Art Ideas
Nature/Outdoor Art
Pressed Flower Art
This art project focuses on making connections. Together, look for flowers. Before picking them, see if you can identify them (You can download plant identifier apps, the Photos app on Iphone will identify plants, or use field guides). Talk about how how much more connected we feel to something once we know their name.
Once you identify the plants, pick out a few to pick. You can place them in a flower press or use heavy books and paper placed between pages.
As you position and press these plants and flowers, process the meaning of your own names. As a parent, you can tell your children the story behind their names.
Once the flowers are fully pressed, create an art project that honors these connections- maybe paste the flowers on your family names, or write about the names of the flowers and facts about each one. Use this art to represent healing connections.
Nature Collages
This art project can be completed at any season. The focus of this practice is on seeing awe and wonder in the simplest of things- a gift that many children posses but someday outgrow.
Go for a walk today, pick up things that bring you awe- this could be leaves, flowers, pinecones, feathers, rocks pine needles, seashells, bark, or pieces of wood. Share these treasures with one another. Ask the collector of the treasure, “why do you love this treasure?” This can be an activity in attempting to see the world the way they do.
Once you have collected enough treasures, create a collage or art project with them. You could create an image or an abstract piece. The point of this art piece is to create together, combining both of your treasures.
Art in Nature
This art project honors the natural mediums that the world gives to us. This project requires building a vision together and working to achieve that vision. While outdoors, look for items to build or create a work of art outdoors. Decide on a visual, it could be a house, a family, a sandcastle, a forest, the night sky, weather patterns, fireworks, etc.
Listen to one another’s ideas. Imagine how to add to the image as it grows and expands. Work on complimenting one another on each idea. Honor the creativity each person adds to the creation.
Once you’re finished, take a photo, but leave the art for someone else to find.
Splatter Paint
This art project invites a spirit of letting go of control and expectations, and a releasing of emotions.
Select a medium that you can paint with no concern for mess (so this is ideal if done outdoors). Lay the canvas, fabric, craft paper or whatever you choose to paint on the ground or up against a wall, put on paint-friendly clothes, and open paint (Tempra paint is wasahable, acrylic works well for this as well but may not come out of things).
Dip paintbrushes or sponges in the paint and fling the paint on the canvas. As you cast the paint onto the canvas, take turns and consider shouting out words as you fling the paint. You could name things you need to let go of, emotions you are feeling, hardships you are dealing with, etc. (anger, bullies at school, missing friends, an illness, a grade on a test, etc.) As a parent, model expressing and naming emotions in a healthy way.
When you get done, consider naming your artwork, “healing,” or something similar. You can add handprints, or once draw, write words or add drawings to it.
Outdoor Chalk
Chalk is one of the most accessible art mediums as it is cheap and with its bulky shape and off rough surfaces (concrete or asphalt), coloring with chalk often encourages more simple designs so even those who struggle with being creative can create something.
Consider sitting back to back to draw, surprise each other with an image for the other person. You could also take turns laying on the ground and outlining each other in chalk. As you outline one another, talk about your favorite things about them. You can also work together to create a large mural together.
If chalk is drawn in an area where others will see it (a sidewalk by the entrance of a church or building), talk about ways to leave art that encourages others.
Painting Rocks
Focus this activity on messages to send out to the world. Together, collect rocks. You can either paint on these rocks or use markers. Think of messages together that could meaningful for others. For children who are separated from other family members, this can be a sweet craft to send messages on the rocks and parents can then take the rocks and hide them in the yards or houses of family members.
You can also create rocks to hide around a common, public area (like a park or the garden of the church). As a parent, when you ask a child what message they think someone would like to hear, they will often share a message that means something to them. Through sending messages of love and hope to the world, you can learn about what someone needs to hear.
Once you’re finished, either select one to give to each other or allow them to choose one that means a lot to them.
Tie Dye
Tie Dye is a fun activity that feels more accessible to those who may struggle with seeing themselves as creative. You can find white shirts for cheap at most stores, or thrift shifts (even if they have designs on them). Invite families to research the tie dye designs together to understand how to wrap their shirts. This project often involves a lot of communication.
