Learning Animation Helps Kids Develop Critical Thinking Skills

One of my favorite activities is teaching animation. I have done this for kids as young as 8 up through college students, using a wide variety of tools. My current device of preference for teaching animation is an iPad. The more workshops I teach, the more I appreciate the magnitude of the lessons learned. 

Critical Thinking Defined
There's a lot of buzz about critical thinking these days. What's the deal? Here are two important components of Critical Thinking; the ability to evaluate information and consider alternative solutions.

Prints for Kids

Like many artists, I started drawing as a kid. I remember copying comic strip characters and asking my Mom to help me draw a horse. I am very fond of this photo of painting in our yard as a four year old. I was lucky my Mom indulged me, I'm quite sure I made a big mess.

I am a big fan of keeping that four year old mentality as much as I can.

Lady Bug

Wish On A Dandelion

Creative Ways to Share Art with Kids: Every Picture Tells a Story

Edgar Degas   The Dance Lesson, c. 1879  National Gallery of Art

Engage Kids with Art: Help Them Find the Story
This concept is a great way to share art with children. As human beings we are hard wired to love stories and actually depend on them for our survival. It's how we share information and cultural values. Degas's The Dance Lesson is full of stories. As a docent at the Maier Museum at Randolph College, helping kids see stories in art is something we do all the time.

Finding the Digital Stories
In developing the app ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet, I selected 26 works of art from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. that are kid-friendly and created an animation for each work. With this piece, I wanted to add delicate lines to show her dancing. This simple animation brings the scene to life and encourages a deeper level of involvement with the image. Does this help you find the story in this painting?

  

Robert Peckham's The Hobby Horse is a slice of 19th century American life children will find amusing and curious. Who are the girls? Who made the hobby horse? What's it like to ride that hobby horse?  My toys don't look anything like that. Some kids may never have seen a hobby horse, especially one like this. The time and place may not interest a preschool child, but what will is imagining the fun of riding such a wonderful wooden horse. This master artwork is courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Jump-Start Your Kids' Creativity in this Garage

Victor Reyes USA

Kids, Creativity and Imagination
I am reading some interesting articles about kids and creativity. Imagination keeps coming up as an integral component in nurturing creative children. That's not all of course, but something we know kids are innately good at doing. One of the wonderful things about parenting is all those "teaching moments" that arise continually during the day. The real challenge is having the energy to deal with all of them.

Museum Studies Students Share the Love @MaierMuseum

Lynchburg, Virginia is very lucky to have the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. This is an exceptional college art museum with a very interesting collection, provocative exhibitions and active arts education programs for the Randolph students as well as K-12 students in the area.

One selection of supplies for making Valentines at the Maier.

Yesterday the Museum Studies students hosted a family event for making Valentines, part of their annual two-part celebration of art and artists, centered around the mood and aesthetics of Valentine’s Day.  This year’s Love at the Maier was held in conjunction with the current exhibition, Venetian Visions: Selections from the National Gallery, London, on view through March 31, 2016.

5 Features of ABC Apps

The first book I bought for my daughter, all those years ago, was an ABC book from the Brooklyn Museum. She is now a PhD candidate in Art History and lives in Brooklyn. 
Probably not a direct correlation, but a nice coincidence.

ABC Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Museum by Florence Cassen Mayers

After many years producing fine art and linear animation, my media production for kids turned to apps. An interactive, animated ABC book with images from museums was the first project I wanted to develop. Soon after that the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. released 20,000 images into the public domain and I was off to the races. ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet was released in February, 2014. I has just been updated.

Here are 5 reasons I think the alphabet is a great structure for children's media.

10 Things to Know About iArt4Kidz

iArt4Kidz is a new brand of Kristin Harris Design. We pulled our preschool media products out to rebrand with a name more reflective of our products. We are focusing on iOS apps with a special interest in art and nature.

1. Our Talent

I am an artist. I have been making art for over 40 years. The last 25 years I have worked with some amazingly creative people to produce animated media for preschool kids. I'd like to introduce my team, provide some samples of our work and talk about why we do what we do.