

The stage that I am going to talk about today is the stage of art development between the ages of 4 and 5. Again, I like to stress the “range of normalcy.” I know I have said it before but it is very important to repeat this point since it can alleviate any worries for parents that may be comparing their children’s art with what I am talking about in these posts. For those of you who are just joining us, the “range of normalcy” is the normal range of age where a skill or milestone is developed. Drawing, during the early years, is separated into three stages.

“With art, as with all milestones, a child may fall before or after the range of normalcy. I have seen 5 year olds that are only beginning to grasp the ability to form simple shapes; a skill generally developed between 3 to 4 years and I have also seen 3 year olds using symbolic representation, a skill usually developed at 4 or 5.” -this was taken from my first blog on the first stage of art: Scribbling.

Since we have already covered scribbling and basic forms, today we are going to cover the third stage, which is the representational stage of art development. This is the stage where the first drawing is believed to take place.

Generally, the first drawing will occur during the ages of 4 and 5. Children will begin to look at the world around them and try to incorporate them into their drawings. A box is a house, a circle a face, a triangle is a roof. These basic shapes will begin to become more defined and the child will begin to create more detail in the pictures. No longer will a square simply represent a house, the square will also need windows, a door, flower pots, etc.

Also during this stage, children begin to pay more attention to the detail and will begin to make shape more representational to things in the world around them. A dog is smaller than a person so in their artwork, the dog is smaller than the person walking it.

The world is a big part of this stage of development and children will draw images from their own “world”. A child who has never seen a zebra will not draw a zebra since it does not have any symbolic meaning in their own life. They are more likely to draw items that interact with them on a daily basis. People such as friends and family, are often the first drawings, or symbols as it is often called, that a child will draw. From there the child moves onto trees, houses and other things in their world.

During this stage, as well, children will begin to label their drawings more often. You will see less artwork that is labeled after the drawing takes place and more pre-thought going into the artwork. A child will sit down and say, “I’m going to draw my dog,” before he or she starts drawing a dog.

From this stage of art development, a child moves into perfecting his or her skill in art and drawing and this improvement in basic skills will continue as long as the child continues to practice it. Art is an enjoyable pastime for any child, regardless of age and allowing them the time to explore their creative sides, is a great way to help your budding artist flourish into a creative individual.

Sirena Van Schaik

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I would give you start to finish photographs but when I made my volcano I didn’t think to do that, since it was a few years ago but I will sign off with a few pictures of the volcano erupting.

What you need:

• a box lid or box cut in half. (this is for your base)
• Large piece of card stock or thin cardboard
• scissors
• paper mache paste (see Paper Mache Paste Recipe)
• strips of newspaper
• small plastic container (a margarine container works)
• paint
• masking tape

Directions:

1. Cut out a circle from the card stock and slice one side of it to the middle.
2. Make a cone from the card stock. Tape it to represent the height of the volcano that you want.
3. Cut off the tip of the cone so the margarine container can fit in it loosely (don’t go too snug or else the container won’t fit after you do the paper mache. I like to use a margarine container since you don’t have to use as much vinegar and baking soda for the eruption and you can just lift the container out to empty it.)
4. mount the cone to the base with tape.
5. Crumple up newspaper and tape it to the cone to create cliffs and ridges on the volcano.
6. Mix up the paper mache.
7. Cut or rip 1 inch strips from the newspaper and cover the volcano, make sure you leave the opening at the top.
8. Allow to dry completely once the entire volcano is covered. (This can take a few days depending on how wet the volcano was. Make sure to check the inside too)
9. Repeat paper mache and allow to dry completely each time. (You may have to do this 2 or 3 times)
10. When it is dry, paint it to look like a volcano. You can add some scenery, such as Pompeii like we did, although the paper buildings disintegrated after the 20th or so eruptions.
11. Erupt the volcano once the paint is dry.

To erupt the volcano, go to the post on Fun with Science: Baking Soda and Vinegar.

And now for the eruptions (in these pictures the “lava” is white but usually I color it with food coloring).

Sirena Van Schaik

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If you remember, I have already posted about the development of artistic skill already. If you haven’t read it yet or need a refresher, you can read it here.

Just to recap a few things, when I talk about any type of development, I am really looking at a “range of normalcy.” I know that I have mentioned this before but for anyone new that is joining us, I really like to reiterate my points. “Range of normalcy” is a term used to describe an average age range when a child develops a skill or reaches a milestone.

“With art, as with all milestones, a child may fall before or after the range of normalcy. I have seen 5 year olds that are only beginning to grasp the ability to form simple shapes; a skill generally developed between 3 to 4 years and I have also seen 3 year olds using symbolic representation, a skill usually developed at 4 or 5.” -this was taken from my first blog on the first stage of art: Scribbling.

Since I have already written about the first stage, scribbling, I am going to move on to the second stage called Basic Forms.

