The Artful Parent: Jean Van’t Hul

I’ve been so excited to tell you about a new book, The Artful Parent, written by my friend Jean Van’t Hul, who you may already know from her popular blog, The Artful Parent.  This book is amazing, and so much more than just a collection of art activities!

Part One outlines the importance of creativity: why it’s important for human development, how to foster it, what materials and activity types are best for each age span, how to emphasize process over product, and how to talk to kids about art.  Jean packs years and years of experience and knowledge into one readable section.  It’s a brilliant compilation, full of information I wish all parents and teachers had.

Part Two is a collection of fantastic, high-quality creative activities.  The variety is fantastic!  It spans from visual art to movement art, large scale-art, and even edible art.

I looked through the section with one of my boys and we settled on one:

Jean calls them recycle bin sculptures.  I fall back on my university days and call it “beautiful junk”.  And my closet is full of it!  I knew my ever-patient husband would be more than happy to know we’d thinned the collection a bit, so it was a win-win-win situation.

I headed to my closet and quickly gathered a swath of beautiful junk and random art supplies.  I set out this wide array and my boys fixated on one:  craft sticks.

My boys love the glue gun.  Letting kids use glue guns is a whole discussion in and of itself, and it’s one that Jean covers perfectly in her book.  Suffice it to say that I let my kids (particularly the older two) use this low-heat glue gun and it hasn’t led to a single life-threatening injury.

Clearly, creativity begets creativity because soon my boys (who were hesitant about sitting down to do some art in the first place) were asking for paints so they could take their vision to full fruition.

Reading Jean’s book and watching my boys engage in such a fun, free-form activity has inspired me to be more intentional about making space for creativity in our home.  Luckily, I have just the book to help me get there!

You can find Jean’s book on Amazon here:
The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family’s Life with Art and Creativity–Includes over 60 Art Projects for Children Ages 1 to 8

It’s set to release tomorrow, but you can preorder now!

If you’d like to read more about what people have had to say about Jean’s book, you can follow The Artful Parent Blog Tour here.

I’d love to hear what you think about Jean’s book and how it helps you to foster creativity with your own little ones!

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