art

One of my most popular kids learning activity series is Art History for Preschoolers. Kids love exploring grown-up topics, like Art, and the works of the masters, are incredible creative inspiration for them. One of my personal favorite artists is Claude Monet. If you loved my Monet Inspired Water Lillies…

Expand your study of Art History for Preschoolers with more hands-on exploration featuring 15 Matisse art projects for kids. When we first started our exploration of Art History Kids, we began with Matisse. His use of vibrant colors and large geometric shapes – whether in his early years painting or…

Do you have a project you did as a child that really stayed with you? For me, this is it… one summer, I went to a summer art program my mom was teaching and we made Japanese Fish Art, or gyotaku. It was the summer after second grade, I was…

Last year, our most popular kids activity series by far was Exploring Art History with Preschoolers. We continue to add to it over time, featuring simplified artistic techniques and fun books about art for kids. Today, my friend Nicola from Crafty Kids at Home is sharing some awesome kids painting…

The girls favorite book changes weekly – lately, they’ve been on an Elmer kick. For those unfamiliar with the story, Elmer is a brightly colored patchwork elephant, who just wants to look like all the other elephants, but ultimately celebrates his unique look.  At the end of the story, all…

This project took some bravery on my part.  You may have noticed most of our activity posts feature Big M, with Lil’ M along for the ride.  Big M (age 4) is my rule stickler, takes direction well, and since birth, has possessed an incredible attention span.  Lil’ M (age…

Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement.  His artistic exploration of pop culture produced mixed media series featuring icons of the day, from Marilyn Monroe to Campbell’s Soup cans.  For our latest project in the Art History for Preschool series, the girls (ages 4 and 2) were easily…

Georges Seurat is famous for creating his own painting technique.  Using hundreds of tiny spots of color, he created great masterpieces, with a technique now known as pointillism.  While applying spots of paint to create an image may be a bit advanced for preschoolers, painting a picture with spots provides great…

Henri Rousseau got his start painting professionally late in life.  He once said he had “no teacher other than nature”.  Taking a page from his book and the beauty that is New England fall, Big M (age 4), Lil’ M (age 2), and I decided to engage in a little…

Things have slowed down around here as we continue to dig out of boxes from our big move, and as I enter the last month of my pregnancy and sheer exhaustion has set in!  But, we are still managing to do a few fun activities each week, continuing with our…

Big M is my little bunhead.  She began taking ballet at age 2 and has been tutu obsessed ever since!  I knew she would be beyond fascinated by the next artist in our Preschool Art series, as we studied the Degas Dancers.  Unlike many Impressionists who painted landscapes outdoors, Degas…

At the beginning of the summer, my friend Clarissa at Munchkins and Moms shared this awesome Starry Night-Inspired Sensory Bin she made for her boys.  As soon as I started brainstorming for our Art History for Preschool series, I knew I wanted to do one of our own.  When researching…

The girls and I are having so much fun with this Preschool Art series. I love the inspiration it is providing me in coming up with fun new activities, and I love all the support, feedback and excitement I am hearing from you all in response!  This week, we continued…

Last week, I kicked off our Art History for Preschool series.  I started by sharing a great list of books to help you and your preschooler get excited about art, and the great artists.  You will find many of our upcoming projects reference books from that list as our series…

Growing up, my grandparents had a print of the Matisse Goldfish hanging in their breakfast area.  The Goldfish and many other prints and reproductions they hung in their home were my first exposure to art as a child.  Thirty years later, having seen many great masterpieces in person in museums…

Today, we continue our Exploring Art History with Preschoolers series, sharing the first preschool reproduction using one of the masters’ techniques: Matisse Cutouts! Painting with Scissors – Exploring Matisse Cutouts This represents a number of firsts for us: the first Kids Activity in our Exploring Art History with Preschoolers series…

Big M is very artistically inclined.  She has great imagination and loves to create. And, as I’ve discovered, she loves learning about real world topics, beyond just the usual preschool nursery rhymes, ABCs and dinosaurs (though we do plenty of that as well!).  We recently decided to undertake an exploration…

If you have ever seen Lil’ M wield a paintbrush, you will understand why we take many of our crafting activities outdoors when weather permits.  At almost 2, she has a fierce independent streak, wants to do it herself, and when I try to help, she gets mad and paint…

In today’s modern era, technology can enable great learning opportunities at every age, not to mention, displace weighty books and handfuls of toys in the diaper bag when you are on the go.  Last week, we highlighted our 15 favorite iPad apps for babies and toddlers.  This week, we cover…