I have heard from lots of friends over the years that want to make more time for their children to make art, but aren’t sure where to start or are overwhelmed by the mess that comes with it. As your resident art-teacher friend, I am telling you: a sketchbook for kids is a great starting point! 💖 A great way to encourage your child to make art is by giving them high-quality materials that are enjoyable to work with. 🎨📒
Why Sketchbooks for kids
My mom is a super crafty person, and always had some project or another going on that I got to watch or participate in, but I received my first sketchbook in 1st grade. An artist neighbor (who was also AD military!) and lived in our duplex gifted it to me. He saw how much I loved drawing (his kiddos were my friends), and gave me a large artist-quality spiral bound sketchbook that I still have. I went on to be an art teacher and photographer so JUST SAYING, honoring your child’s instinct to create by giving them the time, space, and materials to do so can make a difference. 🥰 But really, sketchbooks are a safe place to experiment and explore materials. They become even more important as children get older and become more self-aware/self-conscious about their artistic talents.
Which Sketchbook to buy
This 60 page 9×12” mixed media sketchbook (amazon link) can get to about $10. I also keep one of these smaller size in my car for when we go to restaurants. A pad of kiddie paper can be $4-6 and falls apart when you use anything but markers or crayons on it. This paper can hold both wet and dry media. Imagine having all of those loose papers in a bound book that you can pull from to display, store whole, or easily photograph and then toss later if you really don’t like holding onto material things. The trick is to purchase “mixed media” paper or something with a “weight” of more than 80lbs on the cover. That just refers to the thickness and weight of the paper and relates to how much material it can hold.
Now, if your child becomes a prolific maker like mine (literally, I need to start a tree farm at this point), you’ll probably need to go over some ground rules. For a period of time maybe only pull the sketchbook out when you know you have time to do supervised making together. Offer small pieces of more inexpensive paper or post it notes if they go through paper like hot cakes. I like using dollar tree notebooks!
Next Steps
What do you think? Would you try using sketchbooks? What are ways you reduce the creative clutter in your home? Do you hoard it all like I do? 🤣 Emme was only 2 when we got started with these. It was so sweet when she asked for it (she used to call it Emme-book). If you need more help managing the “mess” try reading this blog post. I cover the BEST way to organize your children’s artwork!