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The simple acts of drawing and coloring are literally childs’ play, however, both of these past-times 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 themselves and their 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 grandchildren with nontoxic drawing materials, blank sheets of paper and coloring pages.

2. Model drawing to inspire them. Show children that you like to draw and color too – make designs but do not show your children what they should draw.

3.Encourage all drawing and coloring activity and 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 that?” 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 – the praise 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 very little to foster children’s creativity – however they do play a vital 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 risk.

You may be wondering why your kids aren’t more interested in art. While not everyone is predisposed to be a creative soul, there are some things that you can do to help your kids get into coloring, painting and drawing. Instead of focusing on technique, composition or other such serious topics, make sure that your children are first and foremost having fun with any artwork they are making.

This is especially important when kids are just beginning to learn to color and draw. They are much more interested in their films and tv programs than they are in learning art, so use that to your advantage and find interesting themes on television. So for example, what type of cartoons or programs do your children regularly watch and how can you incorporate those characters, environments, colors and ideas into a fun art activity?

Remember that for whatever theme you choose the art ‘lesson’ must be easy to complete in order to let the students build self-confidence in their abilities. Building self-confidence is important because this will help carry your little ones past the initial learning curve required when learning the fine motor skills that coloring in and painting require. In the beginning the goal should not be to produce proficient little artists, but rather to build enough confidence in your child that they are interested in having an art ‘lesson’ again. If you don’t ‘grab’ them and get them interested when they are just starting out, your children risk developing the ‘I can’t draw,’ and the ‘I can’t paint/color’ syndrome and then you have surely ‘lost’ them – well, at least in the short term.

Therefore, think about which television, movie or cartoon characters your children adore and search for a few online art resources that would grab their attention. For instance, at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob Squarepants coloring pagesand at Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find many printables that would appeal to little girls.

Coloring in an existing drawing is not as daunting to your young child as a blank sheet of white paper is. Younger children may even be lost for ideas on what to draw when faced with a blank sheet of paper. Coloring pages may not encourage wild creativity and immagination as much as a blank canvas would do – however they do provide a great springboard for younger children to practice their fine motor skills and an opportunity to slowly build up the confidence in their dexterity and artistic abilities to progress onto the big wide world of art!

The simple acts of drawing and coloring are  literally childs’ play, however, they both play an important role in a child’s physical, emotional and cognitive development. Like no other activity, drawing and coloring allows young children to express themselves and their emotions, experience autonomy and build their confidence. Drawing and coloring are also excellent pre-cursors to developing writing skills because the toddler is honing his or her fine motor skills which are essential when learning to write.

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 ideas you can try:

1.Provide kids with nontoxic materials, blank sheets of white paper and coloring pages.

2. Model drawing. Show children that you like to draw and color 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 have you drawn?,” 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 – the praise 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. For example little boys  may enjoy coloring images of  cars, trucks or a favourite character such as Pokemon -  and at sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find Pokemon  coloring page. Little girls on the other hand prefer images from fairy tales such as Princess pictures - choose whatever pleases your child to encourage their enthusiasm for the activity and their interest in it. 

8. Always supervise younger children while they draw and color – crayons pose a choking hazard.

Preschoolers are an interesting age group. Their little minds are sharp and quick in learning, but their attention spans are somewhat short! If you want your preschooler to remember any learned activity and pieces of information, you need to re-emphasize them frequently. This applies also to teaching preschoolers about colors.

Teaching your child the colors of the rainbow is an important part of childhood learning and it is also delightful to watch them associate each word with  a color. What is important however, is to make it fun.

Here are some ideas to make learning the colors fun for you and your toddler:

Make the bath a different color every week – so you have red week, blue week and so on. During your child’s nightly bath, add a couple  of drops of food coloring to the bathwater. Talk to your child about each color and name other items you see that are the same colors.

Color theme their food too. During one week point out all food that is green such as peas – next week, highlight red food such as strawberries and apples. During yellow week make a fuss about yellow sweetcorn or lemons.

Buy a box of crayons and a coloring book, and spend time drawing and coloring with your child. If you have access to the internet and a printer, there are many online coloring pages that will cost you nothing at all. Little boys may like pictures of trucks and cars while little girls enjoy images of fairytale scenes and princesses. Both genders will enjoy characters that are unisex such as Spongebob Squarepants for example and at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob colouring pages

In fact, Spongebob is a great character to use to teach the color yellow!Use coloring in together as an opportunity to talk about the red car or indeed the Yellow Spongebob…

Some young children  are naturally talented when it comes to learning colors. They may have a flare towards painting, coloring or drawing and, thus, colors are something that they will get the hang of quickly. Although some kids learn their colors very quickly, it is a fact that almost all kids are extremely interested in colors…. which makes the task of teaching colors – quite an easy one after all…

Encourage creativity in your children by providing them with the time, resurces and the space for making art. Try to set aside interruption-free time for drawing, in a mess-proof zone – so that their creativity can run wild. Make sure you cover all surfaces so that any splashes of paint or scribbles of crayon are ‘caught’ – because  nothing squishes creativity more so than a parent saying “Don’t make a mess” every 2 minutes.

