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Ready, Set, Click: Teaching Kids Photography

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Our kids have grown up having their photo taken with the kind of phone almost every adult has in their possession. For many children, that leads to an interest in taking pictures themselves. Photography is a wonderful way to ignite a child’s creativity, helping them see the world from a fresh perspective. Teaching children photography isn’t just about capturing a good shot; it’s about encouraging them to explore, observe, and express their unique view of the world. Here’s how you can introduce photography to children fun and engagingly.

START WITH THE BASICS

Begin by introducing your child to the fundamentals of photography. Explain how a camera works, what makes a picture suitable, and how to handle a camera properly. If your child uses a smartphone, you can simplify this by showing them how to focus, zoom, and use the basic editing tools. Teach them about the different modes and settings using a digital camera.

Encourage them to practice holding the camera steady and taking pictures of simple objects around the house. This will help them get comfortable with the camera and begin to train their eye for composition.

FOCUS ON COMPOSITION

Once your child is comfortable with the camera, introduce them to the concept of composition. Explain how the placement of subjects in a frame can make a photo more interesting. Teach them the rule of thirds, where they imagine a grid over the image and place the subject along the lines or at the intersections. This can help them create balanced and engaging photos.

Encourage your child to experiment with different angles, perspectives, and framing. Let them know that photography is about exploration and that there’s no right or wrong way to take a picture. This will help them feel more confident about trying new things.

ENCOURAGE STORYTELLING

Photography is a powerful storytelling tool. Encourage your child to think about the story they want to tell with their photos. This could be as simple as capturing the daily life of a family pet or documenting a day at the park.

Help them understand that every photo has a story behind it, whether it’s a moment of joy, a beautiful sunset, or a funny expression. This will enhance their photography skills and nurture their ability to observe and appreciate the world around them.

GO ON PHOTO ADVENTURES

Take your child on photo adventures to explore different environments and subjects. This could be a walk around the neighborhood, a trip to the beach, or a visit to a local park. Encourage them to take photos of things that interest them, whether it’s the pattern of leaves, the colors of a sunset, or the architecture of a building.

Monterey County has plenty of wonderful places to take your kids so they can practice using their cameras. A few of our favorite spots include:

  • The Coast Guard Pier by San Carlos Beach—view sea lions, sea otters, and starfish
  • Asilomar State Beach—take photos of the crabs and urchins in the tidepools
  • Carmel Beach—take photos of the landscape and ocean
  • Cannery Row—take photos of the shops and ocean views

Exploring these spots helps kids practice photography and fosters a deeper appreciation for nature and your children’s surroundings.

Finally, celebrate your child’s photography by creating a photo album or printing and framing their favorite shots. You could also share their work with family and friends or even enter it in a photography contest. This recognition will boost their confidence and encourage them to continue exploring photography.

Four Benefits of Dance Instruction

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PHYSICAL HEALTH AND FITNESS. Dance is a highly active form of exercise that helps children develop strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance. It also promotes cardiovascular health by increasing heart rate and circulation. In a world where sedentary activities like screen time dominate, dance provides an enjoyable way for children to stay active. Regular dance practice can help children maintain a healthy weight, improve their posture, and increase their overall body awareness.

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL WELL-BEING. Dance is a powerful form of self-expression. Children who participate in dance classes often experience enhanced emotional and mental well-being. Dance allows them to express their feelings, release stress, and build confidence. The process of learning and mastering new dance moves can boost a child’s self-esteem and provide a sense of accomplishment. Additionally, the creative aspect of dance can foster a child’s imagination and encourage them to think outside the box.

SOCIAL SKILLS AND TEAMWORK. Dance classes provide an excellent opportunity for children to interact with their peers. Through group dance activities and performances, children learn the importance of teamwork, cooperation, and communication. Dance classes also teach children about discipline and respect for others, as they learn to follow instructions and take turns.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT. The process of learning choreography requires memory, focus, and problem-solving skills. As children practice and repeat dance routines, they improve their ability to concentrate and remember sequences of movements. Dance also encourages spatial awareness and mathematical thinking, as children count beats and learn to move rhythmically within a space.

Encouraging Creativity in Children

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Every generation has noteworthy artists musicians, painters, and authors who leave a legacy for those who come after them. Most of these talented individuals showed an affinity for their art at a young age. Someone saw something in them and fostered the development of their talent. But the fact is, a child doesn’t need to be an artistic prodigy to benefit from learning creativity. According to Psychology Today, children identified as creative at seven later showed better educational attainment and career success. Keep in mind that creativity doesn’t always manifest as artistic expression. It often shows in how a child resolves an issue, expresses themselves, or plays. Creative people are better problem-solvers, more resilient, and generally happier. So, what can we do to foster creativity in our children?

