See More About:
Submitted by: Tiziana D’Angelo
Arts camp offers many benefits to children and parents alike, many of which may not be immediately evident. In order to assess whether or not arts camp is right for your child, you may want to consider the following:
What can an arts camp offer your child?
– An arts camp can give children the opportunity to explore different art mediums and materials. This process makes them happy, creative and imaginative. – Participating in arts camp programming makes children feel confident because the knowledge they already have emerges and they realize how much they already know e.g. if the theme is cities and the material is blocks, the children will relate it to a city or a neighbourhood with which they are familiar. This process also makes them feel connected to their community. – Children have fun working together on large arts camp projects e.g. if they were to set up a gallery or an art show, they would need to collaborate on displays, make decisions about signage and divide up the various event roles. Children make great friendships at arts camp as a direct result of such collaborative work. – Children look forward to keeping their arts camp creations and are proud to display them at home.
Why do parents feel good about sending their children to arts camp?
– Arts camp encourages social interaction, teamwork and verbal communication. – Children gain technical knowledge about art e.g. sketching techniques, textures and brushstrokes and how to work with clay. – An arts camp will usually have an art show. This is an exciting way for children to become literate, as they need to write descriptions for their artwork. – An arts camp helps children focus and concentrate. In fact, parents with children who have autism are oftentimes advised to send their children to an arts camp. – Arts camp programming teaches children to understand the world in three dimensions e.g. when they learn about the face it is easier to draw it once they have already constructed it. – Arts camp programming helps children to be calm, focused and engaged. – Arts camp programming encourages children to learn how to problem solve, concentrate and make choices e.g. how to choose different colours for a painting.
What should parents look for in an arts camp?
– An arts camp may include physical fitness under the theme of the day e.g. if waterfalls is the theme children would be encouraged to mimic the motion of a waterfall. Children may want to become more active in such a context because the physical activity would be tied to the arts, which excites them. – An arts camp could include general art appreciation. – Arts camp programming sometimes breaks themes into small activities. This helps ensure that the children are engaged because they are always doing something different e.g. if the theme were fish they would first draw one and then construct it. – Arts camp programming sometimes incorporate the application of new learning models e.g. hybrid approach or REGGIO, which is a project-based approach to learning. – Arts camp should offer children the opportunity to create collective works e.g. a mural or a sculpture that builds teamwork, invites the sharing of ideas and encourages friendship. – Arts camp programming can cover a wide variety of themes that are of interest to your child and that may also be tied to curriculum e.g. global, outer space and jungle.
Arts camp offers many benefits that go beyond the ability to produce artwork. Many of the skills children will pick up in an arts camp are formative as they help the child to develop socially and physically and some are even aligned with the reading and writing curriculum.
About the Author: MESSY HANDS operates art buses that come to you with kid’s art programming across Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. You can visit MESSY HANDS at:
messyhands.com
For further information about a kid’s art camp in Toronto or the Greater Toronto Area, please visit:
messyhands.com/camps.asp?id=6
Source:
isnare.com
Permanent Link:
isnare.com/?aid=407699&ca=Parenting }