Artistically Gifted?

[Jenkenn]

Has anyone had a child who was gifted artistically? It seems that my daughter, she's 4, is extremely artistic and is able to draw amazingly well for her age. I have no idea how to deal with a child who is gifted in the realms of art as I am not artistic and neither is my husband. I can deal with the child who is ahead in reading, writing and math but I have no idea what to do with a child who does art and lives for art. She even creates art with her leftover dinner! I am open to any and all suggestions people may have.

 

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

[ElizabethB]

My stick figures are sorry looking, my husband's aren't much better.

 

My daughter has been able to draw better than me for a year or two.

 

So far, I've just gotten her a variety of "how to draw" books from the children's section at the library, they work great, she likes me to draw from them with her, I've gotten a little better, too.

 

We just purchased "Artistic Pursuits" and "I Can Do All Things," but haven't started using them yet.

 

Eventually, I would like to get her some art classes, but my husband just got back from a 4 1/2 month deployment to Iraq and she doesn't want to be separated from us right now, and I don't want to sit in the back of an art class with a 3 year old boy, so we'll wait on that. Also, she's content with her drawing books for now and still progressing. (She had wanted to go to an art class before his deployment but the times were bad for us then. During the deployment and now, the times work but she doesn't want to go to a class without us now!)

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . it's performing arts, specifically acting and singing. The only wisdom I have for you is to make sure your daughter has access to lots of resources with which to experiment and to learn. When my daughter was young, we took her to every show of any kind we could find so that she could see and hear performers who are great at their crafts. Then we allowed her plenty of free time and access to costumes and soundtrack CDs and such so that she could experiment and practice to her heart's content.

 

When she was old enough, we enrolled her in some classes and let her start auditioning for community theatre stuff. She sang with choirs and sang in her room and memorized monologues and just generally practiced her skills.

 

And we kept (keep) taking her to the very best professional performances we can manage so that she can keep learning.

[Storm Bay]

Yes. My 10 yo is, and was drawing animals in motion in kindergarten, among other things. Apparently, 5 yos don't normally do that. But she's not driven to strive for excellence, nor is she profoundly gifted in it. We love the courses at Masterpiece Art Instruction. At least, we've loved The Phonics of Drawing. I was going to have my 13 yo do their watercolour next year, but we're going to do Acrylic instead because it's easier, she wants to do it and she is being "forced" to do a 1/4 art credit because I think she should at least get some art education. My 13 yo is at least very talented in art, but I'm not sure if she's gifted or not. But Mr Stebbing, who has written art curricula, pulled me aside at a workshop he did and strongly encouraged me to encourage my girls in art (when I showed him my ds's work at that time, he kindly pointed out that my ds was behind in his fine motor skills, so he wasn't just saying this, kwim?).

 

My girls have done a lot just by drawing on their own, which I was encouraged to let them do on the old AL board. The Phonics of Drawing got them to the point where they were when Mr. Stebbing saw them.

 

I'd HIGHLY recommend you get your dd to journal when she's old enough, although in the interest of full disclosure (:)) have to confess that my 13 yo hates it, so I don't push it. But I do get them drawing pads (made in this country) for gifts so they can draw away. Plus paint. They mix their own colours.

[LisaKinVA]

I have one... she is extremely creative, and very prolific in her artistic pursuits (my walls bear witness...)

 

I ordered the DVD series for her I can do all things (Stebbing... How Great Thou Art Publications). This teaches color theory, and helps with techniques from acrylics, to markers, to drawing... it's plug and play (and my dd loves it). I also have lots of "how to draw" books for her to choose from. She is also taking the K12 art course, and we sign her up for various art classes as we can (she just took her first pottery class 2 weeks ago).

 

She has art time daily -- informal or formal. I'm not sure I could stop it if I wanted to.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

That's my DD too. Where it comes from is a mystery because no one in the family has even an ounce of artistry!

 

I never provided her with drawing instructions. I was told one shouldn't start that before the age of 12, or unless the child becomes dissatisfied with what she can draw.

 

*But* I have adapted her schooling to her love of drawing. Instead of written work, I ask for comic strips. There are words in a comic strip, which have to be written properly. There's need for a plan, and revisions, and everything. She's not only stopped fighting me, she's actually enjoying her work!

