November 26, 2009
Sparking your children’s interest in art
The simple acts of drawing and coloring are literally childs’ play, however, they both play an important role in your child’s physical, emotional and cognitive development. Like no other activity, the hobby of drawing and coloring allows young children to express emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence.
Parents and caregivers can promote drawing and coloring as a way to improve physical, social, emotional and cognitive development-and to have a lot of fun along the way too. Here are some suggestions:
1. Provide your grankids with nontoxic materials, blank sheets of white paper and coloring pages.
2. Model drawing. Show children that you enjoy drawing and coloring too - make designs but do not show your children what they should draw.
3. Encourage all drawing and coloring efforts by talking about the beautiful colors, the lines and shapes the child has made.
4. Rather than ask “What is it?,” say “Tell me everything about your drawing”. Asking “What is it?” suggests to the child that he may have failed to draw the image correctly.
5. Talk about concepts like thin, thick, wide, narrow, dark, light, edge, shape, contour, etc.
6. Display their art on the kitchen fridge, in their room and in places where visitors to your home will see them. Point them out to visitors, friends and relatives - the praise fthey will receive for the work will boost a child’s self esteeem and confidence.
7.Give kids the freedom to choose the subjects of their drawings and the types of coloring sheets they would like. Some argue that coloring sheets do little to foster children’s creativity - however they play a pivotal role in developing a child’s fine motor skills - a pre-cursor to writing - and often encourage children who wouldn’t otherwise draw and color to pick up a crayon to color in their favourite character. For example at sites like Disney Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Disney coloring pages.
Always supervise younger children while they draw and color - crayons pose a choking hazard.
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