This stage usually occurs between the ages of 3 and 4 and again, some children may experience this stage sooner or later than what is the expected “range of normalcy.”

Much like the scribbling stage, I probably don’t need to really define what I mean by basic shapes. This is the stage where children begin moving away from scribbles and start forming shapes such as circles, ovals, and all the other shapes that are the staple of geometry.

This is also the stage where children are gaining more control over their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. Things are happening both physically and intellecutally which is enabling him to create more concrete drawings and more controlled strokes with the pencil and/or brush.

Like scribbling, this stage is still a very experimental stage in art. It is a gradual progression of experimenting with the lines that he is creating on the page and you will see it throughout that year. The first part of his 3rd year, he will draw circles and ovals and then he will progress into creating the curved line. This can often be referred to as the rainbow stage (at least by me) and I remember with my oldest, his love of drawing rainbows with any type of medium that I gave him. Rainbows was where he saw true manipulation of his lines and it pleased him to not only create one curved line but many connected to each other in a layered pattern. My youngest son is at this stage right now and I am back to a world of rainbows once again.

After he has learned to control his drawings, a child will begin drawing more complex forms such as squares and rectangles.

Also in this stage, a child begins to understand that what he is thinking and feeling is responsible to what he is placing on the paper. He is not going to sit down and say, “I’m going to draw a 5 star hotel with ocean vistas,” but he will sit down and draw a tower of squares. When he is finished, he will often tell you what he drew but it is usually a end thought. Sort of like, “My picture looks like a truck so that is what I drew.”

After this stage is the third and final stage that occurs between 4 and 5. This is considered to be the stage where the child’s first drawings take place and it is the stage where representational art begins.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this post on your budding artist and I hope that you have already filled your shelves with art materials.

Sirena Van Schaik

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No, you are not going to be painting your child’s tongue or having your child paint your tongue.  You aren’t even going to be painting a big construction paper tongue.  You and your child are going to be using your tongues as paintbrushes and you will be surprised how much fun this activity is.

What you need:

• Vanilla Pudding
• Food Coloring
• Paper Pie Plates (or strong paper)
• a camera

Directions:

1. Mix up some instant vanilla pudding.
2. Place the vanilla in 4 seperate bowls.
3. Mix in a few drops of different food coloring in each bowl to make colored pudding (check the back of the box for the formula to making some colors).
4. Have your child put a few spoonfuls of pudding on a paper plate (this works better than paper since it is sturdier but you could probably use a thick card stock as well).
5. Now get your child to make a picture by moving the pudding around the plate with his or her tongue.
6. Take lots of pictures of the event and the finished work since this is one masterpiece that can’t be saved.

This is a great activity that I have done with my kids and my class.  I have found that some children will lick the plate clean while others will make intricate designs with the pudding.  The faces that the children make as they paint is very funny but nothing makes this activity as delightful as the moments when the children erupt in laughter at the silliness of it all.

Enjoy the sillier moments.

Sirena Van Schaik

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It is important to remember that when we discuss any type of developmental milestones, we are looking at a “range of normalcy.”  There, I said it again, that term, and if you are just joining us, the “range of normalcy” is a term used to describe an average age range when a child develops a skill or reaches a milestone.

With art, as with all milestones, a child may fall before or after the range of normalcy. I have seen 5 year olds that are only beginning to grasp the ability to form simple shapes; a skill generally developed between 3 to 4 years and I have also seen 3 year olds using symbolic representation, a skill usually developed at 4 or 5.

Today, however; I’m going to discuss the first stage of art: Scribbling.

I probably don’t need to explain scribbling to you since everyone has watched a child sitting with a paper and crayon; her arms making large movements as a line slashes back and forth on the paper.  To many parents, this doesn’t really look like art but it is.

In the scribbling stage, children are experimenting and exploring.  They are figuring out cause and effect since their actions are creating a reaction; a big splash of color on the page.  They are also learning about colors, textures and the many materials that they can use.

As they age, and ultimately practice using the materials and not eating them, they begin to develop fine motor skills that enables them to control the scribbles.  This fine motor training will set into place the building blocks for printing in the future.

The drawings progress from being random scribbles to being representative of objects.  They may look like scribbles to you but to your 3 year old, they are rainbows or cars or even family portraits. 

When my youngest son was 2, he became enamored with the milky way.  Every time he would sit down with a marker or crayon, he would draw these swirling scribbles and then label the picture for me.  “This is the milky way, mom.  See here is the central bulge and here are the four arms…”

The picture always looked like a confused knot of scribbles to me but to him each scribble opened up a world of wonder, a universe to explore.

And that is what scribbling is.  A means to open up a universe of creative expression. Without scribbling none of the other art stages would develop and it would be like trying to learn how to talk without being able to babble first.

So if you haven’t started drawing with your young toddler, run out to the store and invest in some paper, paint, markers and any other art mediums that you feel are safe for your child.

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