Parenting Pointers: Art and COVID - Helping Your Children through this stressful time by being creative

Anxiety, depression, and stress are all words we didn’t used to hear when it came to our children. However, we hear them quite often now from our children’s teachers and other parents. What can we do to help our children to cope with these difficulties and stresses in their lives?

Children are naturally imaginative and creative. It doesn’t take much to help them turn on their creative juices and get lost in a world only they can create. By allowing children to stay children as long as possible and feel safe creating whatever comes to their mind, we help them avoid anxiety or at least delay it for a time.

One way to help our children be creative is through art. Art can come in many forms including:

• Coloring books

• Drawing

• Painting

• Sculpting

• Dancing

• Singing

And many, many more. When children are free to express themselves through art, they take a mental time-out from whatever is bothering them and usually will focus all of their energy on what is in front of them. This makes it equally important to allow kids to focus on creating in a space they enjoy and not one that the parents might prefer.

So as parents how do we encourage our children to create and be artistic on a daily basis? 

We live in a time where resources are everywhere to be found especially online. Chances are you are reading this article online while looking for parenting resources. 

Have your children take time every day to focus on whatever art inspires them. Find resources online and from libraries on the subjects that your kids are interested in. Stick with it and complement your children constantly on their progress. As children are able to see improvement, you’ll see a change in their countenance.

COVID has been hard on everyone and especially children. By taking something like the arts and preserving that in our children’s daily routine, we can help alleviate the pressures that come from this pandemic.

Joseph Stevenson is an artist and the author of the best-selling “How to Draw Anime” and “How to Draw Manga” children's book series, as well as the books “How to Draw Figures Simple Anatomy, People, & Forms for Beginners” and “How to Draw Animals: Learn to Draw Animals Using Basic Shapes and Lines,” among many others. He is an advocate of art education and currently resides in Southern Utah with his wife and four children.

For more information on Joseph and his work, visit josephstevenson.com.