You can either use this as a craft to encourage autonomy in decision making. Allow children to pick out their own colors and as a parent, resist telling them where they should place color. Give them space to experiment. These shirts can also be designed to look similar to one another. For families who are separated, finding things that honor togetherness, like matching shirts can hold deep meaning. Encourage similar colors and designs.
Tie Dye also requires waiting for the color to soak in before washing and wearing. This can be a really fun 2 part project.
Painting Pumpkins
While this activity is fairly seasonal, pumpkin painting (a safer/less messy alternative to pumpkin carving), holiday activities can be so meaningful because they can either honor activities they are missing together, or help create new memories.
Some prompts for painting:
-Hold pumpkin painting competitions. Prompt families to not look at one another’s pumpkins. This encourages play.
-You can also paint your favorite memory form the year so far. Or something you are looking forward to in the new season.
-Or paint pumpkins to give to one another to take home, or to leave on site as a decoration.
While painting, consider talking about favorite Halloween/Fall memories. As a parent, tell stories that have either become family favorites or ones your children may not have heard. Talk about their first halloween, or a funny halloween story from your own childhood. When handled with sensitivity, sharing memories can build bond, attachment, and help heal neural pathways separation has caused.
Indoor Art Activities
Paint Together
Creating together nurtures bonds and attachment. It can be really connecting to paint the same images and then combine them into a single picture.
Sit together at a table, on a blanket on the floor, or a picnic table. As a parent, invite your children to create an image with you. Children often long to play with their parents- invitations (even if they are not well received all the time) hold deep roots in a child’s memory. Select an image together, make sure it’s one that everyone agrees on. Encourage conversation.
Keep these images simple (mushrooms, butterflies, etc.), discourage competition by elevating the uniqueness found in comparison. For example, say, “ I love how you created big circles on your mushroom! My imagination saw super tiny ones! I love seeing how you imagine mushrooms!” Use this as an opportunity to talk about how everyone sees the world (including color) differently and that should be celebrated. You can also ask questions that nurture deeper connection, “why did you choose that color red to paint your mushroom?” and follow up with, “I love that! thank you for sharing that with me.” Children may associate color with emotions (I feel sad today and blue reminds me of sadness,) or it may be associated with something they love (it’s the color of the sweater you always wear in the mornings!).
Date the image and find a way to honor it (frame it, hang it up, include it in a family art journal, etc.)
Handprint Art
Handprints, footprints, fingerprints, etc. document the passing time and togetherness.
A child’s hands/feet will never be this small ever again.
To a parent- having these prints can feel so meaningful. To a child, seeing their handprint alongside their parents can feel like a powerful connection.
Lay out multiple canvases (if separated, parents and children may each want a copy). Let everyone select their own color of paint (non-toxic washable paint!) as you discuss how to honor your prints.
You can lay out hand prints in a basic patter, or create images (birds, a Christmas tree, a heart, etc.).
*tip for young children and infants, keep baby wipes nearby. Once their print is made, wipes make it so easy to wipe paint off quickly.
Sign names and dates.
This activity lends to the opportunity to share about stories of when their hands were smaller.
Ornaments
Similar to the handprint art, you can use fingerprints to create meaningful Christmas ornaments that honor a season of separation. (You can also draw or paint ornaments for one another without using hand/finger prints).
Encourage parents to make an ornament for each child, and for children to make the ornament for their parents.
While creating, talk about favorite seasonal memories. As a parent, honor grief and name the emotions of sadness, anger, etc. It’s important to model the way emotions can coexist.
It’s also an important opportunity for parents to communicate that they want their children to be excited for Christmas plans. Many children, during separation, may feel conflicted between being excited for plans with their foster placement, and feeling grief over missing traditions and time with their parents. Parents are the best people to model and communicate the normalcy in those coexisting emotions.