Choose the right drawing materials too as this is very  important. Many craft materials can be improvised, but when drawing tools and paper are required, opt for a small selection of good quality age-appropriate products, rather than loads of inferior products. Always ensure that you check safety information and follow instructions. Young children should always be surpervised during ‘art time’ because many necessary materials – such as crayons – pose a choking hazard.

Surroundings: As with writing or working at a computer, good posture and a comfortable position are important for drawing. With young children, a child-size table and chair is actually preferable to an easel. If the chair is a little high, provide a phone book for a footrest. A coffee table and an inexpensive plastic chair work well. A small kitchen storage trolley is ideal for containing supplies, or if space does not permit, a portable tackle box is a good option too. Messy toddlers may need a drop-cloth and supervision to avoid ink-stained walls, as even ‘washable’ pens often don’t deliver on that promise!

Art Materials: Avoid cheap markers, too-hard pencils and thin paints – these types of materials are discouraging to the child and therefore  a waste of money. Provide many sheets of blank paper to inspire their crativity and occasionally invest in a large canvas so that your child can paint something ‘grand’ and chances are you’ll want to hang it on your wall!Also provide coloring books or coloring pages – of which you’ll find plenty online. Granted – coloring pages are not so great for creativity, however they do provide children with the chance to practice their fine motor skills and sometimes it’s very relaxing and just what they need to simply color in without the ‘pressure’ of thinking about WHAT to draw. 

Little boys typically enjoy coloring pictures of cars and trucks while little girls usually enjoy coloring images of fairies and princesses  - at sites like Princess Coloring Pages  you’ll find the best printable colouring pages

When it comes to drawing and coloring, at each age/stage of your child’s life provide….

Toddlers

• Child-safe markers and wipe-off boards
• Chalk boards and safe chalk
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Juniors

• Sketchbook
• Student colored pencils
• Washable Markers
• Oil pastels
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Middle School

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Graphite Pencils
• Watercolor sketch paper
• Watercolor pencils
• Marker pens, marker paper
• Plain paper and coloring pages

High School

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Quality drawing papers and boards
• Graphite Pencils
• Artists’ quality colored pencils
• Illustration markers, marker paper
• Pastel paper and hard pastels if liked
• Plain paper and canvases to work on

All ages

• Safe sharpeners, erasers, dusters, stencils and rulers
• A  folder for storing large pieces
• Storage boxes for smaller pieces
• Consider photographing or scanning pieces for a permanent record.

Encourage creativity in your children by providing them with the time, resources, encouragement and the space for making art. Try to set aside interruption-free time for drawing, in a mess-proof zone – so that their creativity can run wild. Make sure you cover all surfaces so that any splashes of paint or scribbles of crayon are ‘caught’ – because nothing squishes creativity more so than a parent saying “Don’t make a mess” at regular intervals.

Choose the right drawing materials too as this is very  important. Many craft materials can be improvised (think of kitchen roll tubes, yogurt pots etc) but when drawing tools and paper are required, opt for a small selection of good quality age-appropriate products, rather than loads of inferior products. Always make sure that you check safety information and follow instructions. Young children should always be surpervised during arts and crafts activities because many necessary materials – such as crayons – pose a choking hazard.

Surroundings:As with writing or working at a computer, good posture and a comfortable position are important for drawing. A child-size table and chair is actually preferable to an easel. If the chair is a little high, provide a phone book as a footrest. A coffee table and an inexpensive plastic chair work well. A small kitchen storage trolley is ideal for containing supplies, or if space does not permit, a portable tackle box is a good option too. Messy toddlers may need a drop-cloth and supervision to avoid ink-stained walls, as even ‘washable’ pens often don’t deliver on that promise!

Art Materials:Avoid cheap markers, too-hard pencils and thin paints – these types of materials are discouraging to the child and therefore  a waste of money. Provide many sheets of blank paper to inspire their creativity and occasionally invest in a canvas so that your child can paint something and chances are you’ll want to hang it on your wall!  Provide also coloring books or coloring pages which are bountiful online – coloring pages are not so great for creativity, however they do provide children with the  chance to practice their fine motor skills and sometimes it’s very relaxing and just what they need. They can simply color in without the ‘pressure’ of thinking about WHAT to draw.  Little boys typically enjoy coloring pictures of cars and trucks while little girls usually enjoy colouring images of princesses and fairies - sites like like Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find many fairies to colour

When it comes to drawing and coloring, at each age/stage of your child’s life provide….

