Are you planning on providing your child with a wholesome activity?
A toddler easel is perfect for that!
By giving your child an opportunity to work on an easel, you are allowing him to experience numerous benefits in his physical, mental, and even social well-being.
We explore the benefits your child can receive through using an easel and other interesting tips on how to use this tool.
More...
Toddler Easel Benefits
Did you know that a toddler easel offers more than just fun and worthwhile activity for your child?
In fact, there are several benefits to using an easel, and these are just some of them.
1. Develop fine motor
An easel offers your child that opportunity to develop his fine motor skills. The act of moving from the bottle of paint and onto the surface of the easel requires control and focus. These are good skills your child can learn, which are beneficial to his life.
2. Improve large motor skills
As your child paints using an easel, there are certain arm movements that help improve his motor skills. He needs to maintain the right angle of his arm, which means the easel helps in exercising the arm and up to the shoulder.
When there is a greater surface covered, these areas of the body receive more exercise. These all support his well-being and development.
3. Achieve social skills
Having preschoolers work side by side to paint on an easel helps develop social skills. For instance, you might want to set up a double-sided easel in front of each other. This enables toddlers to observe their works and not feel isolated from the group.
4. Harness cognitive skills
It may seem too simple for adults…
But there is actually more to figure out than what you think.
Toddlers need to determine how they can get the paint on the piece of paper, how to mix different colors, which color to use, how to prevent drips, and so on.
It’s more complex than what meets the eye!
5. Boost creativity
There are no rules when it comes to painting.
It is an activity that springs out from one’s own creativity, which every single person possesses.
So by exposing your child more to painting on an easel, you are also allowing him to discover his inner creativity.
As he goes through working on an easel, he is able to determine the amount of paint to apply on the surface and what shapes and strokes to apply to create a design.
How to Introduce the Use of an Easel
Now that you know more about the benefits of a toddler easel, you must be so excited to let your child try it out!
Here are some tips you can use on how to introduce the easel to your toddler. Whether you are a teacher or a parent, these practical tips can guide you in allowing a child to make better use of a toddler easel.
1. Setting Up the Easel
The first thing you need to think about when introducing the use of an easel to your child is the location.
Where is the best spot to set up the easel?
The ideal location is over a type of flooring that is easy to clean. For instance, the linoleum floor is a suitable choice as it is pretty much efficient to wipe spills. If you only have a rug or carpet flooring, then you should use a tarp or vinyl material to protect the surface against stains.
2. Determine the Painting Tools You Can Use
Now that you have decided on the easel set up, the next thing to think about is the painting tools.
The typical choice is paint brushes but there are other options out there.
You can experiment with a wide range of painting tools that are equally effective and even more fun for kids to use. These tools include corks, cotton swabs, waffle blocks, toy cars, sewing spools, and rolling pins.
In fact, you can even use natural materials such as feathers, potatoes, sticks, dried leaves, and similar things. Use your imagination and look around you - there is a multitude of materials that are surely worth using as painting tools!
3. Prepare the painting surface.
Next up, choose the surface for you to paint on.
Sure, there is always paper as the common painting surface.
But you do not have to limit yourself to the usual material! There are several materials that will surely come in handy when painting and these are:
- Burlap
- Coffee filters
- Tin foil
- Bubble wrap
- Cardboard
- Freezer paper
- Fabric
The choice is absolutely limitless!
4. Grab your paint.
And now comes the fun part. It’s time to start painting!
Once again, there are dozens of options out there to use as a paint material.
There’s watercolor, puffy paint, tempera paint, chalk paint, acrylic, crayons, finger paint, etc. If you want, you can also use coloring pencils, markers, and chalk. These are all fun materials you can surely use.
Final Thoughts and Additional Tips on Toddler Easel Use
The most important thing about using the easel is to get it all set up first.
Then, you can decide on the materials to use for painting, the surface to paint on, and the painting tool to use.
Just make it a point that you check these painting materials and determine their suitability for your child’s use. These should be kid-friendly products that will not impact your child’s health in any way.
Encourage your child as he paints on the easel. Be supportive of your little one's progress and efforts and motivate him to keep going.
Always remember that kids have their own creativity, so never hesitate to shower your child with positive feedback. This way, you can encourage him to do his best at all times and express himself through art, which is very therapeutic and beneficial to his well-being in every single way
