I am not a big fan of colouring in books.
I want children to draw from their imagination and experience, rather than colour in someone else’s pictures. I want them to value their own designs and creativity, rather than feel like they should be drawing pictures like those in colouring in books.
My girls LOVE colouring in books.
It started as a lovely gift – the first colouring book – from someone who knew how much they loved to draw. I think it might even have contained a princess or two… and from then on the love affair has been long, deep and ever lasting.
Lucky for the Twindaoes I am not so anti colour in books to break their hearts and send them packing. They have their place. They are easy and fun to take on car trips and appointments and for kids who have struggled a little with fine motor development and pencil grasp they’ve been great practice.
So I have taken a chill pill and been embracing the colour ins. Heck – I’ve even been printing them off from web sites for them on occasion.
This web site has loads of colouring in sheets on just about every subject and from all of the most popular kids toys and movies etc.
Activity Village also have a great range to print out.
I still try to sneak in a few sheets that offer a little more creative freedom though. Mandala patterns are lovely to colour in, and Imagination Colouring Pages only give you part of the picture with a question to prompt more creativity.
But I must confess… I’d still rather see my kids draw. So with that in mind, after a tip off from a lovely Ballet Mum, we checked out the Reject Shop and bought two HUGE spiral bound artist’s notebooks ($5 for anyone interested – we got the last two at our local shop.) The girls couldn’t wait to get home and try them out.
They have lovely thick good quality paper in them so we’ve been able to use the water colour paints as well as drawing with crayons, pastels and markers. Tonight in that lull before dinner I dragged them out and asked the girls if they’d draw me something we saw at the zoo today….
Oh what a lovely time was had. Beautiful drawings with accompanying stories, words written out and copied, letters sounded out…. I think we will try to do this most nights, it’s such a lovely way to catch a little bit of their childhoods forever.
And hey check out the tongues on those butterflies!!!
Drawing a picture is something truly magical, so much more than simply colouring in.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how much my girl likes to colour. I’m talking about HOURS each day inbetween other activity. I don’t mind it for myself as it has some meditative aspects.
But yes I would prefer her to be drawing! I feel confident she’ll make the switch in time, but meanwhile I may buy her one of those books too!
I agree! We made the switch to blank art pads when my almost 4yo insisted on doing his own thing on the colouring-in book pages. We realised, ‘why are we trying to convince him to colour in someone else’s drawing’ instead of letting him express himself how he wanted to?! :-D
My preppie is obsessed with drawing and writing and hordes notebooks etc. Thanks for the great links the imagination print outs.