Magic Collages!
Promoting expressive arts and design with your child is extremely important, especially in the early years. Without realising, fostering budding arts and design skills helps alongside the development of other key skills both in life and in learning. Helping your child to get in touch with their creative side can help them develop their critical thinking and imagination skills, their desire to ‘have a go’ at new things and to explore the world on their own terms using all their senses!
The social and emotional benefits of developing a child’s confidence through artistic expression are also hard to beat. As children develop the ability to communicate, sometimes the inability to express themselves as they would like to can become a source of frustration and anxiety. For many children, the opportunity to express themselves through artistic activities such as dancing, role play and painting can help towards bridging this gap.
If you are stuck for ideas with how to support this at home, we find that the best, and most simple way to support this development is collaging. Collaging can take many forms, and you only need 3 key items to make them: paper, glue, and materials of your choice! This can include old magazines, old rags or clothes, materials you find in the natural world, or anything else you might think of! If your child is older, they might enjoy creating pictures of the things that they like best – it can be a great challenge for imagination and creativity. For younger children, they will be able to enjoy the sensory experience of gluing, sticking and exploring textures too.
Top tip: At Almond House, we believe that the natural world can be a child’s greatest teacher – try foraging the outdoors for different materials you can use for your collages, and give your child the opportunity to explore all the different sights, sounds, smells and textures around them. Set yourself a challenge to see how many different items you can find!
Happy new year and happy collaging from Almond House Nursery!