Coloring, how important is it?

[Aidensmom]

My son has about 50 coloring books, but he really has never had an interest in coloring. His kindergarten teacher is concerned over his coloring skills. (I have been working with him on keeping in the lines, but he still insists on using about 10 different colors to color in any one area).

I in no way mean anything derogatory towards teachers, I am just wondering how important this really is? He really does not like to color, we get the big arguments when that is one of his homework assignments. Why is this so important? And why is it a big deal if he likes to do his multi-colors?

 

[jonestavern]

DS liked coloring but really deplored staying in the lines
He also did not like to cut & paste in school, although he enjoyed it at home
"Cut & paste, cut & paste, that's all we do." Patrick at age 4

He is a well-adjusted 17 year old. Marvelously passed the language/comprehension portions SAT at age 13 (without any pre-coaching).
He gets excellent grades in advanced history/English courses & has taken college courses with golden results. His math skills stink, but in geometry this year--holding my breath here--has an 'A' average (as opposed to the 'D' he earned in Algebra!)

So it didn't kill him all that non-conforming coloring

Oh, one time his kindergarten teacher called me to the side to show me a black crayoned picture! If you turned it to the right angle you could see where he'd drawn, in pencil, a dog & a bat & a big round circle.
Mrs Berry inquired, "What is this Patrick?"
DS5 patiently explained, as if we were just ever so slightly 'off'," It's my dog Razzle (a black Lab), Batleigh (from Eureka's Castle, a bat), it's at night!"
He was very proud of the 'picture'.

I spent the next few weeks being really careful we acted super normal!

Jean

 

[cteddiesgirl]

DS liked coloring but really deplored staying in the lines
He also did not like to cut & paste in school, although he enjoyed it at home
"Cut & paste, cut & paste, that's all we do." Patrick at age 4

He is a well-adjusted 17 year old. Marvelously passed the language/comprehension portions SAT at age 13 (without any pre-coaching).
He gets excellent grades in advanced history/English courses & has taken college courses with golden results. His math skills stink, but in geometry this year--holding my breath here--has an 'A' average (as opposed to the 'D' he earned in Algebra!)

So it didn't kill him all that non-conforming coloring

Oh, one time his kindergarten teacher called me to the side to show me a black crayoned picture! If you turned it to the right angle you could see where he'd drawn, in pencil, a dog & a bat & a big round circle.
Mrs Berry inquired, "What is this Patrick?"
DS5 patiently explained, as if we were just ever so slightly 'off'," It's my dog Razzle (a black Lab), Batleigh (from Eureka's Castle, a bat), it's at night!"
He was very proud of the 'picture'.

I spent the next few weeks being really careful we acted super normal!

Jean

He sounds like I was with math (and still am). I barely passed Algebra with lots of help (and I think some pity on my teacher's part). But ended up averaging a B in Geometry the very next year.

I also didn't always conform to the standards of coloring in my very early years.
I say, So What? Staying within the lines is boring.

Maybe he will become the next Rembrandt?

 

[MUFFYCAT]

It better be important, i still color!

 

[Pugdog007]

It it very, very important. I would worry. Maybe you could enroll him in Art School.

 

[autumnbaby9]

My son has about 50 coloring books, but he really has never had an interest in coloring. His kindergarten teacher is concerned over his coloring skills. (I have been working with him on keeping in the lines, but he still insists on using about 10 different colors to color in any one area).

I in no way mean anything derogatory towards teachers, I am just wondering how important this really is? He really does not like to color, we get the big arguments when that is one of his homework assignments. Why is this so important? And why is it a big deal if he likes to do his multi-colors?

Coloring is important for a child's development. However I don't believe the type of coloring makes much of a difference (staying in the lines, multi colors, all black). If he's happy with his rainbows let him continue. Teachers don't always know everything (no offense to teachers, I have many teachers in my family including my mother).

