[tenar]

DD1 is 3.5. Her idea of "colour in this picture" is to cover the whole page in one colour of random scribble. I was trying to get her interested in the idea, today, of trying to colour different parts of the picture in different colours, but no real interest on her part.

Do your preschoolers colour things in, or am I expecting too much? To be honest I was mostly trying to spin out the activity she was doing, but she just wanted to scribble all over each picture and move to the next dot-to-dot.

[Anivad]

My youngest DD was like that at 3.5 yrs. Now at 4.5 years she is quite good at colouring. I dont believe her to be artistically talented though. My eldest DD however was quite proficient at colouring at 2 yrs old and now at 9 yrs is excellent at drawing etc- very arty. So it depends on the child and whether they are naturally an arty person I guess.

This post has been edited by Anivad: 09/11/2012, 06:28 PM

[countrymel]

Give her blank paper and let her find her own way. That 'random scribble' is her stuff... let her express!

[CupOfCoffee]

My 3.5year old has moments of being able to kind of colour in, but generally it is one (or two) colours all over (except on the ipad, she is ok on the ipad for some reason).

[charlottesmum04]

Under the new EYLF we are being encouraged to not even provide colouring in sheets as it constrains their creativity. So i wouldnt worry too much about it. Here's a link to an article to get you thinking...

emergent curriculum

[TiredbutHappy]

My 4.5 y.o has always been anal about getting the right colours. Not fabulous with staying in the lines though.

[whale-woman]

DD colours in from maybe 2.

What about getting her some of those paint with water books and teaching her to paint the different sections to get the color to come out. Hopefully with brush rinsing between sections/colors.

[tenar]

Give her blank paper and let her find her own way. That 'random scribble' is her stuff... let her express!

Well that's what she mostly does, of course, and she draws some great pictures, too, sometimes (well I think they are great any time I can vaguely recognize what it's supposed to be a picture of). Lots of plain old scribbling as well.

But in this case she was doing a book of dot-to-dots, which she loves, and I wanted to slow her down so as not to run through the whole book in one sitting - know what I mean?

I'm glad to know others preschoolers aren't into colouring.

[aratiaw]

I wouldn't worry about it. Freestyle drawing and exploring the materials is better for developing creativity and thinking skills.

[Lil Chickens]

DD is the same age and has only just started using more than one colour on any page. She shows no siign of going anywhere near the lines!

I've never worried about it for her but it kills me to look at as I can be quite anal about these things.