Art Your Future: Maximizing Your Child's Creativity and Intelligence Through Art

By Magda Zietsman and Josias Zietsman

We all want to develop confident, creative, and socially adept children who perform well in school and in life. "Art Your Future" provides a clear path to make art a part of a child's daily life so that he/she can flourish socially, academically, and emotionally. Applying the methods and concepts shown in this book will maximize your child or student's intelligence and creativity through art.

Finally, there is a book featuring practical teaching methods, inspirational approaches, educating children to see beyond two dimensions and spur them on to solid problem-solving using art as the gateway to their creativity.

"Art Your Future" can be adopted by teachers and parents in any setting—public, charter, private, early learning centers, and home-based.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098362065

Book preview

Title

Art Your Future: Maximizing your Child’s Creativity and Intelligence Through the Wonders of Art by Magda Zietsman with Josias Zietsman. Published by BookBaby, 7905 N. Crescent Blvd., Pennsauken, NJ 08110

1st Edition

Copyright © 2021 Art Your Future: Magda and Josias Zietsman,

3515-B Longmire Drive, PMB 312, College Station, TX 77845

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the authors. For permissions, e-mail [e-mail]

The ART YOUR FUTURE trademark having serial number 90330212 was filed on Thursday, November 19, 2020.

ISBN: 978-1-09-836206-5

Ordering information can be found at http://artyourfuture.net/. Related products such as video lessons, supply boxes, and blogs by the author are available on the website.

Dedication

Most importantly, I am dedicating this book to MY CREATOR, thanking Him for giving me my talent and guiding me every day of my life.

Further, I want to dedicate this book to my husband, Josias, the LOVE of my life, my better half and my constant support;

To both our children, Alexander and Maryshe, the LIGHT and JOY of our lives;

To my parents, Maltus and Shirley, who started my path, lovingly showed me the right way, and wholeheartedly supported my dreams at every step;

To my sister, Elsa, whose courageous spirit and laughter have brightened my life since I can remember;

To my parents-in-law, Ziets and Rika, for giving me my husband and always believing in me.

With love, Magda

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Art as the Key to Creativity

What Is Art and How Can We Use It?

Applications in Real Life

Impact of Technology

Final Thoughts

Lessons for All Levels

About the Author

Foreword

In China, children aren’t considered bad at something, rather just that they haven’t learned it yet. I could always see this applied to many subject areas, such as math, reading, engineering, etc. For instance, I’m not bad at multiplication, I just haven’t learned it yet. But I could not imagine it applied to a subject such as art. Art always felt unattainable and for only the few with a strong, innate talent. Then I met Magda Zietsman.

I was the founding principal for a charter school opening in College Station, Texas. I had to fill the elementary art position and was hopeful to find someone with experience who loved teaching art. In Texas, that isn’t always an easy find as fine arts programs are being cut.

It was a beautiful spring day and Magda and I were meeting at a local café. She walks in carrying an arsenal of children’s art products. We greeted one another and I noticed her kind smile that reached her eyes and an immediately enchanting demeanor. We exchanged pleasantries and ran through the interview. This gave me the introductory opportunity to learn about Magda, the art magician. She spoke at length of her previous students, spending no time boasting about herself or her work. Her passion and urge to instill a love for art in children was palpable. Hiring her was a no-brainer.

Magda opened the school for us as our Kindergarten-through-5th grade art teacher with a student count of approximately 650 students. As we began the year, I anticipated some work to be done in art, but was not expecting the splendid products in the interview. With so many students in our school, I knew she would need some time to build the program. I was wrong.

By the first six weeks, students were learning art. Strokes, movement, color, feeling. It was incredible. When you walked into her classroom, it was as if you were stepping into an art studio built for 26 students. Colors and smiles were everywhere, and Magda was quick to make certain that each student was not only participating, but was successful. For 2.5 years, Magda and I worked together and I saw the magic she created daily in her classroom. It was an absolute joy to watch and an honor to be a part of.