Toddlers:

• Child-safe markers and wipe-off boards
• Chalk boards and safe chalk
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Juniors:

• Sketchbook
• Student colored pencils
• Washable Markers
• Oil pastels
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Middle School:

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Graphite Pencils
• Watercolor sketch paper
• Watercolor pencils
• Marker pens, marker paper
• Plain paper and coloring pages

High School

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Quality drawing papers and boards
• Graphite Pencils
• Artists’ quality colored pencils
• Illustration markers, marker paper
• Pastel paper and hard pastels if liked
• Plain paper and canvases to work on

All ages:

• Safe sharpeners, erasers, dusters, stencils and rulers
• A  folder for storing large pieces
• Storage boxes for smaller pieces
• Consider photographing or scanning pieces for a permanent record.

Culture plays a large role in  many things – from what we eat to how we dress – and it even has an effect on the minutae of life – like whether or not drawing will enter into a child’s repertoire of behavior.

For example, studies have shown that  Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American parents tend to plan more drawing time for their children than their  European-American  counterpart parents do. As a result of more time spent drawing, Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American children’s drawings are seen as being more advanced than those of their counterparts.

According to  studies carried out in 1983, when children are provided with drawing materials and encouragement they tend to create works that reflect their particular culture – and each culture has its own ‘style’. For example, French children tend to spend a good deal of time on drawing, filling the entire page with large, colorful designs,  drawings by Japanese children  meanwhile tend to be more complex, harmonious and complete than drawings by North-American children. Children from the island of Bali meanwhile, typically use many small marks to draw complex, colorful designs which fill the page.

While many cultures use and value drawing as art, there are a few cultures that show no evidence of drawing at all.

The children from the island of Ponape (in Micronesia) usually have no prior drawing experience. Yet when researchers carried out a recent study, those Ponape children that were given drawing materials tended to draw by starting in the center of the page making shapes that connected outward like groups of linked bubbles – they also tended not.

Interestingly, when children from cultures that don’t include drawing in their children’s life are first introduced to the tools, they tend to experiment, scribble, or attempt realistic drawings right from the start. There seems to be great variation in first attempts. However, in general, it has been found that children tend to draw from a cultural perspective, imitating the designs reflected in fabrics, architecture or other aspects of the adult culture including symbol systems such as written letters or characters and numerals.

Culture therefore confines and defines  the art of children.

Children from ‘First World’ countries like Europe and the USA are given opportunities to draw and color and are encouraged to do so by their parents, teachers and other caregivers. Material is plentiful too with crayons, paper,  coloring books and even online resources in plentiful supply. Little boys tend to enjoy coloring pictures that represent what he sees every day such as cars, trucks and machinery while little girls enjoy coloring images from fairy tales and   princesses and at sites like Princess Coloring Pages you’ll find the best free princess colouring

With both encouragement and resources a-plenty, children of ‘First World’ countries are very lucky to have both the means and the support to express themselves creatively through drawing and colouring.

Preschoolers are an interesting age group. Their little minds are sharp and quick in learning, but their attention spans are short! If you want your preschooler to remember any learned activity and pieces of information, you need to re-emphasize them frequently. This applies also to teaching preschoolers about colors.

Teaching your child the colors of the rainbow is an important part of childhood learning and it is also delightful to watch them associate each word with  a color. What is important however, is to make it fun.

Here are some ideas to make learning the colors fun for you and your toddler:

Make the bath a different color every week – so you have red week, blue week and so on. During your child’s nightly bathtime, add a couple of drops of food coloring to his or her bathwater. Talk to your child about each color and name other items you see that are the same colors.

Color theme their food too. During one week point out all food that is green such as peas – next week, highlight red food such as strawberries and apples. During yellow week make a fuss about the yellow of eggs and sweetcorn.

Buy a box of crayons and a coloring book, and spend time drawing and coloring with your child. If you have access to the internet and a printer, there are many online coloring pages that will cost you nothing at all. Little boys may like pictures of trucks and cars while little girls enjoy images of fairytale scenes and princesses. Both genders will enjoy characters that are unisex such as Spongebob Squarepants for example and at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best printable Spongebob colouring pages

In fact, Spongebob is a great character to use to teach the color yellow!Use this coloring opportunity to talk about the yellow Spongebob or the pretty pink princess dress…

Some young children  are naturally talented when it comes to learning colors. They may have a taste or flare towards painting, coloring or drawing and, thus, colors are something that they will get the hang of quickly. Although some kids learn their colors very quickly, it is a fact that almost all kids are extremely interested in colors…. which makes the task of teaching colors – quite an easy one after all…

Encourage creativity in your children by providing them with the time, resources, encouragement and the space for making art. Try to set aside interruption-free time for drawing, in a mess-proof zone – so that their creativity can run wild. Make sure you cover all surfaces so that any splashes of paint or scribbles of crayon are ‘caught’ – because nothing squishes creativity more so than a parent saying “Don’t make a mess” at regular intervals.