*Parents can also use this activity as an opportunity to help the child create an additional ornament to gift to their foster placement. These actions can nurture the triangular relationships that children, their biological families, and their foster families find themselves in.
Art around Song Lyrics
This art practice is really meaningful for pre-teens and teens who often feel a connection to music. Many people turn to music for solidarity and a way to express their emotions. This way of coping often begins in adolescence.
A huge disconnect in those years is often disagreement in the type of music being listened too. It is not uncommon for judgement around a style of music (rap, rock, etc.) to prevent a parent from actually listening to the words and message in the music.
As a parent, ask your child to share with you a song that has been really meaningful to them or one that they really like in that moment. Ask them if there are lyrics that are especially meaningful. While you listen to the music, work together to create art around those lyrics.
If this is too challenging, simply do art together while listening to music together.
The challenge in this practice is to refrain from any negative or judgmental comments. Practice the art of listening, listen to lyrics through the lens of your child, ask them questions, thank them for sharing their music with you.
Family Art Journal
There can be many reasons that artwork can feel complicated- some children are not able to bring anything with them back to their foster placements, some parents do not have a permanent residence to bring items to, or children may want to create dozens of projects every single week.
An art journal can serve as a safe place to create and keep the images together. This can even be stored at a Family Connection site if possible to protect it.
Art can be taped or pasted in, or drawn right on the pages. Families may even use it to create a story or replicate memories.
*Be cautious if families want to pass the journal off every other week to bring home. Some parents, out of desperation, will write messages in the journal with content that may need to be communicated in therapeutic settings. The idea of THIS journal is to stay at a visit location (or be brought back and forth by the parent) and be a place for art to be stored. If a journal wants to be passed back and forth, communicate this to the caseworker.
Coloring Books
Some children struggle with creativity when it comes to blank pages-this can be due to age, or even due to neuro-divergence.
Coloring books can provide a safe space to nurture creativity.
Consider basic coloring book prints (animals, dinosaurs, etc.) and watercolor paints.
You can open a book so 2 pages are visible, and each paint a picture.
Celebrate choice of color.
Also celebrate abstract art. Coloring in the lines is not an appropriate goal at all times.
It can be really empowering for some children to hear how beautiful their art is and how unique their choices are to paint outside of the lines.
For a child attempting to color in the lines, celebrate focus, intention, and practice.
As a parent, practice coloring outside of life-like images (example: color a dog purple, or paint every flower petal a different color).
Coloring Mandalas for people of all ages is a practice in mindfulness since it focuses on patterns!
Art with Toys
Legos
Art and creativity should be seen outside of the scope of traditional art supplies.
Legos, magna-tiles, and other blocks nurture so much creativity!
As a parent, invite your children to create something together. Allow them to bring you into their imagination, and try not to add real-life restrictions to that (they may envision a flying house, a neighborhood made out of garden homes, or a zoo where animals live without cages, etc).
Follow their lead, think outside the box with your own ideas, once finished, take a picture of this project together.
Play Dough
Play dough is also an extremely accessible art medium.
Playing together with play dough can nurture both creativity and attachment through play.
Creating food is a common way children love to use play dough, make ice cream cones, pasta, cookies, etc.
Where clay may be harder to access (especially if it’s oven-bake), play dough can be left to harden to preserve artwork together.
Once you’re finished creating, consider mixing a couple colors together (the common battle with play-dough, I know!), and use shape cutters to cut out simple images like hearts or butterflies. Make sure you keep the playdough thick so they are less likely to break. Leave these to harden somewhere safe (it can take a couple days).
Before taking them with you, take turns holding the others close to your heart. Fill the shape with your love, and then give it back to them.
Beads
Beads can also be a very accessible art medium.
Consider creating key chains for one another out of beads (children can hang these on their backpacks). This can be an easy way to keep gifts with you- often easier than jewlery.
As you work on beading, ask questions about your child’s color choices. Ask about their patterns. Listen- children often associate colors and patterns with emotions or other things that are important to them. Be careful not to correct spelling too quickly either, celebrate them for spelling! Ask for consent to help them.
