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Little words big art

@young_marks_kenmore

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Nonprofit supporting creative kids 👧🏻 👦🏻
📍Kenmore WA
Arts • Culture • Creativity
Workshops | Events | Community
✨ Growing with culture & imagination

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🎃 I showed my preschoolers Kusama’s pumpkins.
I didn’t show them how to make theirs.

Today we met Yayoi Kusama, the artist known for her iconic polka dots and pumpkins. 🟡🔴🟣

I told the kids three things:

1️⃣ Yayoi Kusama has been fascinated by dots since she was young.
2️⃣ She turned pumpkins into one of her most recognizable artworks.
3️⃣ Today, we were going to make our own.

Then I stopped talking.

And they took it from there.

One pumpkin became neon yellow with hot pink and purple dots:

✨ “It’s my magic pumpkin!”

Another became completely blue:

💙 “Pumpkins in the ocean are blue.”

And honestly?

Not one pumpkin looked the same.

That’s exactly what I wanted.

As a mom and an art teacher, I love watching kids discover that there isn’t always one “right” way to make something.

A preschooler doesn’t need to draw the perfect pumpkin.

Sometimes they just need the freedom to imagine one. 🎃

📍 Eastside Seattle
Small-group art classes for little artists
One artist · one story · one hands-on project each week

🍂 Fall classes are opening soon.

#SeattleMom #SeattleKids #BellevueMom #KirklandMom #KenmoreWA taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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a month ago

🌱 School Theme: “Seeds of Science”

Looking for easy ways to bring science into your homeschool routine? 🧪🌿

Science activities for young children can help them:

✨ Build curiosity & a love of learning
🔍 Practice observation & investigation
💭 Ask questions and make predictions
🧩 Develop early problem-solving & critical thinking
🧪 Learn through hands-on experiments
🌱 Understand nature & the environment
🔢 Build early STEM skills
🗣️ Grow language & communication skills
🤝 Practice teamwork & collaboration
💡 Gain confidence through discovery, trial & error

You don’t need a complicated science curriculum—sometimes a seed, a little water, and a curious question are enough to start. 🌱

#Homeschool #Homeschooling #HomeschoolMom #HomeschoolIdeas #HomeschoolActivities ScienceForKids STEMKids STEMEducation KidsActivities PreschoolActivities EarlyLearning LearningThroughPlay ScienceExperiment KidsScience ToddlerActivities taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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a month ago

💦 A little water adventure ！#creativekids #kenmore #bothell #kirkland #processart

This week, we explored the theme of WATER through Chinese, numbers, movement, and art.

We talked about where we can find water, discovered Chinese characters with the “water” radical 氵, and turned numbers 1–12 into a little rainstorm song. 🌧️

Then came the messy fun—spraying water, creating natural water patterns, blowing colorful bubbles, and turning our bubble prints into ocean waves. 🌊

With clay, the kids made tiny swim rings, surfboards, and pool toys for their little swimmers.

A playful afternoon of splashing, creating, moving, and imagining. 🎨💦 taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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a month ago

Spring-themed, but not instruction-led 🌱

Today, four 3-year-olds spent a full 70 minutes in deep, focused creation — starting with crayon outlines, adding watercolor, and finishing with sponge paper and tiny white collage details.

No fixed outcome, no “right answer.”
And that’s where the magic happened ✨

At the end, each child shared their own story about spring — flowers blooming, animals waking up, colors “growing.” Every story was different, but all so vivid and personal.

When we step back, they step forward.
Art becomes more than making — it becomes thinking, imagining, and telling their own stories 💛

#processart #earlychildhoodeducation #playbasedlearning #seattlekids #creativekids taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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5 months ago

Little hands, big feelings 💛

Today in our 2–4 yrs art class, we explored emotions through play + creativity.

We started by making our own “emotion books” 📖
Using chalk, the kids chose colors for their little monsters—bright, soft, bold, or dark. When colors met, they used their fingers to blend them together… just like feelings can mix and change ✨

Then we got a little messy (the best part!) 🎨
Color-soaked wipes + stones = tapping, spreading, surprising textures!
Add a pair of eyes, and suddenly… emotion monsters came to life 👀

Through color, movement, and open-ended play, children begin to understand and express what they feel—naturally and joyfully.

#toddlerart #processart #earlychildhood #artplay #sensoryplay emotionlearning seattlekids taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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6 months ago

Today’s class took place outdoors, giving the children a more open and freeing environment to create. The kids lay down on large sheets of paper while their moms gently traced the outlines of their bodies. Then, the children observed “themselves,” adding facial features inside the outlines and using the three primary colors to bring their artwork to life—slowly completing a life-sized self-portrait.

There’s a meaningful reason why we encourage children aged 2–4 to work on large-scale art. At this stage, children experience the world through their bodies. A large canvas allows them to engage their whole body in the creative process, not just small hand movements. Lying down, stretching, and turning naturally become part of the act of creating, helping them build body awareness and supporting early self-identity development.