 

[dzorn]

The only value other than artistic is getting them to hold the crayons properly and to have better fine motor control. The practice should make it easier to control the hand movements for writing. Don't know why she would care if its a rainbow, unless directions state to use a specific color (testing color knowledge) and the ability to follow directions. I'd rather have him use his imagination if you know he knows his colors.

Denise in MI

Either way I would not be too concerned.

 

[Imzadi]

It would be best to ask DS's teacher what specific skills and goals is his aim in coloring. You will most likely find his goals are quite different from DS.

The teacher's goal may be trying to develop hand & eye coordination, so coloring in one direction is important to him. he may be trying to figure out if your some has the attention span to complete a whole task, so filling inside the lines with one solid color to complete one whole shape is passing to him.

Whereas, DS, who sounds like he is very imaginative & highly visually oriented is already using color combinations & patterns. The fun & goal for him may be to combine as many pleasing colors & textures as possible. His goal may not to be so boring as to use one color within one outlined shape. He may actually love collage & decoupage instead of coloring books.

Heck some of our most brilliant artists loved color combining: Seurat who developed Pointillism (utilizing hundreds of multicolored dots of color to create paintings); Monet with French Impressionism, Matisse with his wonderful cutouts & use of patterns. Picasso with his use of textures. Some fashion designers styles are based on muliple colors & patterns. There are artists who draw in charcoal, but use different texturing to create shading & patterns to make the variations of gray & black stand out.

Andy Warhol who did a painting of Marilyn Monroe by dividing the painting into four quadrants, put the same picture of her in each quadrant & then painted each Monroe with different colors. That became one of his signature styles.

Your goal is to find out what the teacher's goal is, so you can redirect DS for those particular school assignments to "fill in that shape with one solid color."

At home, encourage him to color as he pleases. Encourage his use of colors. Get some colorful magazines, glue & poster board so he learn to collage. Get him some washable paints & teach him to combine his own colors: red & a little blue make lavender. Red with a lot of blue makes deep violet, etc.

One of my careers is as a professional ceramic artist. I love deeply textured, multicolored glazed pottery. I love being able to turn a handmade bowl over & see the different variations in hues, tones & textures from one side of the pot & turn it over to see something different. No single colored pots for me! People who want that can go to Pottery Barn and buy a machine made, mass produced bowl.

 

[momof2inPA]

My boys were never neat colorers. They thought the goal was to get the page done and to move on to something fun, like jumping off of furniture. They both do very well in Math and Language Arts. I wouldn't worry about it.

-- The Gossip Queen

 

[shortbun]

You can accomplish fine motor skills development with other things but if you ignore them his handwriting will suffer miserably. Try modeling clay and other things that are more creative than coloring like actually drawing then coloring. Could be your son finds just coloring pretty boring. Mine did.

 

[momof2inPA]

I was thinking that, too, shortbun. You can use chalk on a sidewalk or chalkboard or little legos, too.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Let me tell you a story. When one of my ds's was in kindergarten all I ever heard from the teacher was that he didn't color well, didn't hold his pencil correctly yada yada yada. Fast forward 17 years - he's in his first year of law school with basically a full scholarship.

Some kindergarten teachers are great and some just never learned to break out of the "color in the lines only" mold. Don't worry.

 

[JunieJay]

Aidensmom, your son's teacher obviously does not have a background in art if she is worried about a rainbow of colors and staying in the lines. When I taught art I always encouraged my kids to express themselves any way they liked. Its important for them to just do it -- it helps them develop fine motor skills and use their imagination. Its sometimes very difficult for boys, who probably have a harder time sitting still to color than girls. My oldest son was never really into coloring, but he did like to draw and trace. Maybe your son would prefer a pencil over a crayon? Or cutting with scissors? As long as he is practicing his fine motor skills and hand eye corrdination, I would not worry about him staying in the lines. I do think art is an important part of a child's development, but I don't think it has to be limited to one area like coloring. As long as he is doing something and is trying.

