The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity

I have been following Jean's blog, the artful parent for a few years now. She has been an important part of my families life by bringing art to us in an accessible, interesting, fun and creative way. She believes in process, not product which is really important in the early years, yet, even with this philosophy much of the outcome is so unique and beautiful. Although her blog and e-books are chock full of activities, her book equally brings new, fresh projects for you to choose from. Add to that her inspiring writing on why children should be involved in making art and ways to add it to their life and you get a well rounded resource to go back to again and again! This book will help you enrich your child's life as well as give you the chance to be creative yourself in a sometimes not so artful day to day. It's been so fun to share this with my daughter and to see the joy on her face when she is creating. The artful parent is a gem!!

Not exactly tipping the scales here ...one of the highest rated books on Amazon. Yet, not overrated. Jean hits all of my buttons in terms of what I look for in a pedagogical approach to creative activity for kids. It's a human approach where exploration and experience in use of simple methods, graphic tools and materials weave together in moments of playful and spontaneous creative process and activity. The guidance in the book is both practical (hands-on examples) and theoretical. There is appropriate depth and context from a number of sources and educational expert contributors. What are your kids doing? With this book, you come away with a foundation and a set of recipes for doing, making, and taking action - with your kids. Jean gives us a framework for better supporting their creative instincts by giving them work space, materials, guidance, and encouragement as curious explorers. And the great thing is that this adventurous approach for supporting our kids offers so much to us as adults. I think Jean may agree with me that we could learn from our children that to be human is to play and explore.

I have been following the book's author, Jean Van't Hul, on her blog and on Pinterest for a while now. I was excited to see that she has written a book. I ordered it and was happy to see it when it arrived. Not nearly as excited as my 8 year old daughter, however. She asked to look through the book as soon as I unwrapped it and was thrilled. She asked for some sticky notes to mark the activities she would like to do. I think she must have marked at least half the book right off. And unlike the many projects I mark to try (on Pinterest, on blogs, from books) she began trying them right away. Within the first 7 days the book was in our house she had tried: salty watercolors, pick and paint a rainbow, tracing shadow shapes, paper jelly fish mobile, bubble prints, spin art (the salad spinner did wash clean again after :o), paint with flowers, and we all made homemade playdough. That response means the book is a winner in our household. I am a Montessori elementary teacher and also plan on using the projects in my class next year. The projects require a minimum of "stuff" and are simple enough to actually get done. This book is a great resource for families and teachers alike.

Love this book! I purchased a few other ‘toddler activities last books; none of them presented ideas as clearly as this one, nor were their ideas/projects the right mix of easy and engaging when it came to art projects.During these covid times, I struggled to keep my two little kids engaged while working FT and being a FT mom to two littles. This book has come through with rewarding art experiences.An example is the suncatcher both my kids - 1.5 and 3.5 made today, with minimal supervision and lots of concentration. I had to get one item that I didn’t have in my house - contact paper, worthwhile investment considering my oldest already asked to do this activity later. I did keep the supplies ready the night before. All the actual cutting, prep work, I did right in front of them. And let them assemble and decorate on their own. They were so proud with their creations. Even my 18 month was able to focus from beginning to end and I only stepped in to ‘seal’ the suncatcher.Thank you Jean Van't Hul for helping this mom feel ‘artful’ for a few hours today.

Jean's book is chock full of information on how to become more creative with kids. The topics I most loved in the book are her art supply lists, practical reasons why art and creativity enrich households, and of course, the actual projects. There are TONS of projects in this book. I had not seen the majority of them, showing that she has carefully kept many 'under wraps' and they are not available on her blog. The book is very bright and colorful throughout, and Jean's passion for art discovery for children and adults alike just rings throughout the book. I homeschool my kids and will be using this book's projects as a broad umbrella for our art curriculum. Most craft projects do not require items that are hard to find or expensive, though for the ones that do--there is a great supply store list in the book. The reason I gave this book four stars as opposed to five is that it is not user-friendly for children. An adult really has to read through the instructions in the book, and help, but I think it is also left that way for the project to be open-ended. My own children would have a tough time opening this book, and understanding the instructions instead of settling down to work and seeing a number or step-with-photos process, creating art independently.I really like this book and it comes highly recommended.

Había leído muy buenos comentarios de este libro y me alegra haberlo adquirido, contiene muy buenas ideas y, lo que más me gustó, muchas recomendaciones para llevar a cabo proyectos de arte con tus niños. Las recomendaciones de cómo hacerlos, cómo hablar con tus hijos acerca de sus proyectos y qué materiales utilizar se dividen por grupos de edad, ya que las expectativas, actividades y necesidades de los niños cambian mucho en los primeros años.

I definitely love this book. Full of creative, funny, low-cost suggestions for kids and their parents.

consiglio questo libro a tutti quei genitori che hanno voglia di trascorrere tempo con i propri figli facendo cose belle e creative.Inoltre non è necessario essere grandi artisti per realizzare quello che l'autrice propone. Non è stato tradotto in italiano.

Such an inspiring book that is about just adding art to your lives and not just very specific crafty projects which I find limiting. This just made me excited about getting my toddler just doing stuff, whatever it is, just drawing on the window or painting rocks or anything. It opens your mind up to the possibilities available around you and makes crafting with your kids much less daunting than a lot of the kids craft books out there. I LOVE it.

Excelente producto para trabajar la expresión artística con niños, ya sea en casa o en la escuela. Escrito con rigor y mucha sensibilidad.