A few weeks ago Jake got his hands on a Crayola marker and had a great time drawing with it, first on the table/his body, and then on paper, when I spotted the new activity… He seems to have a new level of interest for drawing now and really sticks to it, doing a few pages at a time. He enjoys me drawing with him, showing him how to draw animals or shapes and the likes. It is all very basic scribbles at the moment, but drawing is still a fantastic activity because he is developing his hand strength, coordination, concentration and pencil hold. Drawing and colouring is an activity that can help your child pick up writing so much faster and is a really worthwhile activity to incorporate into your day, not to mention a lot of fun.
Mess!!
I recently saw an advertisement for Crayola Colour Wonder, a set of markers that only show up on special paper so that they can't stain other surfaces. I scoffed at the mother proudly announcing that she had allowed her four year old to draw with markers for the first time, as the ad pans across a child lying on a fluffy white rug, drawing happily. However, I have to admit it does seem to be a messier process than I expected. He is compelled to draw on the floor, table, his body etc! It takes time and reinforcement to really make sure that they understand that they are only allowed to draw on paper. We talk about it every time we get the pens and paper out and he is getting better. At school after we have someone drawing somewhere they shouldn't we quiz the class on places they can draw, ‘Can we draw on walls? (no) ‘Can we draw on jobs? (no)’ ‘Can we draw on paper?’ (yes) ‘Can we draw on books? They are paper’ (no), ‘Can we draw on other people’s drawings’ (No, just your own paper, from the craft shelf). Etc…
What to buy?
I think for young children who are starting out, thick Crayola markers are probably the best product to go for. The thickness means they are easy to grip and even if your child wants to bang them down on the page (Please discourage!) the nibs don't seem to get wrecked or pushed in very quickly. In my mind one of the great things about an early childhood education is that the child starts primary school being good at everything, which in turn encourages them and empowers them to tackle any learning opportunity without the fear of failure. We all love it when we are great at something! These markers give an instant result, they can fill a page with drawing without needing to have the hand strength to push down hard or really control the pen well and that gives them a lot of satisfaction. The downside to the markers and the reason we try and use pencils in the classroom with older children is that they do need constant help/ reminding to put the lid on and they are messier. The lids are a bit hard for Jake at the moment, he can get them off and put them back on, but doesn't quite click them all the way shut. I think for now, just putting the lids on is a good start and I can click them in for him when he is finished with the activity.
Painting is also lots of fun, we are just using a little water colour set at the moment because it is so easy to get out and doesn't need lots of prep/clean up. I think the easier, the better, so that you can feel happy about them getting it out whenever they want it. I tend to put a bit of water on each colour when he isn't looking just to get the colours loosened up and ready to go. A big favourite at school is for us to fold a piece of paper in half and then draw the outline of half a butterfly on it. The children cut along the line and then paint on one side of the paper, before they fold it in half and rub it together. It creates a great symmetrical butterfly. With Jake we have just been trying it with folding the paper and creating symmetrical pictures, like the one hung in the left frame below, so do some experimenting.
Stop bad habits in their tracks
It is a lot easier for your child to learn the right pencil hold right from the start than to have to unlearn bad habits later on. I have so many children start preschool with an ingrained way of holding their pencils with their hand upside down, with a fist or right at the top of the pen, rather than close to the nib. Jake is generally good, but started turning his hand upside down recently. I just quickly swap the pen around to the correct way and tell him to ‘nip nip’ his pen and he seems to have realised that it is easier and has gone back to holding it right. If your child is in the habit of holding their pencil wrong, get onto it as soon as possible, helping them to hold it right every time they pick up a pencil, until the correct hold comes naturally to them.
You are now an art gallery manager!
Talking about colours
Jake hasn't really been very interested in talking about colours up until recently, everything has just been yellow when we have asked him! However, over the last month or so it has started to sink in. I think talking about different colours while we are doing painting/drawing has really helped, so use this time to get some colour practice in. We find having little associations for the colours, like 'green like the grass', 'pink like a pig', 'brown like chocolate' etc. is a good way to help them remember the colours, so try using the same phrases each time you talk about it to help them remember the colour.
Sign it
If you want to start increasing your child’s recognition of their name, start writing their name on their pictures and spelling out the letter sounds as you go. If they have a combination sound like sh or ch, underline those and sound them out as the combination so that they start to become familiar with it. With Jake I draw an arrow to show him that the ‘e’ jumps on the ‘a’ to make it say it’s name instead of the sound.
Demonstrate
In the classroom we are amazed at how the children can draw pictures that are so much more advanced when we show them step by step how to draw the creature they are wanting to draw. There is a vast difference in skill between different four year olds and the ones who are fantastic usually have parents who can draw and do it with them regularly. Don't worry if you aren't fantastic at drawing, keep drawing lots of very simple pictures that they can observe and copy and you might just improve as they do! With the young children at school and even Jake, the first step we are trying to help them achieve is to be able to form a circle. Once they can do that they are well on the way to being able to draw a lot of things so try and teach them a circle and then see what you can do with it.
