LoLA focuses on promoting process art for children. Process art is about the exploration and discovery involved in making a work of art. It is not about teaching children how to do art step by step. We believe that the approach helps develop creative thinking.
For parents, it means focusing on the experience of creating art rather than on the finished product. If what finally emerges is beautiful, then that’s a bonus!
Doing handicrafts can be a fun way to engage children in the physicality of hands-on assembly. But what we want to support is independent creative-thinking. Rarely if ever have our children needed the ability to think creatively…whether it’s in a lockdown, or merely playing at home, or later in life in the careers they choose. It’s all about the doing, the trying, the thinking and the experimenting…about picking up a paint brush and trying something different. Mistakes are a big part of the journey.
We also believe that little minds are like sponges. Looking at artworks and talking about artists’ lives opens children up to different ways of seeing the world.
How about a New Year’s resolution for a creative 2021?
Here are some ways to support creativity in your home:
Set up a creative ‘space’. A set of drawers with art materials that are easily accessible – plus a continuous supply of paper!
Put ‘creative time’ in your children’s routine. This is set aside time when they can do what they like, with paper and art materials. (If they ask you for prompts, you can refer them to LoLA’s suggested activities!)
Discuss art and artists’ lives. Either through books, looking stuff up on the internet, or during the process of doing art.
Start an art journal. Give your children a special notebook in which they can draw, doodle, write, and do pretty much anything they like.
Praise their work. Hang it up in the home, anywhere – even on the fridge! Choose work that is unfinished (or even a piece that they may have discarded) and talk about why you chose it.
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