This activity is appropriate for kids 5 years or more. Here we use basic shapes like a triangle, square, rectangles and circle to draw something meaningful. It is best to start with this since most kids relate easily to these shapes by 4 years and have tried to draw these by themselves.

It helps them keep interested to start with something that they already know and can probably draw. At the end of the session I will try to fit all of these pictures into a single drawing and there…they have their first landscape or as my daughter calls it… big people painting.

Remember…do not worry about the shapes being perfect. It is being done by a child.

1. The most basic thing that every kid might have tried: A house.
2. A car.It is easier to draw the car without getting worried about the curves. Remember it is a drawing for a 4-year-old.
3. A flower in a pot, an apple tree.
4. A sun and mountain or a rainbow.

Once they have learnt to draw these…ask them to put it in a picture all together. Let them doodle and explore the world of art.

And again, the shapes need not be perfect, the shapes in nature aren’t!Remember to encourage them, if you try too hard to make the perfect picture. They are still in the process of learning!

Discuss their work, ask questions, show interest; it might not look like a lot but it was your kid’s hard work.

Here is a picture of what my daughter drew and colored based on these simple shapes when she was younger.

She could not complete the coloring at one go and its perfectly normal.

She made some little tweaks of her own. She told me that it was sunset ( so the sun started hiding behind the mountains)and the car is parked since Papa came home from office. That’s the kids…OBSERVING.

The picture kind of reminds me of Peppa pig’s house and their car. She told me that it is going to be an orange tree and here’s the Peppa pig’s house she actually drew for her sister 2 years later!!

Fingerprints and handprint activities are fun and if you get creative, you can make some really cool art. Get some washable stampers, you get them in all kind of rainbow colors and its hours of fun.

Check out these cool fingerprint artwork and try them out at home.

Learning to draw the animals all last week was making Nimisha very tired, because even though she learnt something she had nothing to show off and she loves to show off.

So we decided to do something fun this week, something that she could display in her new bedroom. Please try this out with your kids at home, its fun, its easy and a perfect display for kids room.

So here are the things you need:

1. A rectangular pre-stretched canvas( I used 7X14″), you may use bigger.
2. Some pre-cut foam stickers or you can use a foam sheet and cut out the shapes.
3. I found some really cool leaf branch foam stickers, which I used. You may just cut out the shapes on your foam sticker sheets.
4. Some colorful cupcake liners to make the flowers.
5. Sky blue Oil pastel or water color for the background(sky and clouds).
6. A pair of kid-friendly scissors and craft glue.
7. Some sticker jewels or acrylic jewels( that needs glue to stick).

Now I guess, you probably already got an idea as to how to do it. But just in case, here it goes:

Lets start with making the cupcake liner flowers, first select 3 different kinds of cupcake liners. We need the liners to be three different sizes. So that we can paste it one on top of the other, just like the picture below:

Then hold it down from the bottom, just as you would hold a flower. Then add a little jewel in the center.

Now cut out the foam stickers to make your stems, leaves and butterfly wings.

Now I just used precut leaf stickers, that’s easily available at any art store.

In next step decide, where you would like to place your flowers and butterfly cut out on the canvas.

Now you have an idea, where to place everything. Color the canvas with the background color for the sky. Now just stick everything in place. Decorate the flowers and butterfly with some sparkly jewels. Let everything dry.

Your art is ready for display!!

Some ideas for creating with cupcake liners:

How about an underwater sea life: try making some fish, octopus and sea shells. Put it all together in your scrapbook.

Try making some cupcake liner owls or any bird; perched on a tree branch; it would look great on display.

This is a simple activity to get started. This is a very basic art project that every kid might have tried in their pre-school. So you may ask, what is different here. Nothing…but we are going to display it on our walls and make our child feel confident that they are good at it.

What you need:

1. A 12X12 pre-stretched canvas
2. Some colored construction papers -different colors
3. A pair of child friendly scissors
4. Glue stick
5. Glitter glue(optional)

Ask your child to draw some different shapes on the construction papers. Let them cut out those shapes. Younger children might need help for cutting them. Get the glue stick and stick the shapes on to the canvas any way you want.

At this point get creative. My daughter likes to glitter up everything, so she started outlining the shapes (the white spaces in between) with her glitter glue.  But then she felt like it needed more; so by the time she finished she had glittered the whole thing up.

Now this was a very basic activity, but it led her to having some cool ideas and below is a beautiful art work that is hanging in my living space. She did have some help with drawing the flowers, but she had the idea for what to make and that is a very important part of getting started with art-“HAVING A CREATIVE IDEA”

The kids can use this technique to make their own greeting cards, it’s pretty easy for the kids to make on their own and their sense of achievement is something that is fulfilling for you as a parent.

These are some of the things that might help your kids keep motivated and interested in learning to draw:

1.Guide them; but let them be free with what they want to express.

You can ask them to coloring inside the lines, but they will learn it on their own once they are older.

So it’s okay if their lines are uneven or outside the lines for now.

2. Color with them, kids learn by observing.

Maybe if you color from left to right and from top to bottom (you can tell them that you are doing it because that way it is easier) they will follow you. Outlining the picture first with the color might help too.

3. Start small, too much can make them uninterested.

Keep your projects small, try something you can finish in 15 to 30 minutes.

4. Listen to the kids, appreciate them. Do not just say that their drawing is pretty, let them explain their art. Nimisha always has a story to what she drew and she gets disappointed if we do not show interest in what she has to say.

5. Make art fun. Let them explore the world of abstract. Using basic shapes is an awesome way it to do an abstract. My first activity is using basic shapes to make an abstract picture. Nothing can go wrong here. You can use a pre-stretched canvas to do it and then display it proudly!!

Before getting started:

These are some of the basic things that you will need:

1. A pencil case with a good white eraser, a pencil and a pencil sharpener.
2. Crayons or oil pastel colors.
3. A small water coloring set. I would start with crayons and oil pastels, so maybe you could buy these later or if your kids are older) Buy some good quality paint brushes. The ones that usually come with the paint set do not have good bristles and are frustrating for kids.
4. The most important…a good drawing book (safe for watercolors and pastels), so that the kids and save their creations in a good place). My daughter loves to show her paintings when friends come home.
5. I have used pre-stretched canvas in some of the activities, but you could do them in your book too.

So, what are we waiting for…let’s get started!!