May 3, 2012. Paul Hixon
credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³If you went to school in the days when teaching drawing was mandatory then you probably can’t understand how drawing could be creative. Many times it is not as there are important skills to teach before one can use creativity.
If you want to learn how to teach children to draw and let them be creative at the same time, then you need to learn to teach kids drawing using the Monart method. It’s not a bunch of creative collage ideas, but it does teach kids to draw using specific skills and then allows creativity to take off.
The Monart method, created by Mona Brooks teaches kids that are only 5 elements of shape in the world. It teaches them these five elements and then gives them sheets to copy them down. the practice sheets get increasingly more complex as the children have to connect the various shapes to one another. Once they learn all of these shapes they then can begin to draw their first picture, which begins by having them draw a bird.
The interesting question comes up that if we are teaching them to draw exactly what we show them, then how is that teaching creativity. I had that question myself when I began doing this method with children, The answer is that once children learn the rules of drawing and how to draw specific things, it then frees them up to create anything else they may want to do. It also encourages kids to add to the pictures they learn to draw various backgrounds, which allows alot of creativity as well. The only way you can see how this works if you try it yourself and you can see how stilted or creative the children get. you will be amazed at the freedom it gives children once they know they can make anything they want.
Updated May 3, 2012. Published May 5, 2011. Paul Hixon
