All parents want to provide their children with a head start in life. Whether you are a 34 year old mother who is having her first child or you are a 22 year old parent who is having her third baby, the advantages you provide to your children at the youngest ages are often the most important. While other parents are looking to introduce academic rigor to their children at very young ages, you are instead anxious to find a healthy mix of social interaction, academics and artistic exploration for your young child.
Voice or instrument training is the most popular, favored by 36% of parents, art class in preschools and elementary schools. Visual arts are the second-most popular, preferred by 19% of parents, art classes in preschools and schools. The benefits of finding a preschool program that provides the head start associated with music listening and lessons are enormous. An environment, for example, that plays Suzuki violin or piano music in the background for several hours a day enhances even the youngest student’s success when they attend lessons later in the day. Imagine how much more of a head start you could provide your young child if he or she were able to also work on rhythm and tone matching activities during the preschool day.
In addition to music education, opportunities to explore art also enhance a young person’s ability to visually and spatially react to the environment. Giving children the opportunity to experience the textures and temperatures of working with clay and sculpting with snow provides sensorial experiences encourage young minds to interact with their environment.
While some preschools simply provide coloring sheets and crayons, why not instead look for a learning environment that will allow your child to feel the difference between painting with a watercolor brush and a natural sea sponge? Teaching children to explore the art world through their senses gives them a head start in experiencing the world around them.
Children enjoy learning, especially when the learning is guided by creative and competent teachers who are willing to prepare an environment for exploration. Who says that every child needs to use exactly the same materials and create exactly the same product when they are first experiencing art and music? Why not instead create an environment that allows even the youngest students to explore sounds and visuals that they can create themselves?
Students who study art at the high school level are four times more likely to be recognized for their academic achievement and three times more likely to be awarded for their school attendance. Why not introduce artistic concepts at any early age as a supplement to the academic rigors that most schools focus on?