Give your children the gift of unstructured time. Sounds simple. Our lives are so scheduled, with every minute accounted for or directed. But creativity takes the freedom of time. Unstructured, relaxed time unfettered by adult direction. Provide them with tools to foster creativity: books, writing tools, building blocks, a keyboard, and percussion instruments. Take a walk together and talk about what you see. Let older kids play with their friends without adult interference or hovering supervision. Kids who are allowed to problem-solve, role play, make up games, etc., as a group learns to be creative thinkers.

Give children the chance to explore. Often, as parents, we focus on the finished product. The clean room. The drawing. The essay. But especially in young children, creativity is actually in the process, not the product. Allowing children the freedom to express themselves is critical to becoming creative. For example, technique is less important when a child paints than intuition. Letting them use their fingers, a sponge, or the bottom of a cup rather than a brush may be what sparks their imagination. Or give a child who loves photos an age-appropriate camera and let them take photos of whatever moves them: no framing, no particular subject, no directions – just freedom.

Help children learn to fail. Creative people fail—a lot. Kids who can make mistakes and fail can learn how to bounce back and try again. Kids afraid to fail end up “staying between the lines,” which makes people inflexible. Make sure your children know they can be imperfect in their expression. For kids and adults, failure can teach you what not to do. It can help you decide what you liked and didn’t like about your process. The best creations come from the failures that preceded them. Thomas Edison said it best: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Accept a child’s work as it is. When a child does present you with a finished product, accept it. Don’t try to correct it or change it. Don’t try to make it anything else but what it is – the child’s expression when they complete the project. Encourage them to keep trying new things, but don’t correct what they’ve already done. Get them to talk about their process and what they thought or felt while creating it.

Model creativity. As with almost every aspect of parenting, being a good model of what you want in your children is the best way to teach it. So make sure you allow yourself to be creative. Think outside the box. Create an environment in your home that encourages the expression of ideas. Spend plenty of time talking, and make sure your kids know it’s okay not to agree with each other on how to solve a problem. Most of all, take time to pursue your passions, whether writing, sewing, or working out. Have your own interests, and encourage your kids to have theirs, too.

TRICIA VLASAK works in law enforcement when she isn’t writing about parenting, hiking with her dogs, or going on adventures with her grandchildren. Tricia received a Gold Award for personal essay from Parenting Media Association in 2022.

Teach kids to play? YES!

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I work ten-hour days Tuesday through Friday, so I am off every Monday. That is my day with my grandkids. My grandson and I run errands, go to lunch, and generally gallivant around. That often includes a trip to Sam’s Club and a new toy. Today was no different. While we walked up and down the toy aisle, we tried to agree on something he wanted that I was willing to buy. As I extolled the virtues of building blocks and hot wheels, my three-year-old grandson said something to me that got me thinking. He said, “But, Grandma, those toys don’t DO anything. They’re boring.” It occurred to me my grandson wanted to be entertained. He did not want toys he had to play with; he wanted toys that did something to entertain him.

That conversation with my grandson made me wonder if this is common. Are we creating a generation of children who don’t know how to play? I asked a few friends – certainly not a large sampling – but it seems they have seen the same thing with their kids or grandkids, with a few exceptions. My generation and, to a large extent, the generations who are now young parents grew up with different toys than youngsters have now. We had to make up stories for our dolls, build things with blocks, or make racetracks for our motorless toy cars. Children now have dolls who can respond and speak, cars they can sit in and drive, and thousands of games and entertainment at their fingertips.

I sometimes think, as adults, we believe kids innately know how to play and create fun. But that isn’t true. Kids need to be taught how to use their imaginations. Creativity is the building block of critical thinking. Like so many skills, children are born with the ability to imagine and create, but they need guidance to use that skill. So can you teach your preschooler how to play and imagine? YES!

How do you encourage your preschooler to use their imagination?

  • Expose your child to different kinds of music, and encourage them to connect with it. Kids can connect with music by becoming a part of it through rhythm instruments, clapping, dancing, or drawing what the music makes them feel. Use an empty water bottle and put colorful marbles in it (be sure to glue the top on). Let your child shake the bottle to the rhythm of the music. Studies show that exposure to music, developing rhythm, and dancing all increase cognitive function in young children. Take this one step further, and talk to your children about how the music made them feel. Give them the language to describe their feelings. The bonus is that children with the language to express themselves experience less frustration!

  • Make art of household bits and pieces. Do you remember making puppets out of brown paper lunch bags? I sure do – and I loved it! Get a pack of brown paper bags and look around your house for scraps of material, yarn, buttons, crayons…anything colorful. Let your child glue things onto the bags to make puppets. Encourage them to make funny faces or animal faces on the bags. Then have funny conversations with the puppets or make up songs the puppets “sing.”


Let’s teach our grandchildren how to create…how to make up stories for their dolls, toy dinosaurs, or play cars. These activities aim to get your child using their creativity and imagination to express themselves.

As Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination embraces the entire world.”

TRICIA VLASAK is a mother and grandparent. She works in law enforcement when she isn’t writing about parenting, hiking with her dogs, or going on adventures. Tricia received a Gold Award for personal essay from Parenting Media Association in 2022.

