Coloring inside the lines?

[frugalmama]

How do you teach this? Is it just something that comes naturally at a point?

DD is 4, doing K work and can't stay inside the lines at all - writing, coloring, painting, etc it's outside the lines.

[tammyw]

LOL - I never taught this. I never wanted to. In fact, I never gave my kids coloring books because I wanted them to create their own work rather than finishing someone else's

There is a wonderful book I read when mine were little called Young at Art. It's really wonderful!

My daughter is now 7.5 and draws all the time. She really, really adores art. My son is 4 and is following along with us when we do lessons from Artistic Pursuits, and I love his natural spirit coming through in his work. It's very sweet

[moominmamma]

Totally agree with tammyw. Not a skill I particularly want to nurture in my kids. I mean, it's one way to develop fine motor skills for printing, but I can think of plenty of other ways I'd prefer.

Miranda

[astra]

I am sure she will pick it up in time. I thought my ds would never catch on to it! Now he can certainly color in the lines if he wants to at age 5. I think seeing other kids coloring in the lines, motivated him to try it!

[Lillian J]

That's awfully young to be able to keep within the lines, but it really doesn't matter - I'd instead give him fun opportunities to freely use large paint brushes on large pieces of paper, draw or scribble freehand with large chalk on a driveway, finger paint, play with clay, or do none of the above until such time as he has some interest. Development of fine motor skills comes at widely different rates from child to child, but there's absolutely no real need at his age for any concerns about it. I'd back way off from that kind of thing and make sure he doesn't end up feeling bad about his abilities - time will take care of his abilities. Lillian

[One_Girl]

I never taught this or encouaraged it. I think art is a creative thing that should develop on it's own without the limits set images. I offer a variety of art materials, drawing and painting materials, and blank paper so my dd can choose what to do with it. We also do things like beading, cutting, and computer work for hand eye coordination.

[lmonter]

I'd thought about it, but never got into that kind of discussion with my kids. In the last 6mo, my 6yo has started coloring inside his own lines more and more on his own accord. I don't give them a whole lot of coloring pages though, just blank pieces of paper.
I figured my time was better spent keeping them coloring on paper and not the placemats or floor or walls or table or doors.

The few times I have given them coloring pages, it did bug orderly/controlling me that they don't color inside the lines, but that's more my problem than theirs, you know? I do make sure to tell my 4yo I love his (attempt) at drawing a truck and marvel at my 6yo's recent depiction of the garbage truck (complete with dumpster on the skids starting to raise up), and my 2yo's squiggles if they stay on the paper. It's so neat to see what they come up with. My 6yo's also drawn out an overhead view of the streets/highways near us, complete with construction around, the houses he wants to build if we move (complete with a materials "list"), it's amazing.

[lach]

I've seen coloring books at Staples that have raised outlines to the images. They're supposed to remind the child when to stop, I think.

Is he trying to color inside the lines and failing, or does he just not care? If he doesn't care, then there probably isn't much you can do about it. If he is feeling frustrated because he can't control his crayon the way he'd like to, it wouldn't hurt to talk to your pediatrician about it. If he has low muscle tone or poor eye-hand coordination, the earlier you work on it the better. Particularly before he gets so frustrated that he pegs himself as unable to write or bad at coloring/writing, and you have a long road ahead of you to even get him to try.

More important that coloring inside the lines, I think, is encouraging coloring with counter-clockwise strokes. That's how most letters are drawn, and it will get him comfortable with the motions.

[karemore]

Is it that she can't stay inside the lines or that she just doesn't care to?

DD didn't stay inside the lines until she was closer to 5. I didn't make a big deal out of it. When other kids started to say she was scribbling, then she decided to stay in the lines.

Do you notice any other issues with her fine motor skills? If not I wouldn't worry about it. When she needs or wants to, she'll start staying in the lines.

[tammyw]

I wanted to offer one other thing. My dd (she is 7.5 now) really never would color within the lines, even on the occasion that someone would give her a coloring page (she technically could but it seemed she just wanted to get it over with - it wasn't special to her). She tended to more "scribble" to get it done. But give her a blank piece of paper, black drawing pencils and whatever other media and she will spend hours creating her masterpieces.

It could be that she just isn't interested in coloring a picture!

[Lillian J]

I just remembered there's a whole other (lively ) thread on this subject: Coloring within the lines - worth a read. - Lillian

[LemonPie]

My 5 yo DD and my 7 yo DS are both able to color in the lines, and do a nice job of it, when they are so inclined. But they usually aren't so inclined, LOL. DS especially. He's just not a kid who likes to color or draw anyway, so if he's given an activity where he's 'supposed' to color in the lines, he usually gives it a token scribble of color, but he will rarely sit down and take the time to do a nice thorough job. DD loves to color and draw with all different kinds of things (crayons, markers, paint, glitter gel is her current favorite), but she's more of a free-form kid and doesn't like coloring books.

