Why teach your child to draw? Why is drawing good for him? How to make him love drawing? The team Kidlee gives you his advice on how to teach children to draw from a young age.
The benefits of drawing
- Focus: Drawing unconsciously allows the child to focus on his activity. He then stops being distracted and concentrates on his work.
- Stimulation of the imagination and creativity: By drawing freely, without rules or limits, he stimulates his imagination and creativity while having fun!
- Development of motor skills: From the age of 2, his drawings become more precise, he develops his vision and his muscles. Little by little, he develops the coordination of his gestures and will be more precise. Around 3 years old, he improves his hand-eye coordination and will draw shapes more easily.
- Drawing is the first step towards writing: the more he develops his fine motor skills, the better he will be able to control the pencil, which will help him learn to write!
- Self-confidence and emotional expression: By drawing, the child will affirm his character. Drawing will allow him to express himself, his joy, his worries, his anger, his sadness... With practice and patience, he will learn to realize the drawings he has in mind, and even reproduce the reality he wishes to put on paper.
Discover our article: child's self-confidence: how to help the child to have self-confidence?
Teaching your child to draw
Art cannot be corrected!
Before the age of 6, the child does not need instructions, only appreciation. Teaching your child to draw means avoiding correcting him and telling him what to draw all the time. Being still young, he may have trouble doing what you asked him to do and this will only frustrate him. Let him discover the pleasure of drawing, mastering the tools and creating with his little fingers whatever he wants. Don't interrupt his natural learning process and ask him to draw things he can't yet do. At first, he draws spirals and squiggles that train him to hold the pen properly. Then the more he refines his gestures, around 3 years old, he will give meaning to his drawings. Finally, around 4 years old, he will want to draw precise ideas.
Exchange around the drawing
Ask questions that will lead him to interpret his drawing. Your questions can be focused on details that will catch their attention and prompt them to look further into the next drawing.
Ask him to explain the drawing: did he draw a little girl? Under the sun? You can ask him questions like: isn't she too hot in the sun? This will lead him to draw a hat or even a glass of water...
At this age, the child also draws what is called a "tadpole man", which is a man with a big head and a bulging body, with 3 or 4 lines supposed to represent legs or arms. As he grows, he will add more and more details and life to his man!
Teaching a child to draw is above all teaching him to connect art to emotion
Drawing is a major form of expression in their development. Drawing allows them to develop their emotional intelligence. Suggest to your child that he/she express his/her emotions through a drawing. Drawing will then be an escape from their childhood torments and whims. In other words, drawing allows the child to channel his emotions and clear his mind. Sometimes, expressing oneself through drawing can be easier than through words.
Enhance your drawings
Around age 4, the child begins to want to represent the visuals he knows. He then starts to want to draw something beautiful or will want to make a specific drawing! This is when you come in! Also, always praise and encourage him, make him feel that his drawings matter. Value his work by hanging up his beautiful drawing. On the one hand, this encourages him to continue and on the other hand it consolidates his self-confidence. From the age of 5, the child acquires more skill and adds more and more detail and realism to his artwork, so suggest that he keeps a book of drawings. On the one hand, this will give him a boost to his imagination, and on the other hand, it will centralize his work and allow him to tell a longer story than a single drawing!
Teaching a child to draw means drawing together!
Surprise your little ones and do creative workshops together! Show them your interest in creativity. Even if you are not the greatest artist in the world! This will not take away from the beautiful image that the child perceives. The image of a parent expressing creative interest and conveying a message of joy and passion. Not to mention that drawing remains an enjoyable exercise for young and old alike!
Sharpen his sense of observation
Basically, to learn to draw, children rely on what they know about objects to reproduce them in drawings, rather than reality. Invite them to look at reality from different angles to see different points of view and explore new drawing possibilities.
Drawing sessions in different ways:
Offer him different tools adapted to his age such as colored pencils, watercolors, paint... Also invite him to draw on different surfaces such as a sheet of paper, a board, a slate... This will help him discover more materials and stimulate his imagination. It will also allow him to exercise his tactile perception and discover what he prefers.
Your child finds his drawing "ugly", what to do?
Sometimes a child may not be happy with his drawing and may be irritated by it. In this situation, ask questions that will help him understand what he doesn't like. Is it the shape? The color? Explain that sometimes his hand doesn't follow what his brain wants to convey but that comes with time and practice! Remind him that art has no rules and suggest that he make the ugliest drawing possible so that he can have fun and de-dramatize the situation.
Easy drawings
Children sometimes want to draw, but don't have the technique to do it. To help them, you can find on Mom for life the steps to follow to make simple drawings. To start, draw shapes, draw lines and hop! Children learn to draw a cat, a dog, a sun. Find the link of the site just here !
Kidlee nannies love to draw!
Drawing is a fun and enjoyable exercise, so the more you practice the better! This is why the baby sitters Kidlee make sure to accompany the children in their awakening! And this by regularly practicing manual activities such as drawing, coloring and painting. You want to know more about Kidlee childcare supers ? Do not hesitate to contact us by clicking just HERE !
