But what is it? Understanding and responding to children's art

Do you have one of those kids who come home with a huge pile of artwork everyday?  Paintings, drawings, teeny-tiny scraps of purple, red and yellow?  Or maybe your child brings home just one "jewel-encrusted" piece of construction paper, sopping with glue still, that they insisted you bring home instead of allowing to dry in the classroom? 

For older children, sometimes this art work is easily recognizable, but for many children in the early childhood years, the paintings are gray or brown blobs, or simply scribbles all across the paper.  As adults, we're using to considering art as a representation of something, so we're tempted to ask our children, "What is it?"  Here's the surprising news:  sometimes it (really) isn't anything at all, and more importantly, it's just fine if it isn't anything at all! If that's the case, though, how do we respond when our children enthusiastically show us their painting or drawing?

Very often, art work is an exercise of process for children; they are not always working towards a product.  Art materials like paint, clay, glue, markers and other drawing materials are fun just to explore and "see what happens" on the paper.  That's why you'll so often see big blobs of gray or brown.  What you don't see is the twenty minutes the child spent adding blue to yellow to make green, and then adding red, just to see what happened.  (Brown happens when you add all three primary colors.) From this experimentation process, children learn a LOT.  They learn about the qualities and properties of the medium they are working with. They learn how oil pastels feel slippery compared to crayons. They learn that the viscosity of finger paint is different than tempera.  They learn what happens when you add blue to yellow (and if you were in the classroom, you'd hear their exciting discoveries as they cry out, "Green! I made green! Look, it's green!" They figure out (eventually!) how much glue you really need to hold that feather onto the construction paper. They learn about straight lines and circles and they gain lots of fine motor control as they learn to manipulate their paintbrush, marker or pencil (yes, this will help them with writing later, but this isn't even the most important part of the experience of art!)  More importantly though, they learn that art can be a way to express feelings and beauty and eventually, that it can be used to represent ideas.

"This is the ice cream monster. This is the syrup monster.
This is a cake monster.  More syrup monsters.

So how do we talk to children about their art?  One of the easiest ways to go is to simply tell your child what you notice about his or her art.  "Oh, I see you used a lot of BLUE on this painting," or "I notice that you used a lot of CIRCLE shapes here."  Noticing what a child does in this simple manner supports the process of what they've done because in doing so you have demonstrated a non-judgmental appreciation of what they've done.  It can also expand their vocabulary. Instead of "blue," say "slate-blue," instead of noticing a green-yellow color, say "I see you've made chartreuse!"

But what is it? As long as you keep noticing things about their work, children will tell you "what is it," when and if it is something!  If you ask, "what is it?" children who aren't yet creating representations with their art are likely to just make up something they think you'd like to hear.  And unfortunately, if they weren't representing, but just experimenting, it also sends the message that their art should "be something," and that they did it incorrectly.  So just enjoy noticing. And when you're done, they'll very likely want to tell you more things about their art work.  And they'll keep on creating!

Dress for mess! Sensory play at school

Babies exploring non-toxic paint, together.

I always tell our new families to be sure that their children come to school dressed for mess! Children have the opportunity to use all of their senses to explore a variety of materials, many of them messy, every day at our school.  Some parents embrace the idea, and for others, it can take a little bit of persuasion.

The idea of messy play is so important to us at the YCCF that we put it into our policy manual, so families understand that their children are likely to get paint, water, mud, soap, play dough or glue on their clothing during the day. 

Why do we think it's so important? We know that children learn best when they can engage all of their senses in their exploration of the world.  And materials with interesting textures are the most engaging of all. Materials that children love include paint (especially finger paint), shaving cream, mud, water, uncooked rice, dried beans, and various recipes for play dough, "goop" and "gak."  There's even one we call "ooblek!"

Sensory play uses big and small muscles. When children explore with these materials, they use not only the small muscles of their fingers and hands, but also the larger muscles of their arms as they move, squish, dump and pile the materials. And when the sensory experience involves a rain puddle, mud puddle, or sandbox, their whole body gets involved! There's also something extremely soothing about sensory experiences-- both for adults and young children.  Letting a big handful of dry rice fall through your fingers is inherently attractive to us. It just feels good. Petting a soft, silky cat calms us.  When teachers come to me because a child has a challenging behavior, I very often ask, "What sensory materials do you have out?"

Toddlers explore soapy water.

Sensory play is a social activity.  Most of the time, when children explore these materials, they do it together.  Whether it's toddlers around the water table or babies painting together on a giant piece of paper, this social activity gives children the opportunity to share an experience together.  They have opportunities to ask for what they need and to help out a friend.  When one asks, "Can I have the star cookie cutter?" at the play dough table, and another child helps out by handing it over, children learn the social-emotional skills they need to get along with others.

