After seeing a rather special drawing by an equally special young lady on a friends blog the other day it got me thinking about drawing in general and how much of it we do in this house and how I am starting to see some changes in the way the girls draw.
We’ve always had crayons and paper and various drawing moments around here. I like drawing. It’s easy to set up and clean up and it is lovely and open ended.. the girls can do whatever they like while being really creative and learning heaps. We’ve mostly stuck to crayons in the past as our few attempts with textas haven’t been super successful… but at Easter the girls were given Wiggles textas and pencil boxes from our neighbors as part of their RCH Good Friday Appeal activities and suddenly it seems they have mastered the art of lids on and off and have just leapt ahead in their drawing!
We usually sit up at the dining table so there is enough room for the big bits of paper. Thanks to another great friend and her DH we now have lovely A3 sized paper to draw on, makes such a difference for little hands to have a big surface! These days the wiggles textas are the only thing they want to draw with but in the past they enjoyed crayons and pastels, and we have chalks for paper and the black board and outside on the pavers. Recently Nanny bought them little hole punches that punch out shapes (if you look hard you can see an orange one between the two girls in the photo) which are a HUGE hit and are often requested when we draw.
As you can see in the photo neither of them have quite got the pencil grasp right. Izzy sometimes gets a pincer grasp going but Zoe hasn’t at all mastered it yet. You can Google ‘correct pencil grip’ if you are interested in how it all works but at this stage of the game it is not something we are working on… it will come in time.
Izzy has recently started to draw things that are recognisable.. well sort of. This is Nanny… ok so she has three eyes, but all of her eyes have glasses just like she does! LOL
Zoe’s drawings are less ‘recognizable’ at the moment, though they are always very elaborate, with loads of colours and come with really long winded stories about baby mice and jelly fish and farmers!
I am really aware of them just drawing for the sake of drawing… trying hard not to influence them or have them worry about what it ‘looks like’ in the end. So many people say ‘I can’t draw’ when really everyone can draw… we just get hung up about how it looks when we are done. Drawing and being creative are fascinating things… and I think there is nothing better than kids drawing just for the fun of drawing, so go break out the crayons and give it a go!
loz says
I am so glad you wrote about drawing as I was going to ask you next time we saw you. I remember at the last MCHN visit for E she insisted we start the pincer grip and I had found myself getting annoyed that E wouldn’t do it, he can do it just prefers not to. It doesn’t feel right to push it on him yet I found myself doing it anyway.
We have been drawing heaps around here as K is loving it too and they have a ball together
katef says
on the pincer grasp.. there are things you can do to encouragae it.. drawing at at easel or vertical surface rather than flat on a table.. using fat crayons or really fat triangluar, or fat markers or fat chalks.. rather than skinny ones…. stuff like that. But at this stage, the best way to encourage it is just to let them draw. I don’t think either my girls or E have any issues with fine motor development in general so the correct grasp will come with time.
Penelope says
Oh wow, you can really recognise Izzy’s drawing! And I love the fact that Zoe has a story for each one, so creative! We’ve started drawing with Emily now too, she loves her crayons, and her chalk for using outside – we have a BIG undercover concreted area and it’s covered in blue, pink and yellow squiggles I can’t bear to wash off LOL
Jodie says
OOOh I love those drawings… hope you are keeping them Kate, I brought a big slip in display book for each of my kids… its great to look back and see their progress. Oh and a tip, pencil the date on the back :)
Mel says
Drawing and creativity are fascinating for sure.
Love their drawings!
We actually do work on Jordan’s grip gently, just because he sees an OT for his sensory stuff, she just very gently guides him a little, upright or angled surface to start with and now just a little hand over hand when he begins. Does help.
But yeah, drawing for the fun of it is the way to go.
Daniela says
I love this post and pictures. Can’t wait until I can do that with my kid. He’s just starting to get interested in drawing and painting. I’m just now starting to trust him with crayons, instead of Color Wonders – a few months ago he gave me a masterpiece in the kitchen walls…
Thanks for sharing those pictures!
pokettiger says
The photos of your girls drawing is so sweet. The intense concentration and focus they are giving their work/play is incredible. Their drawings are fantastic.
Lisa says
We love drawing here :)
Their drawings are fun and colorful! I like the sound of those shape hole punchers! Where did you get them from??
Glad you are making good use of the paper, yell out when you need more :)
fazzbech says
Oh yes, we love our drawing here too! Pencils, Textas, crayons, we love painting, even outside on the footpath with a brush and water.
Love the drawings your girls did!
_Dee_ says
Lauren has only just started getting back into drawing. She has always had her paper/pens available when she wants them.
Her latest thing is faces. Should really take a photo of them!
Its amazing how different kids develop these things isnt it, Lauren has had the pincer grasp down for ages. One day she just picked up a pencil and held it ‘properly’ quite surprised me! (I think it was around 18months or so . .not100%)
Leah says
Ah my dad was bemoaning Audrey’s lack of pincher grip the other day – “she holds the pencil like you do!’ he said LOL I don’t hold the pen “correctly” – instead of it resting on my middle finger, it rests on the next one so two fingers are on top of the pen. They tried to correct me in primary school but I had very neat handwriting (then) and didn’t pursue it for long. I’m not sure if that’s what Audrey is doing or not, I think it’s less a modified and pincher and more just a grab grasp LOL
He cares about the grip because he is an artist and technique is all important, but also said it doesn’t seem to be hampering her at all. I don’t think my grip does either, all I know is writing any other way cramps my hand. Which may lessen if I persevered, but to what purpose?
Anyway, all very interesting. Drawing really draws (haha!) on many many skills … observation, hand eye coord, memory (my dad would say this can be a bad thing, when we draw what we remember instead of what we really see), creativity, and on it goes.
Love seeing the girl’s drawings, kids drawing is the best!!
casso says
Hi Kate! I’m over here looking at your blog and love the drawings your girls drew. But I am one of those “I can’t draw” people. I really can’t. Nothing. Oh I can draw a little cartoon cat face and that’s it. Truly and really.
Cheers, Cass
Zebette says
This is a great post as with our twins so close in age I have just in the past 10 days noticed that Scarlett’s drawings are real things now, she draws people really quite well and a very similar style to Izzy, and Joe’s drawings are still very much like Zoe’s.
You’ve inspired me to go and blog about this tomorrow as I actually took photos of Scar’s drawings.
We do drawing everyday with chucnky pencils or crayons but Scar is getting a pretty good grip now.