TV That Inspires Kids to Get Crafty: Amazon Studios: Creative Galaxy Review

Screen Time, Screen Time – it’s always a controversy. But realistically, children are going to be using gadgets for everything from communication to schoolwork. So if we are going to let them watch and play, it’s a huge plus if it’s something interactive and educational.

We are always looking for new craft ideas and a new show on Amazon Studios offers great incentive and imagination. Creative Galaxy, produced by Out of the Blue Enterprises with Angela Santomero (Blue’s Clues, Super Why!), is a make-along, create-along, interactive art adventure series for preschoolers. Characters Arty and Epiphany travel around the galaxy to solve problems with art, inspiring creative thinking through crafts, music and dance. To give kids and parents the real-life tools they need to re-create Arty’s experience, a live-action piece at the end of each animated episode will take viewers through the craft project that Arty showcased in the galaxy.

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Without even being prompted, my five-year-old informed me that he liked how the show “teaches you how to be creative.” And our creativity started with a lesson in “pointillism,” which may seem like an advanced concept for a preschooler, but is actually pretty simplistic – paint with dots! We just happened to have a couple of artist canvases and a “Do-a-Dot” paint set Sam received as birthday gifts. The paint set didn’t entirely conform to my standards of non-toxic and left days of hand stains, but he thoroughly enjoyed them.

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This series is designed to support a child’s natural inclination to use their imaginations, make, and create.  In every episode, the characters will use “fix it with art” to model the importance of art as a resource for life. The series helps kids at home feel as if they are making art along with Arty, through its interactive story format. As “helper artists”, the kids at home will “create” alongside Arty, empowering them as “makers” in a media format.

It is important to develop a child’s relationship to art to get them comfortable with the idea of taking chances both artistically and throughout their other spheres of development. Art is instrumental in building fine motor skills, engaging the senses, and opening up problem-solving abilities.

The series also brings awareness to the fact that people literally find themselves immersed in art most of the time: Sculptures, posters, fashion, music, landscape design – whether we think of our world as art or not – it is!

If a show can actually encourage my child to want to turn off the TV and create when it’s over, it’s worth the screen time to me.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

 

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