Sensory play teaches language. It would be  impossible to understand words like "squishy," "soft," "slippery," or "silky" without having repeated sensory experiences with materials that match those descriptions.  The same goes for "prickly," "rough" and so many more.

Sensory play teaches foundational science.  While you might not think physics or chemistry has a place in a preschool or toddler room, actually,  foundational science is a big part of sensory play! Pouring water from a short, fat cup into a tall, thin cylinder helps children understand the concept of conservation of liquids. Adding rocks to a full pitcher of water makes the water inside overflow, helping children understand displacement.  And that's only the beginning.

How can you help at home? Give your children opportunities with safe sensory materials to play with.  Fill a plastic tub with water and give them cups and spoons from your baking drawer.  Recipes for play dough can be made at home, inexpensively.  Add some cookie-cutters and a rolling pin. Talk with your children about their experience with the sensory material.  How does it feel?  What can you do with it?  What properties does it have? Need some specific ideas?  Visit Learning4Kids for recipes!

There is so much in a young child's world that is a "no-no!" or a "don't touch!" Let's tell them YES to sensory play!

Raising Readers, Part 2

Often, when we think about teaching children to read, we focus on their knowledge of letters, letter sounds and what we call "decoding," or a child's ability to use letter-sound relationships to pronounce words they see in writing.

These skills are important-- in fact, knowledge of letter-sound relationships and decoding skills are  predictive of reading success in first grade. But it isn't the strongest predictor of reading success after 3rd grade-- but why not?

Something switches for children around the 3rd or 4th grade.  They move from learning to read  to reading to learn.  It's a key difference!  And what's the strongest predictor of reading success in those later elementary grades?  Vocabulary.  (Hemphill and Tinvan, 2008.)

Children study a car's motor.  Lots of  new words to learn!

But why?  Before 3rd grade, children spend much of their time learning to decode very simple text. Vocabulary and having broad knowledge doesn't matter much.  But after 3rd grade, comprehension is king, and the key to being a strong reader.  According to University of Virginia professor, Dr. Daniel Willingham, author of the 2015 book, Raising Kids Who Read, good readers are "people who know a lot."  This is because, in part, comprehension of written texts involves a lot of inference on the part of the reader.  Authors leave out the knowledge they assume the reader already knows (otherwise, reading becomes tedious.) Without a broad knowledge of the world, children are very challenged when deciphering the meaning of the text because they're unable to draw on that "missing" information.

How do we help children build their vocabularies? Clearly, building a large vocabulary takes time, so we can't wait until 3rd or 4th grade to do it! At the YCCF, we offer children a variety of experiences to help build their vocabularies. When a preschool class studies insects, they may invite an entomologist to come talk to the children.  When learning about shapes, we might investigate not only circles and squares, but  octagons and a rhombuses. When participating in art experiences, we might talk about not only purple and blue, but also magenta, aquamarine and turquoise. When building towers in the block area, teachers might bring up ideas about architecture and blueprints, and describe block buildings as not only tall, but also gargantuan, towering or colossal. You'll be surprised at how quickly children adopt these new, but meaningful, vocabulary words as their own.


How can you help your child's vocabulary grow at home? Talk, talk, talk, and not just to them but with them. Give them all kinds of experiences-- there are so many to be had right here in our own community.  Visit the library and meet the librarian to learn new vocabulary related to books.  Visit our state parks or a nature centers to learn lots of new vocabulary words related to nature.  Go to the grocery store and learn all about the fancy kinds of fruits and vegetables that you might not eat everyday.  USE new and bigger vocabulary than you think your child would normally use.  Introduce it to them in natural ways that connect the new words to their current knowledge.  "Your block tower is so tall!  It's colossal!"

Interested in learning more?  Here's some research and Here's the book, Raising Kids Who Read by Dr. Willingham.

What "big words" will you introduce to your child today?

Welcome to Family Connections at the Y's Center for Children and Families!

Choosing an early learning program for your young child is a hard decision-- one that families don't make lightly.  The most important thing we can do is create a healthy and safe learning environment in which you know your child will thrive.

When you're away all day, you wonder-- what did my child do today?  Did she make friends?  Did he have fun?  Did she learn? At the Y, we aim to help connect you to your child's early learning classroom in a way that helps you understand not only the activities that your child engages in from day to day, but how and what your child learns by participating in them.

Families sometimes worry-- will my child be ready for kindergarten?  Does my child know what he needs to know to succeed?  Is this program providing my child with the right stuff? At the Y, we'll partner with you in meeting your child's needs for social/emotional, physical and cognitive development.

On this site, we'll share with you how you can help support your child's learning in math, science, social studies, language and literacy, and the arts.  We'll help connect you with community resources that can support your family as well!

Children don't come with instructions.  We're here to help.

Jen