Most children love to draw! Today I share a video and some thoughts about how you can create a happy, healthy drawing experience for your little one(s). I draw (ha-ha) on my many years of experience as a Waldorf EC teacher. Plus my girls and I did a lot of drawing at home–and we all still love to draw!
The video–how to draw with your kiddos
If you’d rather read than watch, I share my thoughts below.
Let them draw!
I’m going to share about materials and set up below–but I want to start with this part, because to me, it’s the most important part.
Once everything is all set up, and the children know to color only on their paper, just let them go. Resist the urge to comment on what they are drawing or to ask questions. Don’t ask them what happens when they mix red and yellow–let them immerse themselves in the experience and discover.
How to respond when your child shows you their drawing
If they come to show you their drawing, really look at it–see the marks your child made on paper. These marks reflect their stage of development and their wonderful uniqueness.
Often, just a smile and a nod will be enough–after you take a moment to really appreciate what they’ve done. If you must say something, make an observation–“You filled up the whole page!” or “You used a lot of yellow today.”
And I tell you this not because I never do it, but because I know better and always feel surprised when it pops out of my mouth–don’t tell your child it’s a pretty drawing (or ugly or any other adjective). I know it’s hard, but, at least when they’re still little, it’s all about process and not product. Not that we can’t enjoy the product, but we don’t want to focus on it.
Scribble scrabble stories
One of my favorite things is when a little one comes to me with a scribble-scrabble drawing and proceeds to tell me a long story about what the drawing is all about. I listen in wonder as I look at the drawing and see none of what they are telling me–but knowing it is truly their experience. If you are lucky enough to have this happen to you, sit back and listen. When they finish, write it down if you want–for your own memories or to show them when they get older.
And sit down and draw with them sometimes
So many adults feel self-conscious about their drawing skills. We forget how to just have fun with crayons. I invite you to sit down and draw with your child sometimes.
Drawing was part of my weekly rhythm in my classroom. At the beginning of one day during the week, we’d all sit down and draw together. It doesn’t matter what you draw. And the little ones certainly won’t care–althought they’ll probably be interested.
Young children learn through imitation. They know that if you do it, it’s important. They’ll watch what you do and imitate not only your gestures but your feelings. So if you can let yourself play with crayons, they’ll learn to enjoy coloring even more.
If you use stick crayons (more below) and demonstrate a pencil grip–by doing it, not by explaining it!–it will help your child learn this grip, as well (when they’re ready).
So, I invite you to sit with your child and color. And have fun!
The basics of drawing with children
Materials:
Crayons
First, I want to say that we only draw with crayons in our EC classrooms–we don’t have the children draw with pencils, pens, markers, etc.–just crayons.
Use the best quality crayons you can afford. We always used Stockmar brand crayons, but there are lots of nice brands out there. The Stockmar crayons, even though more expensive than Crayolas (which I grew up with) also last longer.
The Waldorf EC teachers who I know think about everything they bring into the classroom. Thus, we come to the great “stick vs. block crayons” debate. Stockmar makes block crayons and stick crayons. There are also other shapes of crayons, too, but we won’t go there today!
Block crayons vs. stick crayons
When I first saw block crayons, I thought they were amazing. I loved using them, loved the way they felt in my hand. But later, when I became a teacher, I came to realize that the more traditionally shaped stick crayons help children develop their pencil grip. The block crayons are actually more appropriate for the grade school and beyond as their different sides, edges, and corners can all be used to make different kinds of marks.
Still, in my classrooms, I usually used both, just to give some variety.
I would start the year with only a few colors of crayons–red, yellow, blue, brown, green–and add a few more as the year went along and the seasons changed. We might add orange, for example, around Halloween.
We didn’t give the children black crayons. The black crayons tend to over power the other colors, so I just stayed away from them at school with the little ones. I use them myself when I draw, and I used them at home for my girls. Experiment for yourself and see what you like.
Paper
When choosing what paper to draw on, again, good quality paper is nice. But sometimes the kids at school (or home) drew so much that I would use regular old printer paper to save some money.
I always encouraged them to draw on both sides of the paper.
When we used individual sheets, I often rounded off the corners to give the paper a softer feel. Try it for yourself and see if you notice a difference.
Instead of using individual sheets of paper, you can also have your child draw in a sketchbook or a Waldorf main lesson book–which looks like this:
I sometimes used these lesson books in the classroom. They were a good way to keep a child’s drawings together. If we used loose sheets, each child had a folder to keep all their drawings and paintings in.
A drawing mat
You might want to get a drawing mat to put underneath the drawing paper–to keep the crayon marks of an enthusiastic drawer from getting on your table. You can use a piece of cardboard or pressed board. I’ll share a video on how to make your own out of a brown paper bag and newspaper.
Setting up
I liked to let the children draw anytime during our free play time–unless we were using our table for other activities like baking. To encourage this, I had the drawing boards and paper where the children could reach it. The crayons, however, I kept up high where only the teachers could reach them. You might not need to do this at home, but at school, I needed to keep track of the crayons.
I kept the crayons in little baskets and tried to have one basket per child. No matter how hard I tried, the crayons always got mixed together. Sorting crayons was a regular activity.
And here’s a helpful hint–if you do lose track of the crayons and end up with crayon marks on the table or floor, olive oil works well to remove it. I’d only use it on a hard shiny surface that won’t get stained by oil. But we’d put a little olive oil on a rag and child and adult would rub until all the crayon was gone. We usually had volunteers to help with this task–as we did with most tasks in the classroom. If done with a joyful spirit, anything can be fun. Our kids often remind us of that.
This long, drawn-out post comes to an end
Oh, my! This post is long, and I realize that I could go on and on about drawing. I’ll be sharing two more posts on drawing in the coming weeks. You’ll find the links here when I post them.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my post on watercolor painting with little ones.
I hope you enjoyed this post and feel inspired to draw with your little ones.
Have fun. Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.
And thanks for stopping by!
xoxo