Coloring Develops Concentration

Who doesn’t love to color? Even adults, who swear they have no artistic training or skill can’t pass up a few easy shapes and a new box of crayons or fresh juicy markers.

Kids especially love to color. But too often they are stuck with incredibly detailed coloring books containing teeny tiny spaces that not even the smallest most delicate hands can finesse. I’ve seen so many children start off with a shape, get frustrated, scribble through another and then end up soaking the entire page in purple marker. Tearing through a coloring book that ends up looking like it was attacked by a wild animal.

What if we could make this more fun for your child? What if we could take the joyful activity of coloring, but add an extra bit of education and development to it? Shhhh…. They won’t know. Coloring is a great activity to develop attention to detail, focus and more time on task. But they need to know how.

Today’s Download: Two coloring sheets – astronaut and monster

The first secret to this are subject matter and execution. I created these drawings with large shapes that are much easier to color. This sets your child up for success and is especially important when learning to focus more on technique.

The next secret is supplies –

Beginners should start with crayons. If you have an older child, color pencils are also acceptable (Crayola is my favorite. No, I was not paid to say that).

Our last secret is technique – (This is not just something kids know).

Slow and steady. Gripping the crayon near the point, pick a shape and outline it with the crayon – carefully following the shape of the line on the page until a “fence” has been created. Then time to fill it in…. pick a direction. Could be up and down, could be side to side, could be on a diagonal- slowly fill the shape with color, until no white spots are left.

Repeat.

Make it a family affair! In order to keep a light casual eye on your child while he/she works through this new process, jump in too! Choose one of the drawings for yourself – and enjoy some coloring time. You know you want to.

Have fun

Keep it Light

More tomorrow….