 

The main problem I have now is that she will try and express herself by drawing instead of using words. And sometimes, it's much better to use words. She'll tell me stuff that happened in gymnastics by "Her leg did this, and wooosh, that way, and she flipped this way" all the while drawing in the air.

[Storm Bay]

She has art time daily -- informal or formal. I'm not sure I could stop it if I wanted to.

 

Yes, Mine also draw in their notebooks during school time if I'm busy with ds. Hopefully I'll never have to show them to anyone!

[JWSJ]

Both our children are very art oriented.

 

My wife is a 2D artist (mostly painting and photography) with a background in studio and teaching.

 

There is nothing like an in-house expert...

[Nan in Mass]

Arg! I know. More than half of my children's assignments are drawn on.

[Nan in Mass]

when they were in public school kindergarten. The teacher said she wasn't very familiar with the sequence of child development in drawing, but that she was quite sure that my middle one was way ahead of schedule. He spent his first kindergarten year refusing to learn to read and instead taught himself to draw. A different teacher said almost the same thing about my youngest. One of the aids told me youngest was "scary" GRIN. I suspect she had absolutely no idea of how one draws in perspective, and so didn't know how simple it really is.

 

Ahead of schedule isn't really the same as gifted, though, or talented, or even interested. I didn't really do anything with the information except provide them with basic drawing instruction and tons and tons of paper, bring their drawing stuff with us whenever they were going to be stuck someplace and need entertainment, and substitute drawing for almost half their writing assignments. And I would have done those things no matter what, probably especially if they DIDN'T show any artistic inclination.

 

Both mine are teenagers now, and draw pretty consistently. I wouldn't label them artisticly gifted. They are creative, but I expect that. They grab a pencil and draw anything that is easier to explain with a picture than with words. One will probably be an engineer, and most engineers I know are pretty artistic, creative, and draw to explain things. The other is so much more gifted in people that his original artisticness is probably not going to be used for much more than escape, basic communication (in an engineering sort of sense), and entertainment.

 

I would look for ways to expose my child to lots of art, find a way for her to treasure her work (like a notebook with plastic sleeves) and a way for her to display it (lots of magnets on the refridgerator or a big door or wall or something), give drawing equal weight with writing in her schoolwork, supply lots of materials and time to mess about with them, and find a way to help her learn the basic rules of communicating with drawing, like Drawing with CHildren or Draw Squad or the book Draw Squad was based on. Your library art section is probably going to be very important to you because art books are expensive. Of all those things, I think providing time and paper is the most important. But as I said, I don't really have ones that are gifted artistically, just sort of brightish.

-Nan

[Storm Bay]

Arg! I know. More than half of my children's assignments are drawn on.

 

 

How were your walls and furniture when they were little? I was rereading another poster here about her walls. My 10 yo, the one who drew animals in motion at 5, drew on furniture for way, way longer than she was "supposed" to (I think she finally stopped when she was 6 or 7).

 

I also forgot that she would "draw" with just about anything at that age. When she was into girls' faces she even made them out of train tracks (her brother's), a roll of toilet paper (it was still on the holder, some divided and put up to make pony tails with a face drawn on it), etc, and no one showed her these things first, nor did she see them in a book.

[Nan in Mass]

Yup... I was amazed about the walls. They didn't do it much, but that they did it at all after the age of two! What were they thinking? And yes, they made things out of everything, but I still do that, too, so I guess I didn't really notice that part LOL.

[Donna]

I thought you might be interested in this article on Identifying Artistically Gifted Children.... http://www.artisticnetwork.net/arts/260/identifying-artistically-gifted-children.html

 

I found it in My Favorites and remembered this discussion.

 

Hope it helps.

[AnneC]

We had an elephant on our wall for two years:glare: dd drew it one day (when she was 2) while she was waiting for dh to put her brothers down for their nap.

 

I haven't been able to find any art lessons for children under the age of 8. I'm artistically challenged but my husband is very good at drawing and he has taught himself. I think for the moment (dd is just 6) providing the materials and having a lesson occasionally with dad are sufficient for her.

