Teachable Moments: Coloring

Coloring has always seemed like an easy, fun, and effortless activity, especially for me as a mom. My oldest loves to color, to create, and would spend hours drawing if I would let her. Coloring has never crossed my mind as an activity that needed a lesson. That is, until daughter #2 came along. The very idea of crayons and paper combined strikes fear into her little wiggly body. And fun? Not on your life. When I noticed her running to hide when the crayons came out, I started to get suspicious. When I realized (after working for months on drawing circles) that she's a lefty (being taught by a righty) and has an incredibly weak grasp we started getting serious. (And to clarify, by weak I mean she'd draw and the pencil would literally fall out of her hands when it touched the paper). Using pencils, crayons, and chalk (anything to create a drag and strengthen her hand muscles) we started making coloring a regularly scheduled activity around here. Her hand strength has improved slowly, but her coloring didn't. Hmmm....
This is her coloring...on her 3rd attempt at this particular paper (I had multiple copies).







So, to switch it up a bit, we changed sheets. Again...yikes.

As you can see, the face and pants I colored. I sat with her and thought, maybe coloring isn't something you should always just let go without some instruction. And I wondered, Has she ever seen me color? Really color? How about learning how to make the strokes? Decide which colors to use?

So I sat with her. Talked about what colors we could use. We've worked on correct positioning for pencils/crayons, but we continued to talk about how smaller strokes help with staying in the lines. Lighter, controlled motions help mistakes not seem so noticeable. Because they ARE going to make a mistake. And some, like my oldest will want to redo the entire sheet. And others, like my second daughter, will chalk it up as "too hard" and list it among Activities I Don't Enjoy or Care About. (Also known as Scribble Everywhere So I Can Get Through This Faster).

So I taught. And she watched.

And something happened.

My child that abhors coloring sat and colored. Happily. And even drew a duck at the top of her paper (I haven't worked out why yet, but I see the duck). :)

We've got lots of work to do, but it certainly was a teachable moment. And fun.

I forgot how much I love coloring, too.

Be on the lookout for some teachable moments at your house this week. Take advantage of it and forget about the laundry for a few minutes. It'll be worth it. :)

Rainbow Crayons!!

Ever wonder what to do with all of those broken pieces of crayon that pile up? Make rainbow crayons! It's super easy, very quick, and fun to use to color. I let the girls choose their own combinations. We heated the oven to 300. They are done as soon as the wax melts (about 5 minutes). If you continue to let them "cook", they will blend into one color. So if you want to keep the rainbow effect, keep an eye on them. Let them cool completely and then peel the paper off.

Pre-Toddlers/Early Toddlers and Coloring

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.