Ten Tips for Parents to Keep the Arts in their Children's Lives
Reproduced from Americans for the Arts, www.americansforthearts.org

October is National Arts and Humanities Month. The nation's cultural community works together to remind all Americans of the value of the arts and arts education and the need for everyone to enjoy lifelong learning in the arts and the humanities.

How children learn and the role that the arts can play in that process has been studied for a number of years. The results increasingly conclude that study and participation in the arts not only produces knowledge of and proficiency in an art form, but affects the process of learning itself. The results show that the arts are cognitive—they embody and develop knowledge and mental skills-habits of mind, risk-taking, focus, and self-discipline. The following suggestions are designed to help parents keep the arts in their children's lives—at home, in school, and in the community.

At home
1. Start sharing your interest in the arts at an early age. Listen to music in your home and go to live performances. Experience theater, dance, and literary events together. Take your children to art exhibits. Make it a part of family outings. Professional theaters, libraries, symphony orchestras, and museums often have programs especially for children—and at reduced ticket prices. Libraries are great local resources of art books, CDs, films, and music.
2. Keep a journal of your next vacation, or even of short outings, such as a trip to the zoo, a walk in the park, or a special birthday. Collect memorabilia, like tickets, flowers, shells, or pictures. Write a description of the event and paste the mementos in a spiral notebook or journal. For very young kids, take dictation of their words or make oral recordings to encourage their ideas and make connections with other experiences.
3. Keep a variety of art materials available to your children—crayons, colored paper, newsprint, paints, colored pencils, and pastels. Encourage your kids to use them. Get a large box—the best are from furniture movers—and let your children create their own imaginary environment.
4. Choose a popular work of art, like Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Talk about the painting and how night skies look. Recreate your own Starry Night. Think about how Starry Night would sound? How would it look as a dance?

At school
5. Educate yourself about the number and variety of arts education programs offered at your child's school. Is there an arts credit requirement to graduate from high school? Are there achievement standards for the arts in your schools? Is there an expectation that every student will participate in the arts? Is there a budget to support the arts in your schools as well as appropriate space and equipment? Are all the art forms taught (music, visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, film, etc.)?
6. Ask your local arts council and community-based arts organizations to speak to your PTA leaders about the importance of the arts in children's education and to share the latest cognitive research. Invite local business leaders to attend. Organize a small group—just 2 or 3—to speak to your superintendent of schools or testify at your board of education meetings about the need for standards-based arts education for all children.
7. Volunteer to work on an arts project in your child's school, like helping to organize an arts day, assembling an arts and writing journal of students' work, or making arts-related field trips a richer experience by including pre-or post-event discussions or projects.

In the community
8. Take your children to the arts events in your community. Many are free and the quality is excellent. Attend your local high school's theater productions. Introduce your children to the arts through art camps, classes, and music lessons. Check out youth orchestras, choral groups, community bands, and theater groups to give your children an opportunity to work with professional artists.
9. Encourage your local arts council and cultural institutions to celebrate October as National Arts and Humanities Month. Encourage your local newspapers and TV and radio stations to help promote National Arts and Humanities Month in your community by running public service ads supporting the arts.
10. Attend the budget night in your town, city, or county. These leaders decide how your local dollars are spent and what kind of community you will have. Tell your leaders that public funding for the arts is key to keeping them available to every child. Take your children with you.

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