Art as a therapy for children has been proven to be effective in helping young patients cope with physical, mental, as well as emotional difficulties. Here are two children art exhibitions you might want to check out.

The “Welcome to Gulu” art exhibition at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Manhattan is one of a kind. The pieces of art it is exhibiting and selling are depicting one of the most horrendous of crimes – human trafficking and were painted by the children who have experienced this crime first hand. The 200 paintings on exhibit are works young artists who were former child soldiers and abducted girls from Gulu, a place in northern Uganda. They were unveiled in May at the New York headquarters of the United Nations. The works were produced in the framework of an art therapy project by critically acclaimed New York artist Ross Bleckner last January. These unique paintings seen through the eyes of abused and traumatized children will be on sale until this Saturday 13th June so it’s not yet too late to go and check them out. Proceeds from the sale will be allocated to helping the children of Gulu so it’s for a worthy cause.

Meanwhile, the Oncolink Art Gallery is a project of the cancer survivor site OncoLink and is featuring art works of the pediatric cancer patients at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Through art, children with the serious and life-threatening diseases can express their feelings, their hopes and fears. “Confronting cancer through art is an exhibition by people whose lives have been touched by cancer.”

I bumped into another mom yesterday whom I hadn’t seen for quite a while. Our now 9- year old sons were friends a couple of years ago, when they were in the same class, which meant that she and I were the hosts of several playdates.

One thing that I always remember about her is that she is very much into being a full-time mom, driving her kids around like a chicken without a head, throwing great at-home birthday parties, practically camping out on the baseball field during baseball season…you get the picture.

When our boys were buddies and I was first inside her house, I instantly loved her taste and decorating style. I asked about a couple of unique paintings hanging on the walls. She had a story for each of them and seemed to be a bit of a connoisseur of art. When she gave me the house tour, we went down to the finished basement last, where she explained that this was the place for her children’s artwork (in other words, it wasn’t worthy of the main floor). She had some of her boys’ paintings and drawings framed, hanging on the basement walls.

While it was nice to see her boys’ work hanging on the walls, I thought it was interesting that someone so “kid-centric” had none of her kids’ art on the main floor. I thought about a relative of mine whose kitchen was plastered with kids’ drawings from the time they could scribble with a crayon. That, of course, was to the other extreme.

That same relative referred to her house as being her children’s house as much as it was her and her husband’s house.

Then, there’s a neighbor of mine who has taught her children that their house belongs to the parents; the children simply live there until they are old enough to have homes of their own. This is a very clear way of showing that Mom and Dad make up the rules—they’re in charge.

I think my husband and I fall somewhere between these two “types” of parents. I love to hang up my boys’ artwork in the kitchen, yet I have my own sense of decorating and would never plaster kids’ artwork all over the walls, as my relative did. I look forward to displaying that wonderful “first art” made by our 8 month old, when he’s big enough to color.

Our house belongs to all of us. Mom and Dad make up the rules, but we aren’t too strict. When I cook dinner, sometimes the kids get what they get and sometimes I’ll give them a choice, if it’s a laid back kind of night when I haven’t planned a big meal. They can decorate their rooms pretty much as they like, as long as they’re not destructive in any way. (I get to do whatever I like in baby’s room, since he doesn’t know the difference!).

How do you handle the decision-making in your house? Will you or do you ban children’s artwork from certain rooms or the nicely decorated first floor?

In Some Tips for Promoting Early Literacy, the importance of reading was discussed. But what about the other side of literacy, writing?

While your child will not be writing the Great American Novel anytime soon, encouraging writing and writing-related activities also promotes literacy. Making the lines and strokes as they scribble will help them when it comes time to learning how to make letters and numbers.

Around a year, it is safe to introduce crayons, finger paints and other writing utensils and art supplies to your child under supervision. You know your child best, so you can determine when the best time really is for your situation. Allowing your child to scribble, draw and paint encourages both gross and fine motor development. You can get in on the activity too, unleashing your own inner child and creating little masterpieces with them.

As your child gets older and their markings become more distinctive (and distinguishable) you can discuss those marks with them and how they may be similar to shapes and letters. For instance, when she makes a circle, you can also say, for example: “that’s a great circle. You know what? It also looks like the letter O.”

• Prepare your art area before starting the “project.” That may mean putting a sheet or tarp on the floor, covering the table with newspaper or waxed paper, and being ready with towels and wet cloths for clean-up.
• Get all of the supplies that you will be using before starting the activity.
• If your child is prone to putting everything in his mouth, get the pacifier ready ahead of time, so that you don’t have to worry about paint getting eaten (Even if it is non-toxic, it’s not meant to be consumed.)
• Use child-friendly products like the triangular-shaped crayons and paints by Crayola. If you are using larger tubes of finger paint, place the colors in separate containers like bathroom cups, or in dollops on a piece of waxed paper.
• Get your child ready with a smock (which can be as simple as an old shirt put on her backwards), or if it’s near bath time, strip her down to her diaper.
• Allow for free play and creativity with wild abandon while making art.
• Consider your child’s attention span. If they are showing signs that they are done, by losing interest in the activity, end it. Do a quick clean up and move on to something else. On the other hand, if they are really enjoying it, don’t hesitate to let it go longer than you may have initially intended if it makes sense to do so.
• Write with your child and around your child. As with reading in front of your child as well as with him, seeing you write will encourage him to want to as well. Show him how to spell his name. He might not “get it” at first, but he’ll be thrilled to see his name in print and start to identify those letters.
• Encourage story-telling about her pictures. What may seem to be a bunch of scribbles to you, might have an entire story line behind it for her. When she’s bigger, you can then write the story as she’s dictating it to you, and later read it together.
• After a trip to the park, zoo, to grandma’s house?where ever?encourage drawing a picture about it later. Then, you can tell the story about it as in the tip above.

Make writing and reading fun and you may instill a love of words that will last a lifetime and promote future academic and life success.