How to Support Montessori Painting with Young Children

I’ve been painting with many children in staged Montessori art spaces over the years, and I’ve also observed how they best learn to paint. So, I wanted to share some tips on how to support concentration and independence while kids paint. These tips can be helpful if you’re trying to create more Montessori painting activities within your classroom or home. 

Here are some tips on how you can support creative painting sessions:

• Flow & Concentration
• Independence
• Exploration & Discovery
• Creative Experimentation
• Freedom Within Limits

Support Flow & Concentration

Allow uninterrupted periods of creative time while your students are working. When you don’t interrupt children’s painting, they can enter more creative states of flow with heightened concentration. Children can concentrate and go deeper into learning new ideas when not interrupted. To help with these states of flow, try to observe your students from a distance. Too often, creative flow is interrupted by teachers or parents. You should practice more uninterrupted work periods by being conscious of how you are interacting with your child during their painting sessions.

Support Independence 

You can support your students’ independence by preparing their art environment to support their painting independence. Think about how you have arranged their painting space. Is their working space aligned with their level of abilities? Is their drying area nearby and easy for them to hang or lay their paintings on? Are materials all set up and easy for them to reach so they can get to work? Have you given them the right amount of demonstrations so they know how to use all the materials properly? By revisiting demonstrations, you can support your child to work more independently.

Support Exploration & Discovery

Exploration and discovery can come in many ways. Allow your children the freedom to choose their materials, such as paint colors, and paintbrush sizes. You can even give them the freedom to choose the size of paper they want to paint on. Children flourish when they can explore how materials behave or even discover how they work in different ways. The process of exploration and discovery is the best way young children learn painting skills. Allow for lots of discovery time. Young children learn to paint over a long period of time. Try supporting more exploration and discovery rather than the outcome.

Support Creative Experimentation

When children go in different directions than you had planned, take a deep breath and allow their experimentation to happen. Example: If they do not use the paintbrush the way you demonstrated or do not choose the colors you planned in your example. You might be thinking, “Green would look lovely for painting turtles,” but your student thinks, “Purple turtles are better!” If your child uses their fingers to paint instead of the paintbrush you took time to stage, as long as they are safe and not disrespecting the art materials, simply allow this type of creative experimentation to go on. This is truly considered one of the artistic processes the National Core Art Standards supports; it’s called INVESTIGATE!

Support Freedom Within Limits

YES, discovery and exploration are part of the creative process, but we can provide freedom within limits by presentations and demonstrations that support healthy limits. We can demonstrate where the painting will take place, where it’s accepted in the art environment, and where it’s NOT allowed.

One of the biggest lessons I learned early on, which I share in several of my kids’ painting books, is that you need to explain to children where painting is not allowed, like the walls, and how walking around with loaded paintbrushes is not allowed outside of their art workspace. I also explain to children how to set up and clean up when they are done painting. 

As a homeschool mom, I even had to explain this to two of my own little artists. The freedom should be in what they want to express or paint but not where they want to paint. 😉

I hope these tips help you bring the joy of painting into your Montessori spaces. 

If you want to learn more, I recommend learning more about my books, video training, and art supplies.

Spramani Elaun

Check out my Kids Painting Book:

Ultimate Guide to Montessori Painting

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