Choose the right drawing materials too as this is very  important. Many craft materials can be improvised (think of kitchen roll tubes, yogurt pots etc) but when drawing tools and paper are required, opt for a small selection of good quality age-appropriate products, rather than loads of inferior products. Be sure to check safety information and follow instructions. Young children should always be surpervised during arts and crafts activities because many necessary materials – such as crayons – pose a choking hazard.

Surroundings:As with writing or working at a computer, good posture and a comfortable position are important for drawing. A child sized table and chair is actually preferable to an easel. If the chair is a little high, provide a phone book as a footrest. A coffee table and an inexpensive plastic chair work well. A small kitchen storage trolley is ideal for containing supplies, or if space does not permit, a portable tackle box is a good option too. Messy toddlers may need a drop-cloth and supervision to avoid ink-stained walls, as even ‘washable’ pens often don’t deliver on that promise!

Art Materials:Avoid cheap markers, too-hard pencils and thin paints – these types of materials are discouraging to the child and therefore  a waste of money. Provide many sheets of blank paper to inspire their creativity and occasionally invest in a canvas so that your child can paint something and chances are you’ll want to hang it on your wall!  Provide also coloring books or coloring pages which are bountiful online – coloring pages are not so great for creativity, however they do provide children with the  chance to practice their fine motor skills and sometimes it’s very relaxing and just what they need. They can simply color in without the ‘pressure’ of thinking about WHAT to draw.  Little boys typically enjoy coloring pictures of cars and trucks while little girls usually enjoy colouring images of princesses and fairies - sites like like Fairy Coloring Pages you’ll find many fairy printables

When it comes to drawing and coloring, at each age/stage of your child’s life provide….

Toddlers:

• Child-safe markers and wipe-off boards
• Chalk boards and safe chalk
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Juniors:

• Sketchbook
• Student colored pencils
• Washable Markers
• Oil pastels
• Plain paper and coloring pages

Middle School:

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Graphite Pencils
• Watercolor sketch paper
• Watercolor pencils
• Marker pens, marker paper
• Plain paper and coloring pages

High School

• Sketchbook  or scrapbook
• Quality drawing papers and boards
• Graphite Pencils
• Artists’ quality colored pencils
• Illustration markers, marker paper
• Pastel paper and hard pastels if liked
• Plain paper and canvases to work on

All ages:

• Safe sharpeners, erasers, dusters, stencils and rulers
• A  folder for storing large pieces
• Storage boxes for smaller pieces
• Consider photographing or scanning pieces for a permanent record.

Culture plays a large role in  many things – from what we eat to how we dress – and it even has an effect on the minutae of life – like whether or not drawing will enter into a child’s repertoire of behavior.

For example, studies have shown that  Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American parents tend to plan more drawing time for their children than their  European-American  counterpart parents do. As a result of more time spent drawing, Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American children’s drawings have been deemed more advanced than those of their counterparts.

According to research carried out in 1983, when children are provided with drawing and coloring materials and encouragement they tend to create works that reflect their particular culture – and each culture has its own ‘style’. For example, French children tend to spend a good deal of time on drawing, filling the entire page with large, colorful designs,  drawings by Japanese children  meanwhile tend to be more complex, harmonious and complete than drawings by North-American children. Children from the island of Bali meanwhile, typically use many small marks to draw complex, colorful designs which fill the page.

While many cultures use and value drawing as art, there are a few cultures that show no evidence of drawing at all.

The children from the island of Ponape (in Micronesia) usually have no prior drawing experience. Yet when researchers carried out a recent study, those Ponape children that were given drawing materials tended to draw by starting in the center of the page making shapes that connected outward like groups of linked bubbles – they also tended not.

Interestingly, when children from cultures that don’t include drawing in their children’s life are first introduced to the tools, they tend to experiment, scribble, or attempt realistic drawings right from the start. There seems to be great variation in first attempts. However, in general, it has been found that children tend to draw from a cultural perspective, imitating the designs reflected in fabrics, architecture or other aspects of the adult culture including symbol systems such as written letters or characters and numerals.

Culture therefore both confines and defines the art of children.

Children from ‘First World’ countries like Europe and the USA are given opportunities to draw and color and are encouraged to do so by their parents, teachers and other caregivers. Material is plentiful too with crayons, paper,  coloring books and even online resources in plentiful supply. Little boys tend to enjoy coloring pictures that represent what he sees every day such as cars, trucks and machinery while little girls enjoy coloring images from fairy tales and   princesses and at sites like Princess Coloring Pages you’ll find the best princess colouring book

With both encouragement and resources a-plenty, children of ‘First World’ countries are very lucky to have both the means and the support to express themselves creatively through drawing and colouring.