Over and over, research shows that kids who receive art lessons while they are young become more imaginative and creative adults. As you may know, creativity is an essential part of intelligence, and is often used as a gauge for measuring IQ.

With increasing demands being placed upon schools, teachers, and youth groups to educate our kids in the three R's, education in the arts has begun to suffer in many areas of the country in favor of the "more important" or "more practical" subjects.

What people need to understand is that art education in schools IS important, and in fact essential to form well-rounded adults. In the business world, for example, people who are creative are much more likely to find success. Creativity allows for innovation, a vital characteristic in today's business executive. To stay ahead of the game, for example, a business must be able to initiate and adapt to change. Both of these things are impossible without creativity, which is best learned at an early age.

Any successful business starts with an idea, and a good idea is innovative, different, and creative. It speaks to a certain audience and makes people stand up and take notice. If you lack the creativity to come up with such an idea, you're not likely to do very well.

Now, consider some of the most memorable marketing campaigns in recent history. What do they all have in common? Creativity; creativity that must be instilled at an early age, and is most effectively taught in school, which is why early childhood art education is so important.

Kids art lessons are very time consuming to prepare, and many teachers and parents feel that they lack the artistic ability or creativity to teach art. The reality is however, that they really don't need to be creative geniuses themselves to be effective at teaching art to children in their classrooms or homes.

Educators and parents who feel they need help with art education child development can turn to plenty of outside sources for aid. By doing just a little bit of homework themselves, teachers and parents can find people, groups, and even companies who are ready and willing to come to the rescue and offer a wealth of information about early childhood art education. Taking advantage of this help can save hours of time and energy, and provide a much-needed educational benefit.

Family Fun Arts and Crafts Blog is one service that offers k-6 art lessons. Here's a sample lesson for your enjoyment:

2nd Gr. CLOWNS

Motivation:

Mom or Grandmom should create examples ahead of time, getting a feel for the process. Look for and gather examples, if possible. Show examples, samples, and demonstrate the process. Show clown pictures to give the students an idea of how various clowns do their makeup, and what kind of costumes they usually wear.

Materials:

4 X 6" and 12 X 18" colored construction papers, 12 X 18" white paper, scissors, pencils, erasers, glue, clown pictures, markers

Procedure: Parent or TEACHER NOTE: Keep the color photo of this lesson handy, as well as any examples you make and provide so that students can look at them during this assignment.

1)On 12 X 18" white paper, draw a picture of a clown from the top of the head to the waist. -Outline the clown in black marker. -Color the clown with colored markers. -Cut out the clown.

2)Choose a 12 X 18" colored background sheet. -Center the clown on the background sheet and glue it down.

3)Choose two colors of 4 X 6" papers. -Cut these sheets into 1/2 X 6" strips. -Then cut the 1/2 X 6" strips into 1/2 X 1/2" small squares.

4)Glue the 1/2 X 1/2" squares all around the background sheet border edge, surrounding the clown. (You can choose to glue these small squares so that they touch each other as they go around the border, OR you can glue them down leaving a tiny bit of space between them.)

5)Let the picture dry.

Copyright 2006 Alberta Johnson