I think it's important to distinguish between the ability and the desire. If your 4 yo is doing other things while writing/coloring like making circular shapes, drawing early stick figures or other 'representative' type forms, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you feel like fine motor skills are lacking, there are lots of things you can do like Play-doh, stringing beads, lacing activities, playing in the sand, etc etc etc.

[Marimami]

My 6 year old DD (today!), got this for her birthday: http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Toys-Colo.../dp/B001UCIN5G

and she colored it in the lines just beautifully. This is a kid who has never liked coloring books. We've never given them to her either because we don't like them.

But, when it came time to do something that she wanted that involved the "coloring in the lines skill", she did it without a problem.

It was a very unschooly "aha" moment for me!

Holli

[frugalmama]

her coloring is still pretty much color over the picture with a single color - i.e. if I give her a page with a person and a cat on it, they are both green and she just scribbles over the page heavily to color it. I can try to scan a copy if it helps.

She does not free draw at all - just won't do it. No shapes, nothing. We've tried painting - she says it's too messy {she HATES having her hands dirty}, markers, chalk, pencils, crayons - everything and she just scribbles in straight lines.

[elizawill]

my son is 6 1/2 and although he can stay inside the lines, he usually chooses not too. in his mind, it looks much better the way he chooses to color, and that's fine with me.

i also don't expect my kids to use the "correct" colors. if they want purple dogs and green people, that's fine with me too. i co-teach with a lady that gets frustrated when the kids use the wrong colors in class, lol.

[Greenmama2]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

her coloring is still pretty much color over the picture with a single color - i.e. if I give her a page with a person and a cat on it, they are both green and she just scribbles over the page heavily to color it. I can try to scan a copy if it helps.

She does not free draw at all - just won't do it. No shapes, nothing. We've tried painting - she says it's too messy {she HATES having her hands dirty}, markers, chalk, pencils, crayons - everything and she just scribbles in straight lines.

My DD was 4 in May. She is not generally a fan of free drawing either. She will draw a picture of her own free will about once every three months. Colouring books aren't much more popular but she'll choose to do them maybe every few weeks. At 3.5 she coloured just as you described, now she pretty much stays in the lines and chooses different colours for different parts - because she wants to. While ITA with all the PP about it not being necessary, I just wanted to post in support because I have a non-drawer too and all the natural parenting advice about unfettered creativity etc can get you down when your child just doesn't enjoy drawing. FWIW she is learning to write (unschooled, not taught by me) just fine. She writes all "straight line" letters and numbers quite legibly and the others are coming along too

[cappuccinosmom]

her coloring is still pretty much color over the picture with a single color - i.e. if I give her a page with a person and a cat on it, they are both green and she just scribbles over the page heavily to color it. I can try to scan a copy if it helps.

She does not free draw at all - just won't do it. No shapes, nothing. We've tried painting - she says it's too messy {she HATES having her hands dirty}, markers, chalk, pencils, crayons - everything and she just scribbles in straight lines.

This describes my middle son. Between ages 3 and 5, if I could get him to bother with coloring or painting at all, it would be just broad strokes in limited colors. For a long time he'd either paint "concrete" or "a tree stump", covering the whole paper with various shades of either grey or brown.

He never expressed it as not wanting to get dirty, but he definitely was behind his brothers when it comes to fine motor skills. He's a "major motor" boy, big, wide movements, high activity, short attention span. He didn't draw anything recognizeable until he was 5. He still doesn't *like* to bother with drawing, but he will if it needs to be done for school. His problem is, he sees these kinds of thing as an imposition on his time, he can't be bothered with them, so he slaps off something big and messy in the hopes that I'll let him be done and move on to more interesting things.

I wouldn't worry about it, honestly. If she needs help with handwriting later on, you can work on that specifically. But people are different in their artistic perceptions and abilities. I don't think it's so hugely important to "color in the lines" or make things "the right color", especially for a young child.

[PGTlatte]

DS1 is 7.5 and only mastered this last week. It is not something I ever mentioned to him. I didn't feel it was an important skill to be concerned about. He was very pleased with himself when he did it for the first time. I think if I had ever pressured him to color in the lines, he might not have enjoyed his accomplishment quite as much.

[zebra15]

Kinda OT but your topic reminds of this book http://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Outsi...3841566&sr=1-9, which is well read and on my shelf.