Van Gogh for Little Kids

Want to introduce the wonderful works of Vincent Van Gogh to your little kids? It’s never too early to expose them to great art! Here are some ideas to get you started.

Introducing Art and Vincent Van Gogh

Art has always had a big impact in my life. As an illustrator, designer and lover of all things beautiful, I want to make sure that my kids grow up willing and able to appreciate art, particularly classical art and good design. (For me, one of the saddest things is seeing people whine about museum visits.)

Look, my kids don’t have to LOVE art the way I do, but I want them to understand why and how art can be relevant in their lives. So when I read about Charlotte Mason’s approach to teaching art, I knew that this was something I wanted to incorporate in our home.

With my son only at 3 years old, my goal is simply to acquaint him with classical art and make him feel less intimidated when approaching it.

We are beginning our artist studies on Van Gogh and focusing on his works for one month. Then we will be transferring to another artist for the next month. Initially, my plan was to stay with each artist for 2 months (actually, Charlotte Mason suggests 12 weeks!) but I can feel that he’s ready to move on after one so we will. Of course, that’s okay, as we can always go back again next time! Like I said, he’s only 3, after all! Haha.

Anyway, here are some of the materials and activities we used and did during our month-long study.

Materials: Books

Books are always a great way to introduce a certain topic to kids. These are the books we used for this study.

• “Camille and the Sunflowers” by Laurence Anholt
• “In the Garden with Van Gogh” by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober
• “Katie and the Sunflowers” by James Mayhew

“In the Garden with Van Gogh” is a picture board book with simple poems about each picture. It’s great for introducing and familiarising little kids with the paintings. I’ve been reading this to Luke since he was a baby.

“Camille and the Sunflowers” is about a little boy who meets and befriends Van Gogh. A great story that makes Van Gogh more relatable and alive for the kids.

“Katie and the Sunflowers” by James Mayhew is the latest addition to our collection and we love it. In the book, Katie literally goes inside the different paintings. It also introduces kids to other artists such as Paul Gaugin (a friend of Van Gogh’s).

I love this Katie art book series. On my wish list is “Katie and the Starry Night”. I’ve only seen previews of it though, so I can’t give a review but it looks wonderful. Let me know what you think if you have this.

Materials: Postcards

Prints are a great way to introduce individual paintings of an artist.

You can always print the paintings yourself but I haven’t gotten around to buying a new printer (our old one broke down) so I looked for a postcard set instead. I was able to buy a collection of 30 postcards at a very affordable price. They are great to use as references when we work on our activities.

It may just be me, but I personally prefer printed versions rather than digital ones!

I’m currently on the look out for a more comprehensive collection though, so that we can always whip out the print when we encounter the painting in our studies. Of course, a 30 piece set is a good start but the set I have for example, doesn’t include some of the paintings mentioned in the book “Camille and the Sunflowers” and Luke was looking for those. Haha.

Activity #1: “Starry Night” Mixed Media Artwork

Hands-on activities allow kids to immerse themselves in the paintings. At the same time, it’s a great way to improve their motor skills and creativity!

Our first activity is creating a mixed media artwork of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. We did “cut and paste” (more on that later) for the trees, dough for the skies and crayons to do the rest of the background.

If you’re wondering why there are red marks, it’s because he noticed that there were red tints on one of the houses and decided that his own rendition needed to have MORE reds. I admired his attention to detail and told him I thought adding more reds would be a great idea!

He enjoyed this a lot so we made another version a few days after. This is his second one. He painted the background using water color and used papers that he cut into squares. It’s very minimalist, don’t you think? 😀

Activity #2: Self-Portrait Painting

Another activity we did was creating our own self-portraits. I started by showing him a print of Van Gogh’s own self portrait. Then I placed a mirror on his table so he can see his face and use it as reference when painting his own. He didn’t really use it and was adamant at painting himself with blue hair!

I asked him about his painting and he said he had yellow lips because he ate cheese and red marks on his chin from ketchup. He also said he had a big green tummy because of all the veggies he eats!

After this activity, he now uses the term “self-portrait” in everyday conversations. Yay!

Activity#3: “Sunflowers” Cut & Paste

One activity Luke enjoys doing is “cut and paste.” This is where we cut small squares and stick it on a pre-drawn sheet of paper (pre-drawn by me, hehe.) This time we just used two colors; brown and yellow to make a Sunflower painting.

To be honest, it didn’t turn out as nicely as I imagined it in my head. I think it was also partly because Luke didn’t want to complete all the empty spaces. I debated with myself if I should make him finish it or not, but I ended up deciding to just let him be this time. 😀

Activity #4: “Starry Night” Magic Milk

What initially began as my last ditch effort to make use of expired milk, “Magic Milk” became one of  Luke’s most favorite activity/experiment! To complement our Van Gogh studies, I decided to do a Starry Night inspired version of Magic Milk. The swirls that happens during the activity reminded me of Van Gogh’s signature style.

It’s also pretty simple to do. You just need the following:

• Milk
• Container for the milk
• Food coloring (we used blue, yellow and green for that Starry Night look)
• Dishwashing liquid
• Cotton buds

Instructions:

1. Put milk in a container. We like using rectangular, shallow ones best. No need to fill it up.
2. Place a few drops of food coloring on the milk. Make sure there’s enough spaces in between. Depending on how big your container is, you can actually just start with 4-5 drops of different colors.
3. Dip the tip of a cotton bud in dishwashing liquid.
4. Dip the dipped cotton bud on one of the food coloring drops and watch the magic happen!

What happens? A chemical reaction between the fat proteins in the milk and the dishwashing liquid occurs. It’s as though the milk is “running away” from the dishwashing liquid, causing movement which creates the swirling colors. Pretty cool, right? It’s an art and science experiment in one!

Van Gogh for Little Kids

Art history and even art in general doesn’t have to be intimidating to little kids. To be honest, Luke (at 3 and a half years old, at least) doesn’t seem to be particularly interested in artsy things like painting or drawing. He will do them once in a while but he’s not as excited about them as say, reading books or cooking! And that’s okay.

At the same time however, I also believe in exposing kids to as many wonderful things as possible. Van Gogh once said “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

Let them try many things from painting to baking to hiking and making music. Give the children a feast! Expose them to great books, great art, great music and great ideas.

You will be amazed at the things they take in and learn!

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