A young child brings his or her artwork home, incredibly proud of their masterpiece. The first thing they do as, they enter the home after school, is babble away about their day. As they chat, they pull out their drawing, or painting and proudly show it off to all, explaining the intricacies of what the picture represents. What precious work it is! As parents we show our interest, telling the child what a wonderful artist they are and place the artwork on the fridge, for everyone to see.

Before the year is out however, the fridge is full and now we need to become inventive and find other ways, to display this creative work our child has done. Wrapping your child's school exercise books, as well as wrapping presents and making calendars, are a few ways to use these precious works of art.

Framing the pictures and hanging them on the wall, makes for our own personal art, done by our own personal artist. Unique, one of a kind of paintings, that no one else will ever have. Put a couple in frames and take them to work to stand on our desk, or hang on the wall, if permitted. You can even use the artwork itself as the frame, gluing the art to a cheap frame you may have purchased, or an old frame you may have at home, but haven't used in a while. Now you have a frame for a photo of your precious child, complete with the child's beautiful artwork.

Covering tins and jars makes for interesting colours in the pantry, as well as a pretty penholder, made from an empty coffee tin. Also you can make Christmas and birthday cards, inserting a special photo of the artist, for Nanny and Gramps. You could make a gratitude, or daily journal for yourself, using your child's art for the cover.

There are also companies who can take your work and recreate it onto fabric. Now you can have brightly covered cushions, for the sunroom perhaps, or travel cushions in the car. If you sew, you could even add pockets of colour onto jeans, or patch knees that have worn through. Or even T-shirts and paint smocks for your child. Use the fabric for tea towels, for the kitchen and patchwork quilts, for the beds and knee rugs for the lounge. Sewing's made fun using all the gaily-painted work; from you own child's talents.

If a child loves to paint, perhaps they'd like to paint bright colours, or pretty flowers, on your gumboots. Adding a personal touch, to your plastic buckets and plant pots, would be nice. If you have any large boards in the shed, children can paint on these, over and over again. Just coat the board with white paint, for a fresh start. If you're lucky enough to have a couple of boards, your shed, or garage can also have beautiful works of art around the walls.

Children get hours of fun out of painting and when you encourage that, by showing their work is worthwhile, it gives the child a huge confidence boost. Drawing keeps a child busy, while allowing you time to get through you own work. They begin to feel very proud of their efforts, particularly when you show so much interest in their work that you want to display it, where-ever and when-ever possible.

Learn more about this author, Alexandra Grose - Children's Activities Steward.
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