[violin69]

Has anyone had a child who was gifted artistically? It seems that my daughter, she's 4, is extremely artistic and is able to draw amazingly well for her age. I have no idea how to deal with a child who is gifted in the realms of art as I am not artistic and neither is my husband. I can deal with the child who is ahead in reading, writing and math but I have no idea what to do with a child who does art and lives for art. She even creates art with her leftover dinner! I am open to any and all suggestions people may have.

 

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 

My dd,now 8, is gifted in verbal imagery; she also shows great potential in the visual arts. She did the same thing with her dinner.;)

 

At age 3, we were reading Tony de Paulo's Clown of God. She told me at the end

dd-"Mommy, the story gets sadder and sadder until the end.

Me-"Yes dear."

dd-"He gets older and older."

Me-"Yes dear."

dd-"Yes, the pictures get darker and darker as the story goes."

I had to go back and look; she was right. She was able to understand color as a way of expressing emotion. Not long after this she and my mom were walking downtown; she begged to go into an art gallery where she amazed Mom by her interest and understanding of art. She also would describe things as "teal" instead of just blue etc...

 

Last week while doing grammar, I asked her to provide an adjective for the noun snow. She said "warm". When I asked her why, she began to explain the emotional warmth that snow gives her.

 

 

 

Insights I've gained while teaching a right-brained kid:

 

• Her weakness is that she will embellish facts. She may see a bird during a nature walk and add details from her imagination. Narrations are great for working on indentifying fact from fiction. I also need to clearly separate non-fiction writing from creative writing.

• I have to give her an outlet for her creativity. Doodling is allowed and encouraged. I do very little prepared art projects, art in a box. She has her own craft box full of things to work with. Next year we will be making a revision "Writer's Tool Box" which she will fill with verbal things to redraft her writing with.

• She responds to Math concepts better when they are taught through word problems. She also learns vocabulary better through hearing them in the context of a sentence, of the boarder world of linguistics, and of history.

• Dd connects things quickly. I'm trying to figure out how to help her prepare for Geometry proofs bc she thinks globally. She may get an answer correct but may skip steps in explaining how she got there. Baking from a recipe and having her write out recipes is one way I can think of to help her walk through explaining a process.

• Classical Education is meant to provide rich models of good literture for educating our dc. This may make creative children feel stifled if these models are treated as time-tested formulas. She needs to learn to organize her thoughts but also the freedom to deviate at times. I need to introduce classical models as tools and/or spring boards to good writing and not as formulas. She naturally internalizes many grammar rules by simply seeing the beauty of it in classical literture. In other words, immersing her in reading/analyzing good literture and exposing her to fine arts are crucial.

I am sharing a little more than asked bc I too thought that the other subjects would be easier. I've learned that artistic child will also approach learning differently in other areas.

 

I put in bold print what I think may perhaps be most helpful with an artistic child. IMHO, Art in a Box is as much "dwaddle" as dumbed down books. I love Artisitc Pursuits bc it teaches art from a classic work, hands the child the materials for that particular style of art, and lets them create. Sometimes directions are needed as are grammatical rules but it should be kept to a minimum.

Edited February 16, 2009 by violin69

[violin69]

I thought you might be interested in this article on Identifying Artistically Gifted Children.... http://www.artisticnetwork.net/arts/260/identifying-artistically-gifted-children.html

 

I found it in My Favorites and remembered this discussion.

 

Hope it helps.

 

My dd fits almost all of those descriptions. She does well in visual arts but more than often she'll use words as her medium.

[Nan in Mass]

"Don't put too much emphasis on the end product."

 

I found that to be important. My youngest likes to draw on scrap paper best, on anything that wasn't meant for drawing on. Occasionally he likes to keep the end product, but mostly he likes working out ideas and figuring things out and he finds it inhibiting to have a sketch pad, with its implications of permanence and perfection and completion.

 

-Nan

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I think DD only drew once on the wall, after that, I made sure she had plenty of papers!