Magda brought into these children’s lives a love for art and a belief that they are capable of creating beautiful masterpieces. That is why she is the perfect person to bring this knowledge into your life. Knowing that art is fundamental in not only the development of a child, but its proven impact on creativity and self-esteem makes the path laid in this book incredibly important.

Today’s children live in a screen-filled society, where creativity is done for them. They are the receptacle of other people’s imagination and art; rarely are they the originator. Magda’s work in Art Your Future provides parents, caregivers, and educators a clear path on how to incorporate art into the everyday life and the importance of doing so. My time working with Magda taught me that the Chinese belief is true. Art can be learned. It isn’t an elusive ability for just those who God gave a talent. It is a necessary component of life that creates beauty and joy. And your journey of learning art will be all the better if you are walking that path with Magda Zietsman.

Dr. Heather McMahan, Founding Principal, International Leadership of Texas – College Station

Preface

My name is Magda Zietsman and I have more than 30 years of experience as both an elementary school teacher and an art teacher. It was clear to me from an early stage in my career that art is the link between a child’s development and becoming a successful student and human being. I studied at the University of Pretoria in South Africa to become a teacher in general education with a focus on early childhood development. In the first 18 years of my professional career, I taught students at the kindergarten level. During these years I gained tremendous experience and insights on the educational development of young children. I had the privilege to personally get to know and teach more than 1,000 students of different abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultures.

I have always been an artist and I incorporated art into many of my lessons and activities. I quickly realized that art is the tool through which children can explore and express themselves to gain critical skills needed to be successful in life. I realized that teaching art is the foundation to enhance the social, academic, and spiritual development in any child’s life. I decided to become art certified as well so that I could teach art from pre-K through 12th grade. I have had the privilege to teach art for the past 15 years from kindergarten to fifth-grade level, and I personally interacted with and taught art to more than 12,000 students.

It was clear to me that the students who flourished in my classroom and in other academic disciplines first experienced their environment using all their senses, and second developed a good self-image. In order to adequately experience their environment, they first had to feel safe at home. While outside the control of an in-school teacher, this is fostered through parents or caregivers giving children adequate attention and allowing them to explore their environments in safety. Once they feel safe, they are willing and able to explore their environments within appropriate boundaries.

My husband, Josias (Joe) Zietsman, who helped me with this book, has been a civil engineer for more than 30 years. The first 10 years of his career he worked in construction and transportation planning, and the last 20 years he worked as a leader of a large research group at a major university. During his career he has worked directly with hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students in engineering, mentoring them to become successful engineers in the public sector, private sector, and academia. It has been his experience that creativity and well-roundedness were much better indicators of success than IQ (intelligence quotient coefficient) and GPA (grade point average). The creative students think better, write better, communicate better, solve problems better, and can add more value to the research projects they are working on. These students typically do better during their university studies and excel in their professional careers. He has seen numerous examples where creativity developed though art has helped students excel in the very challenging field of engineering.

Introduction

We all want to develop confident, creative, and socially adept children who perform well in school and in life. This book gives parents, caregivers, and teachers a clear roadmap on how to make art a part of a child’s daily life to encourage each child to become a well-rounded individual. Applying methods and concepts shown in this book will play a significant role in ensuring you can maximize your child’s or your student’s intelligence and creativity through art.

Many children today lack self-esteem and creativity, both of which are essential to perform well in all areas of life. This deficit manifests itself in poor performance in school as well as their inability to effectively interact with peers and adults. In this case, there is a tendency for children to be emotionally disconnected from themselves and their surroundings and they lose confidence in their abilities, knowledge, and experience.