Large-scale work also reduces the pressure of “getting it right.” Compared to small pieces of paper that require fine motor control, a bigger surface gives children more freedom to explore and make mistakes. They feel more confident to experiment and express themselves. At this age, the goal isn’t whether the drawing looks “accurate,” but whether the child feels comfortable observing and expressing themselves.

In addition, using primary colors on a large surface helps children develop a foundational understanding of color. Through layering and mixing, they directly experience how colors interact and change—something far more impactful than verbal instruction.

When children stand in front of their finished, life-sized artwork and see “a version of themselves” on paper, they are forming an important connection: I can see myself, and I can express who I am.

#creativekids #bothellwa #processart #playbasedlearning #toddleractivities taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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6 months ago

Looking at Myself in the Mirror
Artist: Simi
Age: 3
Mixed media on paper, 2026

Curatorial Note
The mirror serves as one of the earliest gateways through which a child begins to form a sense of self. In this work, Simi responds to that intimate moment of encounter through instinctive lines, liberated color, and an unfiltered visual language. The reflected figure becomes more than a likeness—it transforms into an early exploration of identity, emotion, and presence.

At the age of three, observation carries a rare honesty, untouched by convention. The “self” she portrays feels both real and imaginative: facial features, gestures, color fields, and expressive marks come together to form a self-portrait in motion. What is captured here is not merely the act of looking into a mirror, but the profound realization of I am seeing myself. taken in Bothell, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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6 months ago

Sunday class recap 💌✨

From story drama to spring-inspired art, today’s class was all about helping little ones discover their own magic.

We stepped into Bob Is an Artist and explored the journey from self-doubt to self-expression through movement, dress-up play, pretend feeding, and creative storytelling. Watching the children light up as they realized their “differences” can become something beautiful was such a special moment 🥹✨

For art time, I hid the materials inside Easter eggs and invited each child to pick a favorite color, then head outside to find where that color lives in spring. Leafy greens, soft pink petals, sky blues, and tiny blossoms all became part of their creations.

I love seeing how children connect color to the real world first, then turn those little discoveries into their own stories through art 🌷🐣🎨

Process over product, always. Their ideas, their voices, their spring magic 🤍

#ToddlerArt #ProcessArt #SpringActivities #CreativeKids #PlayBasedLearning taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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6 months ago

✨ Why are so many 2–3 year olds so engaged in their first Chinese class?

Because language feels different when it’s experienced through stories, movement, and art.

In our classroom, children explore Chinese through music, rhythm, storytelling, and playful interaction. Instead of sitting and memorizing, they express emotions, join the story, and naturally try words and phrases along the way.

For toddlers, language often grows best through play, imitation, and connection.

🎨 Art Exploration

Our art time invites children to explore materials freely. At this age, we focus on the creative process—experimenting, imagining, and expressing their own ideas.

🌿 Stories. Expression. Creativity.

A space where little ones can explore language and imagination together.

📍Kenmore / Bothell

#seattlekids #bothell #bellevuekids #toddleractivities #playbasedlearning taken in Kenmore, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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7 months ago

At the end of February, @little_words_big_art @sherry_yaru we hosted a children’s art auction that truly belonged to the kids 🤍

From creating to curating, from raising paddles to the final bid, every piece carried pure imagination and fearless expression. The brushstrokes of three-year-olds — raw, instinctive, and honest — felt like contemporary art in its most authentic form.

Thank you to every young artist, parent, and friend who supported us. Your presence turned art into a bridge for our community and allowed creativity to give back in a meaningful way.

We will be reaching out to families regarding auction proceeds soon. If you’d like to further support our future art programs, we are deeply grateful.

Art is not just an outcome — it’s the beginning of a child discovering their voice.
See you at the next one ✨
📷 @becky.bi

#SeattleKids
#SeattleParents
#SeattleMomLife
#SeattleFamily
#SeattleEventsForKids taken in Bothell, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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7 months ago

Our 2–3 year old class
during a recent open-ended exploration of tools and materials, the children’s spontaneous creations resulted in a piece astonishingly close to a 1995 work by the artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

How many artists spend a lifetime searching for the purity of a childlike brushstroke and the boundless creativity of a young mind ❤️

#bothell #seattleart #artworkshop #kidsartworkshops #kidsart taken in Bothell, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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8 months ago

🎨 My 3 year old class work for V day this year. Little hands, big imagination.

The kids folded, pressed, and opened their paper — and magic happened ✨
Colorful hearts turned into beautiful symmetrical patterns ❤️

Then we painted a rainy blue world together and placed each heart into it ☔️
One canvas, many little hands, full of creativity and growing minds 🌱

👉 Messy play grows the brain.

#MessyPlay #LittleArtists #ProcessArt #CreativeKids #EarlyLearning taken in Bothell, Washington by @young_marks_kenmore

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8 months ago