 

At 3, she decided she wanted a red bathing suit. But not any red, it had to be a specific red. We spent two hours looking at stores (it's easy when you're at the beach), looking for the red suit. She found a red skirt, and told me that was the red she wanted. Another two hours later, at the other end of the beach, she finally found a single red bathing suit. Then she claimed it was the same exact red as the skirt. I didn't believe her. Who can match reds like that? Two hours apart? She threw a major fit, and I had to 1. buy the bathing suit, 2. walk back to buy the skirt. They were a perfect match.

[Storm Bay]

I thought you might be interested in this article on Identifying Artistically Gifted Children.... http://www.artisticnetwork.net/arts/260/identifying-artistically-gifted-children.html

 

I found it in My Favorites and remembered this discussion.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

It does help. My 10 yo fits almost every one of those characteristics, my 13 yo most, and even my 8 yo, who is definitely a late bloomer (due to late eye development, late fine motor development and late interest) is showing more and more of those. Of course, he draws and paints airplanes and airports most of the time (with surprising skill for a boy who draws people at a 3 or 4 yo level because he just doesn't draw them), but he has some unusual ways of portraying them sometimes.

 

What I loved was the one where they live their art. My 10 yo does that with more than emotion, she does it in her play. She'll dress like the characters she draws. A couple of years ago when my parents treated us to a trip to a Club Med she had some difficulties staying with the group and was doing her own thing, etc. When I spoke with the director she said figured my dd, whom she'd never seen draw or do art, was very artistic because my dd was a lot like her best friend who was a fabulous artist.

 

Cleo--my kids had tons of paper, but the walls and furniture were more fun. Your dd did well to get back on track so quickly.

 

Nan, you know, my kids still do those things, but I hardly notice them.

 

But I have no idea if my dc will ever pursue art beyond dabbling in it for fun. My eldest wants to be a scientist, my second loves history and wants to be a mother (last she told me), and ds wants to fly and design airplanes. Of course, he'll need some artistic ability to draw those designs, but hardly those of a master! I have to be careful not to push them, because I threw my musical giftedness down the drain--I hated spending hours and hours at the piano or practising in general.

[Allearia]

I read a book from the library a few months ago that had a large section devoted to the artistically gifted. It had sample drawings and was really interesting. My child is gifted in other ways but this would be interesting to a parent of a child with these gifts.

 

Gifted Children: Myths and Realities by Ellen Winner

[The Girls' Mom]

From an artist's point of view...

 

Just provide her with plenty of materials, and avoid instruction right now. Exposure to various forms of art is great (museums, simple art history), but formal how-to lessons will likely have the opposite effect.

 

I know that personally I benefited the most from simply having materials to use, and the freedom to use them as a child. Any formal training I got just frustrated me, and usually ended with me not touching art for several months. As she gets older, if SHE expresses interest in a class, then go for it.

[violin69]

From an artist's point of view...

 

Just provide her with plenty of materials, and avoid instruction right now. Exposure to various forms of art is great (museums, simple art history), but formal how-to lessons will likely have the opposite effect.

 

I know that personally I benefited the most from simply having materials to use, and the freedom to use them as a child. Any formal training I got just frustrated me, and usually ended with me not touching art for several months. As she gets older, if SHE expresses interest in a class, then go for it.

 

An artist once told me this when I asked questions about dd's creative nature. Her love for art and her creativity have really blossomed. She went to art school in Lithuania bc she really wanted to but hasn't had formal art instruction since 2006.

[EricaB]

I have email Artistic Pursuits with questions beyond their curriculum. They deal amazingly well with the psychology of art and you child. I have learned so much from them and it has helped me help my creative kids in this area. Their preschool book has been a great read in understanding their process when they are wanting more, but are not old enough to understand elements of style. For my 5 year old, I have provided him with every type of material I could give him from appropriate brushes, various media types, and a project box of scraps and leftovers to create from. I am always amazed with the 3D models my son comes up with that he made merely from paper. Email them and they can guide you without selling you a bunch of stuff that you nor your child don't need right now. Their whole philosophy is using the kids imagination in the early years and not another curriculum. This might not work for everyone, but I have had the pleasure of watching the minds of both my little ones open up through art.

[Storm Bay]

An artist once told me this when I asked questions about dd's creative nature. Her love for art and her creativity have really blossomed. She went to art school in Lithuania bc she really wanted to but hasn't had formal art instruction since 2006.

