The benefits of painting with your children

Yesterday we went shopping and as part of our weekly essentials I popped a set of finger paints into our trolley.

Why?

Because not only is painting a large part of our week, there are also several benefits to letting your child explore their talents and express themselves through paint.

Benefits of painting with your children

• Painting a picture can help a child to communicate their emotions and make sense of their world, events in their life or new experiences.
• Through the use of colour a child can safely express how they are feeling without needing to communicate in words.
• Painting offers an educatonal opportunity that is fun and exciting
• While painting children develop their hand- eye coordination.
• Painting also helps to develop mobility skills as children use their hands to hold the brush and make movements with their wrists.
• Children learn to focus whilst painting.
• Painting teaches children about textures, when using different paints, brushes and canvas or paper textures.
• Painting also helps to develop a child’s imagination and creativity.
• Children learn about colours and colour mixes as they create their paintings.
• Painting assists in teaching critical aspects of the preschool curriculum like shapes, colours, sizes, patterns and design.
• When painting your child is using decision making skills, deciding on which colours to use next, or what to paint where.
• Painting can also form part of therapy to a child by helping them to express themselves and make sense of a situation or emotion by painting it and talking about the painting afterwards.
• When you paint with your child you spend valuable time with them helping you to bond.

We paint at least once a week and I have taken to leaving all Hamish’s paints at his level so that he can choose to paint whenever he would like to.

How often do you paint together?