Have Fun and Stay Busy: Teach Your Kids to Draw

Teaching kids to draw is so much fun for everybody involved. It also gives you something productive to do when you’re feeling a little bored. Drawing will help your child to develop their creative skills, motor skills, and imagination. Drawing goes great along with subjects such as English, Maths, and Science. Teaching them this skill early on will ensure they’re at the top of the class when they start school! Remember, you should always allow your child free drawing time to create anything they like. You don’t want these lessons to be forced, or it won’t be fun for them. Here are some tips by age to help you teach your kids to draw:

Up to 2 and a Half Years

From when they can hold a crayon and understand you, get some paper and tell your child that you’re going to be drawing. Try to get them to tell you what the colours are as they use them. You can start off the drawing by drawing a line, and then ask them to continue where you finished. If they can draw circles or straight lines, make sure you praise them.

When they are finished, see if you can both find any shapes in the picture and colour them in. You can then hang the picture up so you can enjoy the work you did together. Bear in mind that some kids won’t be able to draw until around 16 months old.

Up to 3 Years

At this age, your child can probably draw a few shapes and maybe even some letters. If not, don’t worry. Wait until they are ready – there’s no rush! When they do draw, ask them questions about what they’ve created. Something that may looks like a simple dot to you, may actually be a self portrait to them!

Tip: at this age, watch your walls and furniture for scribbles. Kids usually love scribbling!

3-4 Years

At the age of 4, your child should be good at drawing basic shapes. Ask them to copy shapes you’ve drawn yourself to help them. They can then colour them in. You may also like to teach them to draw stick people – this interests a lot of kids!

Books and Tutorials

There are a lot of books and tutorials out there that will help your kids when it comes to drawing. These contain helpful hints, tips, and guides that can teach your child to draw just about anything they want. It helps if they have multiple materials to draw with, such as felt tips and stainless steel pens. You may also encourage them to draw on other platforms, such as a computer or an etch a sketch.

Other Crafts

Once your child is confident with drawing, you may want to encourage them to learn another skill. Kids of all ages love making things, whether that’s something out of paper mache or play dough.

Make sure you nurture your child’s creativity from a young age and encourage their originality. You’ll have a very intelligent child on your hands!