“Did my kid actually make that??”

Have you ever had your toddler come home from preschool with a new art project and even though it has their name on it, there’s a little part of you that’s like, “Did my child actually make that??”

My name is Naava, and I am your family’s new art teacher. I do have some hacks for how you can tell if your child is actually making their art on their own at preschool, or if they’re just following the instructions that their teacher tells them to do.

Let’s say they’re studying safari animals and everybody is making a giraffe. If the animal they come home with has two googly eyes, and they are glued in the exact spot where eyeballs are supposed to be? Your child did not do that.

I have never met a toddler who uses only two googly eyes and puts them in “the right spot”. (Okay, maybe there was one child but she was an exception.)

If you give a toddler googly eyes, they are going to glue at least 20 on them on the animal, and they are definitely not going to be on the head.

Number two: If you pick up your child from preschool and the child’s classroom has a bulletin board outside and all of the art is hanging up on the hallway, go ahead and ask your child which one they did. If your child cannot identify which one is theirs, it’s probably because they didn’t make it. It was probably heavily teacher directed, and my guess is all of the other art pieces look the same.

Recently I led a big sculptural flower project with the preschool kids I work with. The cardboard flower petals were made out of cardboard and the kids worked on them for weeks. We painted them and collaged rubber bands and pompoms and googly eyes (of course) all over them. All 50 flowers were put on display in a big hallway, like a garden.

I saw one of the three-year-old’s from my class and I said to her, “Go show your grandma your flower.”

I said that to her knowing full well that this little girl was going to find her flower, even though her name wasn’t on it.

Later I said to her grandma, “Did she show you her flower?”

She said with a gasp, “She led me right to it! She looked at all of them and she said, that one’s mine.”

That’s one of the reasons why I get upset when grown-ups draw on top of children’s work to make it look more presentable and then say, “Oh, it’s not like they’ll even notice.”

Kids notice. They know when their fingers have touched something, and when someone else has instead.

Do not underestimate the toddler artist. They know exactly what they did.

Love, Naava

Naava Katz is an artist, educator, and advocate for creative kids. Find her on Instagram too.

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