Palm Beach Moms Blog is proud to be partnering with the Palm Beach Outlets!
Kids Need More Art. It’s not just a saying, it’s a calling. It’s also a local business owned by Karen Nobel, a dual-certified art and elementary education teacher, as well as the 2010 Teacher of the Year for Pine Jog Elementary and the 2010 Elementary Art Educator of the Year for the Florida Art Education Association. Impressive credentials underscoring a passion for making art appealing, accessible, attainable and fun for children throughout Palm Beach County. Kids Need More Art is also a 2015/2016 Macaroni Kid Gold Daisy Award Winner (First Place) for the following categories – Art Classes, Summer Camp AND Birthday Party Venue! I’m not sure how it is that I’ve been doing this mom thing in Palm Beach County for the past 7 years and I’ve pretty much missed all of this!
If you check out the Kids Need More Art website (https://www.kidsneedmoreart.com/) you’ll see that there are several ways you and your little ones can get involved. There are the regular summer art series in Jupiter, Wellington, West Palm and even Stuart. There are also full day summer camp programs in Jupiter, Wellington and West Palm.
Their latest partnership is the one that’s got me the most intrigued, though. Now through the end of the summer, Kids Need More Art is hosting Let’s Get Art-Sea, a series of 2 hour art workshops for kids ages 5-10, at the Palm Beach Outlets. 
The classes take place Tuesday, Thursday and select Saturdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Registration is $20.00 per child, $10.00 for siblings (so if you have two children, it would be $30.00). Each class is led by one of Kids Need More Art’s qualified, vetted instructors, nearly all of whom are certified educators. The classes generally consist of a hands-on, ocean-themed art project. The classroom is easy to find – nestled right up against Saks Off Fifth, in Suite 411, across from the Janie and Jack Outlet.
Here’s the part that is pretty exciting to me – you can sign your child into class, and once they are settled and happily creating, you are free to go! You can use that 2 hour time span to shop the Outlets, or stroll down to TooJays for a coffee and a nosh.
For moms who are home all summer with their littles, summer camp might not be a possibility. This is the perfect mini-camp! You get a break while your child gets to unplug from the electronics, stay cool, and get their creative juices flowing. Or maybe like me, you work all week and just need a little down time on the weekend. This is an excellent, safe, fun and low-key activity for the kids that affords you some mom-time! In my eyes, this is the quintessentially perfect play date. Get a few girlfriends together, drop the kids off, and go hunt some bargains!
The only caveat would be that if you have a child under 5, you are asked to stay in class. If that’s the case, bring your Starbucks and a great book, and make yourself comfortable on one of the benches inside the classroom during the session. A good book and a good cup of coffee is still a win as far as I’m concerned!
Ever since I learned of the series, I’ve really been excited to get my daughters, ages 7 and 4, into one of the Let’s Get Art-Sea classes. We tried our first class today – a Tuesday class. Since I had to work and my husband was off, he took the girls to class. Luckily I work nearby, so I was able to meet them toward the end of class to see the space, hear about their experience and check out their finished projects. As soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted by my 7-year-old’s excited, gap-toothed grin. “Look Mommy, I’m sewing by myself!” she called out.
She has been asking me to teach her to sew for months. I’m not sure where she got the mistaken notion that this is a skill I possess, much less am able to teach. Luckily today’s instructor, Christina Schwartz, knew a thing or two about it. To see my daughter happily sewing and stuffing her little fish project was quite gratifying.
I have to admit, though, my husband sewing for the 4-year-old was an even more exciting sight!
Once the kids sewed and stuffed their fish, they were offered googly-eyes (which Ms. Christina applied with a hot-glue gun) or a variety of fabric markers for decoration.
Earlier in class, before I arrived, the kids made little stuffed octopuses (octopi?). My girls were both so proud of their artwork. They couldn’t wait to tell me all about what they’d made and how they made it. The best part was that the 7-year-old had told me earlier that morning that she didn’t really want to go to the art class. The unknown is not always her favorite. At lunch I told her, “I’m so glad you ended up liking the art class.” “No, Mommy,” she corrected me. “I didn’t end up liking the art class. I ended up LOVING it!”
