coloring on the walls

[DeerMother]

Anyone conquer this? Our rule is if you leave the coloring table, crayons must stay there. But really, what two year old gives a hoot about rules? I try to stay present during coloring time but sometimes I have to leave the room for 10 seconds and ds takes off like lightning to decorate his room. Also, dd can spend hours coloring and I don't like taking away her fave activity just b/c ds can't handle it.

[Down2Earth]

I would love to hear a solution to this problem. My rule would be no coloring without supervision, but obviously that has many limitations. Sorry, that doesn't help. Maybe invest in washable paint for the walls!

[Jackies Ladybug]

crayola washable crayons and eggshell or semigloss wall paint.
all it takes is a quick wipe with a wet washcloth for me to get all the crayon marks off my walls now.
i do it every night before bed, we are an artistic family so i dont discourage artistic expression in any form. i just make it more clean up friendly!

[azmomtoone]

We posted (printed) pictures on the walls for DS to color, and if he "missed" and got the walls, he had to help clean up. Mr Clean Magic Eraser works wonders on crayon on all sorts of surfaces. I read something about it being developmentally easier for toddlers to color upright then on a horizontal surface.
We also taped Color Wonder sheets to the closet door in the living room and hung a little bucket w/ the markers for it on the handle.

[luv-my-boys]

I never "encouraged" drawing on the walls however we my kids it happened. I made it a point to let them know that we needed to be respectful of our house and our things and that they needed to clean it up. I ONLY buy crayola washable items as I have found that they trully are most washable. Also magic erasers work wonders

[almadianna]

I just let them. Only in their room but their room has paint that is made for that so it is ok. I found out that by giving them a space that they could draw on the walls it made it a lot easier for them to not draw everywhere else.

Who knows, maybe my son will grow up to be a Diego Rivera!

[mommy2maya]

for a two year old, the only way to prevent it is to prevent it. You need to stay present the whole time crayons are out. End of story. Or take the offending child with you if you must leave the other alone with crayons. It is not developmental appropriate that they will have the impulse control NOT to color only where is allowed.

[almadianna]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

for a two year old, the only way to prevent it is to prevent it. You need to stay present the whole time crayons are out. End of story. Or take the offending child with you if you must leave the other alone with crayons. It is not developmental appropriate that they will have the impulse control NOT to color only where is allowed.

[DeerMother]

Originally Posted by almadianna

Who knows, maybe my son will grow up to be a Diego Rivera!

Love his murals!

Good ideas. I also don't want to discourage creativity and I like free play so I think I'll try expanding the crayon zones to their table, the cardboard box fort and maybe put some butcher paper on a door or two.

[almadianna]

ohhh I forgot. We have glass crayons so that they can draw on windows. that helped too.

[tabrizia]

We painted a wall with Chalkboard paint and just redirect DS to go there if he wants to color on the wall. It works well, since he is allowed to draw on a wall, but it is something we control and an in approved area of the house.

[LCBMAX]

Love all these ideas. We ended up papering the walls of our art space with rosin paper, and covering the low end of the windows with contact paper. All materials have to stay in the art space, but in there, anything goes.