This tendency is exacerbated by the increased use of technology and social media, which can also cause emotional and societal disconnection. Children become fixated on their electronic devices and perceive the world without appropriately using all their senses. This deprives them from experiencing all the richness of the world around them and gaining valuable experiences. Maslow stated that primary creativity is the heritage of every human being that is found in all children but is largely buried beneath defense mechanisms (Creativity in Self-Actualizing People by A. H. Maslow, 1958). Using art and the full art experience as the basis for all learning will provide a child with essential tools to be creative and perform well in all aspects of life. Recent studies have shown that there is a very strong correlation between children involved with art and resulting academic achievement. Many authorities believe that artistic learning promotes improved thinking skills and creativity and significantly enhances school performance and career achievement.

Figure 1 shows a sketch of a child observing his environment using all his senses. This child experiences the outdoors with his dog while getting exercise from climbing a fruit tree. He experiences the tree at a deep level through seeing (observing all the components of the tree), touch (feeling the bark, fruits, and leaves), smell (scent of the bark, leaves, and fruits), taste (taste of the fruits), and hearing (sound of the wind through the leaves, chirping of birds, and barking of his dog).

FIGURE 1: A Child Experiencing a Tree Through All His Senses

Using the Senses

While exploring their environments it is critical that children make observations using all their senses – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory or more simply described as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The senses can be described more fully as indicated in the following sections.

Sight

Humans are primarily sight-oriented. Our brains process images based on what we see around us. These images form part of our experiences. We also develop the ability to create images in our brain. Using images is a very powerful teaching technique, especially for students that are highly visual in their learning styles and mental processing.

Hearing

Hundreds of sounds surround us constantly. We can learn from them, but they can also be a distraction from learning. Hearing teaches us many things such as right from wrong and safe from dangerous, and it also provides a background or basis for our emotional state. Learning and interpreting sounds and voices is an important part of a child’s development.

Touch

Touch is a very powerful sense and it can release a series of emotions and memories that directly aid in learning. For example, feeling the texture of a plant or animal enables the child to develop a much clearer understanding of that plant or animal. Figure 2 shows a photograph of a baby touching the smooth surface of a ball (in this case, featuring the author as model) as well as a baby touching the lovely texture of her dress (featuring the author’s sister – Elsa as model).

FIGURE 2: Babies Touching Smooth Surface of a Ball and Fabric of Dress (Magda and Elsa)

Smell

The sense of smell is also very powerful, and a familiar smell can trigger a memory from years before. Studies have shown that scent activates more parts of the brain than sight, emphasizing the strong effect scents can have on learning and overall memory. It is important for a child to experience different scents by spending time outside and in nature.

Taste

Taste can teach us many things about food, cultures, science, biology, and chemistry. When we learn what foods from other countries and cultures taste like, for example, we also learn about spices, sweet and bitter tastes, sour flavors, and acidic tastes. Learning about these tastes can enhance a child’s understanding of concepts in science, biology, and chemistry.

Becoming a Well-Rounded Student

To obtain a comprehensive view of their environments, children need to explore their environments in three dimensions and at three spatial levels using all the senses. Dimensional levels are: worm’s-eye view (ground level), eye-level view (human point of view), and bird’s-eye view (as seen from above).

From my experience, it has become very clear to me that young children need to master their gross motor skills before mastering their fine motor skills. This can be done through first exploring their environments using their whole bodies and incorporating experiences with their arms, legs, and feet. This approach allows them to experience their worlds on a fundamental basis, which enables them to represent their experiences through art, which then hones both their gross and fine motor skills. Once they have mastered this feat and feel comfortable with it they can move to refine their fine motor skills using smaller muscles to perform tasks (using their hands and fingers to grasp small objects and perform tasks such as making knots). These experiences can be represented through art using their developing fine motor skills. During both processes children are encouraged to use all their senses to enrich their experiences.

The process described forms the basis for developing a child’s experiences and translating them through fine motor skills that will be used for many aspects of their educational development from childhood to adulthood. Once they experience the world this way, they are primed to become creative, successful individuals. A child eventually gains the