I don't think there has ever been a child to love coloring more than McKenna. From a very young age, she started bringing me the box of crayons with a coloring book and babbling something (surely about coloring) with that look on her face. That look you can't say no to.
With Brayden, I would try coloring every so often, but he was more interested in lining the crayons up in a row than coloring. This actually didn't make me feel bad because I don't much like coloring myself. I know, I am weird right? Kaitlyn loves to color, but is perfectly content to do so on her own.
And then there was McKenna.
She loves to color, and more important than the coloring is that Mom is on the floor coloring with her. Most days, coloring is our learning activity for her. This is how we do it.
We put the book on the floor. We lay on our tummies on the floor and color together. McKenna mimics me in every way, so she is right on her belly with me. Then we both just color. She helps. She watches. She loves every moment. The above is a photo of one of our joint efforts.
What if your child doesn't like to color? I don't know how right this is, but my inclination is not to worry about it. Brayden didn't like coloring until he was in preschool. Now he loves it. So my approach was to try it once a week, but I didn't press the issue. I tend to really run with the things they are interested in at the young ages, then start to require some things every so often as I feel it is age-appropriate. Hence the constant coloring with McKenna.
Maybe her enthusiasm will rub off and she will teach me to love it. I may not love the coloring, but I do love the tender time spent together as we color a picture.
3 comments:
Awwwww, sounds like a great mommy-daughter time. My older son just liked lining up the crayons, too. Very interesting. Now he is really good at puzzles and it seems somehow related to me. The younger one loves coloring and I will have to try your learning activity! :)
I definitely think some kids like coloring and some do not. But as a developmental therapist I saw some kids who didn't like coloring because they lacked the muscle strength for it. I also have a friend who just thought her son didn't like it. After kindergarten they realized he needed to see an OT because he lacked the strength for writing.
I am not in any way saying that all kids who do not like coloring, need to be evaluated. You know your kid best. But I do feel that if you have a child that really doesn't like something that you try over and over again, maybe look deeper to see if there is another root source of the problem.
Thanks for that Courtney! That is a good thing to be aware of!
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