Imagine! Introducing Your Child to the Arts

A Message to Parents

“The arts are, above all, the special language of children, who, even before they learn to speak, respond intuitively to dance, music, and color,” Dr. Ernest Boyer, former U.S. Commissioner of Education and president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching once stated. The magic of finding a new way of communicating, a new way of envisioning the world, is one of the most exciting discoveries that children make. Children need encouragement and guidance, though, in making these discoveries. The National Endowment for the Arts created this publication, Imagine!, to offer parents practical ways to introduce their children to the arts.

This book revises and updates two earlier publications, its namesake of 1997, and Three R’s for the ‘90s. What started as a collection of essays by national associations in the arts and education has been enhanced and expanded—enhanced by perspectives on the arts and children informed by recent research on children’s learning and development; expanded by the addition of an easy-to-use chart that relates the stages of child development to sample arts experiences you and your child
can participate in together. The activities and suggestions in Imagine! are aimed specifically at children ages 3-8 years old.

Also updated are resources in each of the arts discipline chapters to help you learn more about the arts and to introduce your child to the creativity and joy of making art.Many of these resources have been made possible by grants and national leadership initiatives from the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 1965, the Endowment has supported programs for children and youth. National leadership in arts education continues to be part of our agency’s mission. To find out more about our Learning in the Arts grants and initiatives, visit our Web site at www.arts.gov.

Introduction by Chairman Dana Gioia

A number of research studies over the past several decades have drawn a clear correlation between early exposure of children to the arts and increased long-term critical reasoning, communication, and social skills. Since its inception in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts has devoted its resources to the arts and arts education, including studies on their tangible, positive impact upon the nature and quality of our communities and citizenry.What we have learned about arts education can be stated simply: the arts matter profoundly and should be introduced into the lives of children at the earliest possible age.

The Arts Endowment has revised and reissued Imagine! to help parents and teachers share the arts effectively with children. This essential publication is divided into seven focused areas of learning: reading and writing, dance,music, dramatic play, visual arts, folk arts, and media arts. Easily adapted to the home or classroom setting, Imagine! explains how to share the joy of learning and artistic creation with children during their most critical developmental years.

As a parent, I want my children to live complete and fulfilling lives. For many people, true fulfillment is closely linked with finding an early path toward excellence. It does not matter whether one’s early interest develops into an adult career.What matters is that every child finds a positive, meaningful activity that instills self-confidence and self-worth. For some children, excellence will come on the athletic fields. For others, it will come in the class spelling bee. But for many children, fulfillment will arrive on the stage, at the piano, or with a paint brush in hand.

As parents and teachers, our responsibility is not to dictate rigidly which path ultimately is the right one, but rather to expose our
children to constructive educational opportunities, especially those grounded in the arts and humanities.With our hectic modern lives, it can be a struggle to make time for our children’s proper education, but we must not shirk this fundamental responsibility. To do less is to impoverish our children. Impoverished minds do not lead to enlightened lives. And it is enlightenment our children deserve.