 

[golfgal]

In the grand scheme of life, coloring isn't all that important, but I think what she MAY be concerned with is the developmental stages expressed with HOW they color. Young kids, usually preschoolers use the "rainbow" technique to color, coloring things in many colors, as they mature they will color things more appropriately, one color for skin, one color for a shirt, one color for pants. Then through the next stage they will use more symbolic colors, peach for skin, blue for eyes, red for a mouth, etc. It is more of a cognitive thing.

DS14's kindergarten teacher did an assessment through out the year, the first one done the first week of school where they drew a tree, drew a person, wrote the alphabet, wrote all the number they could and something else I can't remember. They did those about every 2 months or so. It was amazing to see their progress throughout the year.

 

[NMAmy]

My father was an art major who became an architect--he loved all mediums--drawing in charcoals and pastels, oil and acrylic painting, sculpture and made sure that we had the very best art materials when we were kids. He really hated coloring books saying that forcing kids to color inside the lines stifled creativity. Of course, he had three girls who were just dying for coloring books and crayons so my mom would buy them for us.

Work on his fine motor skills in other ways and your son will be fine.

 

[AKLRULZ]

It's a soft skill, not a hard one. Don't worry about it and tell the teacher to back off.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

I think multi-color isn't a bad thing. lol. I mean, maybe he doesn't think things should just be one color, and why should he stay in the lines; if he thinks it may look better, and more creative, ""unusual looking" :

 

[kristen821]

My son hated coloring at that age too! I was always able to tell which art project was his hanging on the wall without even looking at the name! My son still doesn't like to color, but when he does he draws baseball fields and football fields and that is about it. Sometimes he may throw in a few army guys. I wouldn't worry about it since there really isn't anything you can do just tell him to do his work to the best of his ability.

The teacher really shouldn't put stress on how many colors he is using or anything like that at that age.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I never tought my daughter to color in between the lines and eventually she learned it on her own. She does love to color and draw and create though.

I have heard that it stifles a childs creativity when they are forced to stay within the lines. No idea of the source though.

The progress from scribbling to coloring an object with scribbling, to covering the correct item with color, to reasonably coloring the correct item, to coloring it the correct color....etc just fascinates me.

So if it were a picture of the house--the progress would be...
1. Random scribbles all over the page
2. Random scribbles on the house
3. up and down or side to side or diagonal or whatever--coloring the entire house one color...but going about a half inc to an inch or more out of the lines.
4. Coloring different parts of the house different colors--but the same as #3

And so on and so forth.

I had a friend who was some type of therapist--and there is age correlation with how a child draws a picture...from random scribble...to that of a person...and as they get older (age 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on)--the picture will increase in detail, shift to size appropriateness (hand not bigger than the head), and shifting to even finer detail points (pupil in the eye).

She showed us her chart of the age progression of drawing and it was so fascinating.

As long as he is on time developmentally--then how he colors (or doesn't color) is fine. If he was still random scribbling at age 5 like a 2yo and not trying to color the object--that could be a developmental issue. I still have trouble staying in the lines and I am wayyyyy older than 5.

 

[Buckalew11]

I remember my SIL telling me that studies showed that children should color first with those "fat" crayons before using the "skinny" kind. I have no idea is it is that imprtant or not??? I think the fat crayons were good for tiny hand, before those fine motor skills were had.

I think you can tell quite a bit about a child's personality from watching them color. Yet, I am not sure there is a right or wrong way to color.
DD stayed in the lines, if she went out of the lines it upset her. *UGH!* If it was a tree then the correct colors had to be used. And that, at 12, is still her personality.

I, on the other hand, was not like that when I colored. The tree might have a brown trunk and it may have a blue trunk. Depends which forest I thought it lived in! I remember I had trouble with solidly coloring it in and I remember my older cousin teaching me to fill in any white space I left. I think I thought," OK, see that blue there? Ok, move along to the next project because you get the gist of what I am 'saying' through this picture."

I just agree with the others...everyone colors differently and what he is doing is expressing what he likes and wants that pic to look like. He sounds like he'll do things his way, huh?