Does/did your toddler not like to color?

[ellemenope]

DD (23 months) is more interested in crayons and markers as things to arrange in piles and talk to than as things to make works of art with.

She also gets really frustrated because the felt part of the marker might not look like the color it actually is.

And, if she gets any on her hand we have to stop and wash it off.

Forget about finger paints.

I end up pointing to spots on the paper and saying, "color here, now here." Which just makes me sad, because that is so not the reason I get the art stuff out. KWIM?

I am worried about developing her fine motor skills and artistic creativity. But, when I hear about moms doing crafts everyday I <wince>.

[Magali]

My toddler, who just turned 3, isn't much for coloring either. For a while there I always had some craft stuff out and tried to get into it with him, but it just seemed like he would do it for a few minutes and then throw everything all over the place, try to cut up the table, color on the table, and he would lose interest in the paper entirely. And when he was younger, coloring consisted of eating his crayons, breaking them and throwing them down the stairs. So I've put it away for a while. Now and then he shows interest in using a pen on plain white paper and that is fun. Until he decides to shred the paper and poke holes through to the table lol. And we have a chalk board for him too that now that he doesn't eat the chalk anymore , he has a lot of fun with in little spurts.

Apparently I wasn't too interested in crafty stuff when I was a kid either, so I don't really worry about it too much. I'm not artistic in the least, but I am a fantastic cook...so I guess some of us find our talents in different places. I know what you mean about hearing about these parents who do crafts everyday. I think that is so cool. But, it just doesn't work around here. Maybe once my son is a bit older...I don't know.

[laohaire]

When DD was 2, she pretty much didn't color at all. Maybe a line on the paper. Wasn't interested.

When she was 3, she started to color but not very creatively. She would use a single crayon color rather than mixing them up.

Now she's 4 and she does everything I would expect her to, she's creative and paints very nice pictures, draws, colors in coloring books, etc. She LOVES crafts, we don't do them every day but certainly a project every week.

I would back off. If she's not interested, she's not getting anything out of being pushed to do it. She won't have problems being creative later just because she didn't do crafts at 23 months.

[lookatreestar]

Originally Posted by Magali

My toddler, who just turned 3, isn't much for coloring either. For a while there I always had some craft stuff out and tried to get into it with him, but it just seemed like he would do it for a few minutes and then throw everything all over the place, try to cut up the table, color on the table, and he would lose interest in the paper entirely. And when he was younger, coloring consisted of eating his crayons, breaking them and throwing them down the stairs. So I've put it away for a while. Now and then he shows interest in using a pen on plain white paper and that is fun. Until he decides to shred the paper and poke holes through to the table lol. And we have a chalk board for him too that now that he doesn't eat the chalk anymore , he has a lot of fun with in little spurts.

Apparently I wasn't too interested in crafty stuff when I was a kid either, so I don't really worry about it too much. I'm not artistic in the least, but I am a fantastic cook...so I guess some of us find our talents in different places. I know what you mean about hearing about these parents who do crafts everyday. I think that is so cool. But, it just doesn't work around here. Maybe once my son is a bit older...I don't know.

they just do not work in this house either!! (yet??) ugh my dd who is 3 does all of these same things. i figure i'll just keep offering and maybe she will get it one day she is an awesome cook though, loves combining ingredients and getting messy!!

[Picard]

DS (25 months) isn't interested in coloring with crayons or paint either. We recently bought some modeling clay and this is hugely successful. He likes seeing us make stuff and contributes too. He is very creative with it: it is on most of his favorite toys

[limabean]

My 2yo DD loves coloring, but my DS (who is now 5.5) was never into it, and he was the same as your DD in that he didn't want to fingerpaint or get anything messy on his hands -- his preschool teacher would squirt shaving cream on the table for the kids to play with and he never wanted anything to do with it.

He likes coloring now, although it's still not usually his first choice of activity. He's also still a little fastidious about getting his hands messy, but it's not nearly the hang-up it was when he was 2 and 3.

[cappuccinosmom]

My middle son has had no interested in coloring with markers and crayons. Very unlike his older and younger brothers who love it.

I did find he would do art with more "interesting" stuff. He likes painting. We did "ice painting" once and he liked it (food coloring/water frozen and then crushed and distributed over paper).

[Augusta]

My oldest who is now almost 8 had ZERO interest in anything like drawing, colouring even painting for the longest time. He wouldn't even hold a crayon and nursery school was concerned and wanting a fine motor assessment etc. He drew his first simple picture just over age four (and by simple I mean simple like a happy face) and started writing words. Once he started he took off and his artwork is now amazing and one of his favourite things to do is draw. He's still not much into "crafts" but is very creative and produces nice original artwork.

My almost 2 year old (boy also) has loved to colour since he was 1 or so. They're all so different.

[greenmamapagan]

My four year old quite enjoys painting, occasionally. She really does not like to draw or colour. Never really has. She had a brief spurt between 2 & 2.5 where she started to draw people and a few letters and went really quickly from a clumpy fist pencil grip to a perfect mature pencil grip, then once she'd sorted that out she stopped again and hasn't shown any more interest. The only time she's coloured in the past year is when her ballet teacher gives out colouring pages at the end of the class, even then DD only does it if her teacher actually says she wants the kids to bring them back the next week. The only time she draws is if we go out to dinner at a particular cafe that has big sheets of paper on the tables and brings out little tubs of crayons when you sit down. Even then she mostly does a little scribble then gets back to talking
DS just turned one and he's been grabbing pencils/crayons/textas off us for months and trying to draw with them. As PP said, they're all different

[spmamma]

I'm so glad I found this thread! All my friends have kids who love to color and are even starting to draw pictures.

I got DD her first set of crayons at 18 MO and now she's 3... and still doesn't like to color. She always wants me to do it for her, and will say, "It doesn't look right." or "I can't do it." when I we sit down to coloring something. I don't know where she got the notion because I've always been incredibly encouraging. She is a bit of a perfectionist, though, so I think maybe what she sees come out on paper doesn't match the way she wants it to look.

One thing she loves, though, is her craft box. She's a master when it comes to gluing and will happily spend an hour with her crafts.

[montanamama1]

I see this is an old thread but I also want to say yay for this conversation! It's a huge relief. DD is a toddler and has shown zero interest in drawing and scribbling. All friends close to her age are scribbling away and I've been worried what, if anything, that means. So relieved to find it may or may not have anything to do with her interests as she gets older, but it's totally normal. i don't care if she's an artist. Just wanted to make sure her physical/cognitive development was OK.

She's awesome in all ways and I need to chill out. :)

[Greenlea]

My 29 mth old does not like to color.  Usually he just turns the pages while I color a little bit on each page, and it keeps him interested for maybe 15 minutes.  He got some water colors for his birthday and we used those quite a bit.  But again, he would lose interest after like 15 minutes and it always turned into me using them more.  I kinda stopped trying art stuff for a while.  Didn't want to waste my money on more stuff he isn't going to use.