faizis

coloring & drawing with arshad

remember, the last time i did some art-work with arshad? we did some painting back then last year..and i talked about colouring within the lines…

i’ve since realised however the benefit/usefulness to have the kid to colour within the lines. it helps the kids practice their fine motor skills.

anyway, we’ve done a bit more of coloring since then but more often using pencil colour and crayons. at this stage for a preschooler, a lot of kids are still trying to get accustomed to holding a pencil or crayon. so, as we colour together, we try to guide him to hold his crayons the right way so that it won’t tire his hands, and to have better control.

i wasn’t really very good in art and crafts myself when i was a kid..what more colouring. i remember my impatience at doing colouring and art.. it was one of my worst subjects. i see somehow that impatience in my kid initially when he first started doing coloring. or perhaps, it was just him at a young age..cannot sit still and easily distracted. it is much better now.

i also see now the usefulness of this coloring exercise. he has fun with colors and expressing himself. it also helps him to be more focused and detailed in my opinion. because when he first started out, he won’t want to finish the colouring and would only colour one patch of a picture. it provides one of those moments where we can teach him, ‘young boy, you have to finish what you started.’, and “don’t miss out that lil white corner”. these days, he’ll try to colour and cover as many white patches as he can of a picture.

of course it wasn’t easy as just saying that. i had to constantly look and point out “oh wait, there is a white patch.. cover that white patch” or “oh dear, you havent colour this fish..if you don’t colour it, it will be sad because the other friend fishes have colour.”

his coloring is still very comot and haphazard. my guess is, he still hasnt figured a comfortable way of holding his pencils. his fine motor skills is still developing, so we’ll have him to exercise them more.

we also have done some drawing. i give him blank drawing block paper and let him draw.

he’s been doing a lot of free form drawing. basically conteng conteng in circles most times.

this is his idea of rainbow.

sometimes he expresses a desire to draw something more ’structured’….like himself;

the above is arshad. he drew it himself with some guidance. i helped him with the ‘crosses’ markings to guide him where he should draw the ears and nose. he was very amused at the end with the drawing of himself, especially since he thought his nose looks as big as a rocket..hehe

this one we did together.

as you can see, i am as creative as a square. the boat was drawn by me in this one. coloured by arshad. we had story-telling as we drew. there was a storm and it rained, so he drew the rain drops as well and the messy choppy sea.

other times he draws the pictures and shapes himself.

i would just give him encouraging words and don’t grade his work. somehow, i dont like marking or grading my son’s work apart from putting stickers on them.(maybe it’s a job hazard..hahaha) the star and ‘A’ were given by the other family members when the boy went around to show his work.

i am not very good with the drawing and artsy stuffs myself (not my strength)…so errr..the result of our drawing activities mostly have geometric shapes…because i tend to suggest to him to draw geometric shapes when he asks for guidance.

these days we’ll talk about the shapes and forms and although i dont draw for him, i guide him on the drawing of the shapes. i think his fine motor skills are improving but not totally strong yet for him to draw free-form shapes on his own. we love the drawing exercise and i think it helps to encourage greater creativity. i am not trained in the arts tho…so fellow mommies, care to share how we can do this together with our kids?

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we have another family member whom i think is better at art..

arshad’s yayee drew the man on a boat and that cartoon character for him..