Insights from Children’s Art Expert Bette Fetter: Top Blog Posts for March 2014
Learning Styles
Your Child’s Test Anxiety: Why All the Stress?
Standardized tests can strike fear in the heart of any man – young and old, but ever wonder why? It seems odd that a few questions that require a pencil dot on a Scantron Sheet, can bring forth such stress and emotion. This is especially true for visual-spatial learners whose test results don’t reflect their true intelligence or ability.
Testing is designed with a left-brain bias. Linear-thinkers with good short-term memory and deductive thinking skills are much more likely to score well on standardized tests, because they measure the way the left side of the brain works, leaving our right-brain kids at a significant disadvantage.
Insights from Children’s Art Expert Bette Fetter: Top Blog Posts for February 2014
- Bette explained and demonstrated the development of social and academic skills in preschool art classes.
- Bette explained her concern for Common Core and how informed parents can make a huge difference.
- Bette introduced her NEW morning charts for kids!
- She shared a fun holiday for you to celebrate at your local library.
Get Ready for Testing
Testing time is here in many US schools. When my kids were young, there was much less emphasis on standardized testing and test results. Now schools devote much of February getting kids prepared for standardized testing that happens in March.
In some schools preparation is a review of material they have been learning in the classroom. In others it can mean a whole shift to cover material that they haven’t covered, but will be tested on. With all that’s weighing on test results; from teacher pay to school funding, there can be a tendency to stress. Parents may be stressed on what it means for their child. How might their child be ‘labeled’. Teachers can be stressed. School and district administrators are stressed – again because there’s a lot riding on those test scores.
Top Ten Math Apps for Young Children
Here are 10 GREAT Math Apps I found for your little ones to visually practice their math skills!
Count Up To Ten: This app lets children discover numbers 1 to 10 and learn how to count using some of their favorite animals and characters.- Number Rack: The Number Rack facilitates the natural development of children’s number sense. Rows of moveable, colored beads encourage learners to think in groups of fives and tens, helping them to explore and discover a variety of addition and subtraction strategies.
- Math is Fun: 4-5: Through 8 fun activities this app teaches kids to recognize numbers, to count, to order numbers, to play with weight, to determine order, and to handle shapes. It is an easy to use child-friendly design and free in the app store!
Are Cutting the Arts Putting us in Hot Water?
There is a rather critical matter at hand in education and I want to speak very directly about it. The arts are being eliminated from our schools and testing is on the rise. There is a prevailing notion that we need less of the arts in order to make more time for the subjects that are being tested and for the tests themselves.
This line of thinking actually results in lower test scores and disconnected, discouraged, under-achieving students. Why? Because the arts, the very thing schools want to eliminate, are essential to the majority of the student population; not because art is a fun way to relax or express oneself – but because the arts actually fuel the brain. The majority of the student population are visual-spatial learners that NEED the arts to think effectively.
Artoozie Workbooks: Kids Art and Drawing
Testing time is coming up and although it can be a stressful time of studying, quizzing and preparing your little ones, don’t forget there are more ways to encourage a love of learning than flashcards and drilling facts… try art! 
Use your child’s love of drawing and coloring to learn! Did you know you can apply your child’s naturally tendency to create towards learning new academic skills in a fun and exciting way? These Artoozie workbooks; Squares, Circles, Patterns and Cats, were intentionally designed as an activity that students can use with an adult or explore on their own for hours of fun.
Preschool Drawing: Developing Social and Academic Skills
I love art and kids, so it makes a lot of sense that my business, Young Rembrandts, is all about teaching kids how to do art. In Young Rembrandts, we teach a lot of elementary drawing classes, but I have to say teaching preschool classes is my absolute favorite.
I love their enthusiasm and hunger to absorb the world around them – and their skill development is beyond remarkable.
Bringing art to children at an early age has tremendous impact, socially and academically. Look at these ladybug drawings and see what young kids can accomplish with some instruction and encouragement.
Insights from Children’s Art Expert Bette Fetter: Top Blog Posts for January 2014
Matt’s Success with Motion Graphics
Last night I saw my son working on a project for his Motion Graphics class. He is a college student now, studying for a degree in Digital Film and Video Production.
Tonight as I looked over his shoulder at his computer screen, I saw a vibrant red rectangle, with golden words moving in and out of position, all to the sound of Morgan Freeman’s voice.
The colorful words and movement were part of a Kinetic Type Project he was working on for class. The words he used were from the movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’.
