Are you concerned about your child’s growth? Do you find your children frittering away their time on online games and videos? If yes, have you thought about encouraging your child towards visual expression? Drawing and painting is not only fun, but a very healthy escapism
Drawing is creativity for some, while it is just scribbling for others. It depends on how old your child is and how much support you give their talent.
You may have heard these words from your kid: “I don’t have time for this!” “Where will I get the sketchbook and colors?”, “I just don’t like it!”. Well, you may be hurt by what I am about to say, but deep down inside, you know that these are all just excuses!
Art is not in anyone’s blood. It doesn’t just happen to people! You work hard at it, and the earlier you start, the better you get. As early as 12 to 18 months, children can start scribbling, laying the foundation of drawing.
Drawing can give your child amazing benefits that you may never have thought of. But if you are willing to give me a few minutes, let me show you more.
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Why Is Drawing Important In Childhood?
This question occurs to every parent at least once: Is learning letters and numbers important for your child? Your answer is yes, but why?
Society has made you believe that education is all about alphabets, words, and sentences. The better you are at these, the smarter you are perceived.
But this is only half true.
Give a pencil to your toddler, one to whom you haven’t taught anything yet. See what he does with it? He will try to doodle something on the wall, on the table, on your cloth, doors, or anywhere he could reach his little hands. This means all humans are born with the ability to draw.
Achieving good grades can make you a scholar but not ignoring the arts will leave you incomplete. And no art is easier than drawing! All you need is a paper and some colors.
Drawing is the best way to express thoughts. I can help improve their non-verbal communication. There are many proven scientific benefits behind it.
A child draws what he feels; it gives you a window into his mind. It helps you to understand them better.
Ignore Initial Mistakes
At an early age, your child may not be able to draw perfectly straight lines, rounded circles, and pointy triangles. Celebrate whatever they make! They are not mistakes; they are the first steps in learning.
Do you remember anything that you did for the first time, which went perfectly? No.
Then how can you expect your little one to be perfect in something that they have never done?
The only thing you should do is to let them try more and more every day. Celebrate their small success and motivate them to be more creative. There is no good or bad drawing. There is only growing and learning.
Benefits Of Early Drawing Sessions
Let’s look at some very important benefits of drawing at an early age.
Fine Motor skills
When you reply to your friend with a text, driving a car, or writing a paper, your hand is obeying the orders of your brain.
From small to big tasks, whatever you do, all result from your brain telling your hands and feet how to function! This process is called ‘fine motor skills.’ Irrespective of your age, you always depend on fine motor skills to do any work.
That’s why it’s important to develop drawing skills at a very young age. The better your hands cooperate with your brain, the better you get at dealing with daily tasks. And drawing helps to hone this connection and make it more perfect every time your child picks up a pencil.
Drawing lets your child see the results that their hands produced based on their brain’s orders. To get the right shape that they have in mind, they practice making their hands move in the right way.
Concentration
You need concentration for performing any task well. Whether it is cooking, writing, or even interacting with someone, concentration plays an important role.
Children enjoy drawing. Drawing helps give an instant reward or result to their activity, which is what eggs them on to focus on it with their full concentration.
Confidence
Who could know that a simple drawing can build their confidence? But it does.
But it also depends on how you support your child. When your child shows his piece of drawing and asks, “how does it look?” Your answer matters! With a little bit of support, you can get them to try harder and create better art!
Through drawing, a child can represent their imagination and experiences, which makes them gain confidence. A small boost from your side helps them be confident, and they never get tired of trying.
Problem-Solving Capacity
You may say: drawing is not math or logic! Then how can it enhance problem-solving capacity? The two do not seem to be connected, but they are.
Suppose your kid is creating a family portrait, they come across different color methods and choices to make it look more real. This, in turn, develops their problem-solving skills over time.
When your child tries to display their bedroom’s image, or some corner of your room or a soft toy, they improve their spatial reasoning, depth perception, and logical reasoning.
School ready
If your toddler is too young to go to school, you can still give them a drawing task. This makes them get ready for school.
Drawing is nothing different than logical thinking or abstract thinking. Drawing helps them to understand difficult concepts and prepares them for future education.
This era is digitally smart. So don’t forget to include digital media tools along with crayons and chalk. There is no doubt that learning drawing skills will make your kid smarter.
Tips To Motivate Kids For Drawing
As a parent, only you can understand your child. If they are not interested in art, you should not try to force it on them. However, you should not give up without trying either.
Here are a few tips to encourage them to start drawing:
- Give the necessary tools like paper and pencil.
- Avoid telling them what they should draw. Let them use their imagination.
- Always comment positively on everything they draw. Be it a line, shape, or colors. No matter if it is an imperfect drawing, always utter be positive in your feedback.
- Take their artwork in your hands and display it somewhere where she could see it. Both you and your child should be able to appreciate it.
- Comparing your child’s artwork with others is the worst thing that you can do. It will degrade their confidence. Your child will not like to pick up a pencil next time.
Check out the types of pencils available in our drawing sets
Conclusion
You don’t need to send your child to a drawing school to make them creative. Teaching them the basics of drawing is very easy, and you can do it on your own.
As a caregiver, you can learn to recognize your child’s weaknesses and strengths. With so many benefits to drawing, I am sure you, too, are excited to get your child to draw!
Do leave us your feedback, and tell us what tools you use to get your loved ones to draw!