Teaching Small Kids to draw

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  • April 26, 2015 at 8:26 am
    Kittykat
    Participant

    Hi everybody

    So my daughter is 4 and my son is 2, and we have started doing nature walks on Sundays all together so I can incorporate my husband into their learning experience (and not get exhausted!). I have been really diligent to take my camera and take pictures so I can print them out and the kids can draw them. THe challenge I have seemed to run into is how to have my 4yr old draw say a lizard without getting discouraged…. should i let her scribble whatever she feels like? or gently instruct her on how to start the different body parts? SOmetimes she loses interest after about 5 minutes. I don’t want to overthink it and stress myself out and make it not fun for her, but I do want her to engage in drawing. Also, because the young age of my kids, i find myself doing mostly outdoor and nature walks just to get out of the house- is there anything CM had against doing more than a few days a week of nature/outdoor observation? Thanks!

    April 26, 2015 at 9:00 am
    sarah2106
    Participant

    My youngest is 4. He explores nature, but does not draw. He collects things like rocks, nuts, leaves… but there is no rush to draw what is found.

    There are plenty of years to create a nature journal. My older 2 started to draw better around the age of 5.5 – 6 years old.

    So personally I would stop all the drawing and recording of nature and just enjoy exploring 🙂

    April 26, 2015 at 9:02 am
    sarah2106
    Participant

    And a 4 year old holding attention to try to draw for 5 min is pretty impressive. My youngest will color for 5 min, but for him to draw a picture (like a person) that lasts about 30 seconds, LOL.

    April 26, 2015 at 10:41 am
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    I would encourage her to observe and draw what she can or wants to, but not in her nature notebook yet, wait to age six to start that.  We are working on the habit of attention and observing an object long enough gives them an acquaintance with the object and drawing it helps them study it closer and grow in the habit of attention.

    We have used Draw Write Now, but not until about age six.

    April 26, 2015 at 3:56 pm
    Karen
    Participant

    Sometimes my little girls (my 5yo and 7yo) ask me to help them draw – so I always have.  I am NOT a good artist – but they think I’m better than they are! So, I usually will help them by getting the outline down or whatever part is tricky for them.  Then they go one and finish the drawing.  (Or color what I’ve drawn.)

    April 26, 2015 at 4:25 pm
    Kittykat
    Participant

    Thanks guys that is great advice; I’m a type a organized consistent type of person, so I can get a bit over zealous with that sort of thing and forget there is so much time to do something concrete like a journal. And if I understood correctly, building the habit of attention and observation and having fun are the aim up until around age 6. Thanks for your input, discovering this method of homeschooling/parenting has really impacted me and am excited to give my kid such a rich experience and enjoy my kids while I’m at it.

    April 26, 2015 at 8:43 pm
    MountainMamma
    Participant

    I agree with the others that it is good to wait. My DS6 started to love to draw around 5.5 years. He didn’t enjoy it at all before that. I started a family Nature Notebook this year. For about the first half of the year, I did all of the sketching. Then we would all come up with a narration together describing our nature outing and I would write it under the picture. As the year went on, my DS6 and DD3.5 eventually wanted to add to the journal. Little by little they got more into it. Now they love drawing little pictures for the journal (most of the time :)).

    Another thing that helped was giving my DS6 “Learn to Draw” books that show step by step how to draw different things. He is very technical, so having a plan showing how to form the strokes really gave him more confidence.

    April 26, 2015 at 10:11 pm
    Kittykat
    Participant

    @ mountain momma- that’s a great idea- doing the drawings myself- it kind of lines up with the ‘education is an atmosphere’ where the kids will pick up on what the adults do. And I have found drawing so relaxing, and the kids can learn that mom actually has interests outside of them too! Thanks for your input, im sure i will look into the how to draw book in a few years 🙂

    April 27, 2015 at 8:22 am
    retrofam
    Participant

    My dd 6, likes to use tracing paper and trace the steps in Draw Write Now.

    April 28, 2015 at 5:08 pm
    Mrs. A
    Participant

    I also did all the drawing in the beginning. My eldest (almost 9) will draw occasionally, but my second (age 7) will draw much more often now. I have really enjoyed keeping a nature notebook and I’ll continue to do so even if no one else ever wants to! 🙂

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