 

 

We did very little in art curricula for a long time because we never got around to it. But I did hear something like this at one point which made me feel much better. My dd's have enjoyed The Phonics of Drawing, but my eldest started it at 10 or 11 and still hasn't quite finished it. However, we have never done it every day, and not even every week. They like The Stebbing course we bought after his workshop, but we don't get to that every week, either. Still they draw, cut, glue, doodle. And they paint whenever I let them, which isn't often enough.

 

One of the greatest tips Barry Stebbing gave us was to buy only the primary colours plus white with paints and let them mix their own colours. Actually, this is how he teaches in his workshops and in his curricula. They learn so much about colour this way. Of course, my eldest can name tons and tons of colours, and I now ask her. We had quite an interesting discussion the other day when my dh called his dark, new blue jeans Navy Blue. Dd pointed out that they're actually indigo. Dh, like many people, just calls any really dark blue navy blue, when there is actually one specific blue that is navy. Don't ask me to ID that, but my eldest knows.

[Donna]

I read a book from the library a few months ago that had a large section devoted to the artistically gifted. It had sample drawings and was really interesting. My child is gifted in other ways but this would be interesting to a parent of a child with these gifts.

 

Gifted Children: Myths and Realities by Ellen Winner

 

I love that book. It is a definite must-read for parents of gifted kids especially those with artistically and/or musically gifted kids since there isn't as much out there about those as there is academically gifted kids.

[violin69]

One of the greatest tips Barry Stebbing gave us was to buy only the primary colours plus white with paints and let them mix their own colours. Actually, this is how he teaches in his workshops and in his curricula. They learn so much about colour this way. Of course, my eldest can name tons and tons of colours, and I now ask her. We had quite an interesting discussion the other day when my dh called his dark, new blue jeans Navy Blue. Dd pointed out that they're actually indigo. Dh, like many people, just calls any really dark blue navy blue, when there is actually one specific blue that is navy. Don't ask me to ID that, but my eldest knows.

 

That sounds like an interesting curriculum. Do you have an link for Barry Stebbing?

[Merry]

I found it to be true with my artist ds. He resisted any formal instruction in art all the way through homeschool and was somewhat interested in his art history book that he had to read for a fine arts credit in his senior year. He didn't draw much but to my dh's and my shock, he's now majoring in fine arts in college with emphasis in drawing. His teachers who are from the Chicago Art Institute are urging him to apply there for grad. school and he's only a sophomore. It seems that if the person is truly interested and talented in art, he or she probably would not care for formal lessons in art in the childhood unless the lessons are somehow appealing, maybe. I knew he was a visual/kinesthetic learner and that he was somewhat interested in art pictures and architecture but that was it. If I could do it over again, I would have brought in more resources for art appreciation and bought high quality art supplies and let him go at it without me hovering over him:)

[love2read]

Yes, my now 19 year old is and was and it was obvious around the age of 3. I followed her lead and borrowed library books. We used a few art programs, but she flew through them and intuitively knew the material they covered. I borrowed from the children's section until she was about 8 and then she borrowed portrait drawing, landscape painting or whatever else she wanted from the adult section after that. I was clueless and she figured it all out from the books. She drew and painted constantly and has been selling her artwork in various forms since the age of 10. Just give her what she wants when she asks. You can do this because no one can be as clueless as I was. She's now in college and taking art classes, but not majoring in it because of the economy. She continues with her side art business.

[Storm Bay]

That sounds like an interesting curriculum. Do you have an link for Barry Stebbing?

 

http://www.howgreatthouart.com/

 

I see you use A Beka spelling so you do use some Christian materials, but for any who read this who don't like to, this is a Christian program. We like using 2 different programs so that our dc are being exposed to more than one method. Eventually I hope to expand that, but starting with just one program is what we did and certainly easier.

[Ohdanigirl]

Masterpiece Art, has any one else used this and liked it. I have the same problem. I can't even draw a decent stick figure, but my little artist loves drawing, clay and even origami (is that spelled right). I would like to get him art classes, but we are in Mexico, and private tutors are not easily found.