Creative Outings With Your Preschooler

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Each week our Instagram blogger, Beau Jackson takes his 3-year-old son Archie on adventures. Ranging from creative pursuits like art journaling to outings to the airport, Archie and Beau always have a great time and give parents across the Monterey Bay ideas for their own outings.

Here are three of our favorite adventures from the past two months.

NATURE JOURNALING

Nature journaling is an excellent activity to develop observation, curiosity, memory, and the skills of a naturalist. It’s a fun way to learn about the world around us.

The day after Danielle (Archie’s mom) told me she was pregnant, I went out and bought a new Moleskine journal and began writing letters to Archie as a way to bond with him while he was still in the womb. Now we create journal pages together as a way to connect. It will be fun to see the way our pages change throughout the years as Archie builds his drawing skills and he learns to write.

WELCOMING THE MONARCHS

As the monarchs have arrived in Pacific Grove, Archie has enjoyed visiting the Monarch Grove Sanctuary to count the butterflies.

We were sitting on a bench munching on a snack while gazing up at the fluttering butterflies when Archie asked me, “Do butterflies have a song?” We were reading a book about whales recently and it talked about whale song. I showed him a video with whales singing so he could hear what it sounded like. While observing the butterflies in the sanctuary, he wondered if they also sang or made noise. While I explained that they didn’t, I marveled at how sweet and beautiful that question was. I love this age and seeing his curiosity ignite.

MEET THE TOD POD

These four besties adventure together every Tuesday. They were all born within three months of each other, and our families met at Parent’s Place in an age-related class when this crew was just a few months old.

The Tod Pod was formed last fall after the CDC said it was safe to create a “pandemic pod”. We’ve been meeting outdoors at a different beach or park almost every Tuesday for over a year now. These regular play dates have been one of the highlights of our week, a consistent social outing for our toddlers, and much-needed socialization for us parents as well.

A support system is so important when you have young children and this one has been especially valuable for us during the isolating and unpredictable pandemic we’ve all been weathering. We’ve recounted sleepless nights, exchanged understanding glances during toddler tantrums, experienced milestones, shared birthday parties, pregnancy announcements, births, and holidays together. Several of us in this group don’t have family in the area, so having this support system of like-minded parents going through the same phases of parenthood together has been a lifeboat.

To follow Adventures with Archie, click here.

The Benefits of Being a Musical Family

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We all know that listening to music can uplift your mood and bring lightness to the day, but did you also know that learning to play an instrument can make you smarter?

A recent study by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation found that learning to play a musical instrument can improve mathematical, science, and English scores in children and can even increase SAT scores. In fact, in schools where administration officials say their music programs are strong, graduation rates top 90 percent and attendance is over 93 percent.

In other words, playing an instrument helps improve a student’s dedication to education and be better equipped to handle life’s challenges.

The question is, with annual budget restrictions forcing many schools to cut back on music education, how does a non-musical parent start to integrate music into their children’s lives?  It begins with the basics: make it fun.

Ted Fong and his wife Marielle, of Sacramento, Calif., have five children who have grown up not just learning to play a variety of musical instruments and throughout their growing years, they also performed at various street fairs and private events. In fact, they played enough over the years to earn enough in tips and stipends to help pay for their college education, which has so far lead to one graduate and two currently attending school. Each of their children has continued to be involved in music at their respective levels of education.

Ted, a multi-talented jazz musician himself, said that he believes music helps children in many ways.

“It’s very important,” he said. “Music helps kids develop creativity and harness their emotions. More so if they’re creating music as opposed to just playing music from the printed page.”

He said the key to getting children interested in learning to play musical instruments is to make it fun and creative.

“I took classical lessons, but later found it was more satisfying to improvise,” said Ted. “Our kids picked up on this, first on the ukulele and then with singing. Singing especially helped them develop their listening skills and their ear. Then they discovered how to harmonize and set up a groove with ukulele, djembe, and shaker. It became enjoyable for them and others. So they kept going.”

Ted recommends a YouTube series by Rick Beato about how children process music.

“It’s like a language that they first learn before they are two years old. I agree with his view that parents should play classical, jazz, and other ‘complex’ forms of music to their kids in the first year of life and afterward. Their brains have the amazing ability to assimilate the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic vocabulary very rapidly.

Leave instruments around the house and encourage kids to explore them and learn how to sing and play what they hear in their heads, said Ted.

“They should continue to listen and appreciate especially classical and jazz. Find a music teacher who can teach more than reading notes, but how to understand and hear what they are playing. Take them to live musical performances.”

It’s clear, especially with the Fong family, that everyone benefits when music is part of a family.

Who knows, maybe it can help pay for college too!

Keith Turner is a freelance writer who is learning to play a musical instrument (ukulele) and loving the process. He also is a  professional auto reviewer for families. He can be reached at carguy@hotmail.com.

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