Children are naturally drawn towards activities that give them an instant response. Drawing can be one of those activities. It is an importance concept for their little brains to learn and helps them to understand cause and effect. It can help to develop eye hand coordination and fine motor skills in the process of having fun coloring. Experiencing the first time your little one draws can be such an adventure. The look on their eyes as they begin to move the crayon, marker or pen across the paper and watch it make marks is like magic! Don’t be afraid to try it out!
We grabbed some extra wide crayons from the Dollar Spot at Target but you could easily make crayons from your older child’s broken crayons too into shapes by melting them into molds to make it easier for them to hold. I pinned a few of those ideas here on our Pinterest Board. Crayola sells wide washable crayons that are great to tiny fingers and hold up well.
Based on my experiences, the time I would suggest trying it out is when your child become confident in eating finger foods. They’ve developed the skills necessary to try drawing out too. Now there are rules too… like keep out of your mouth and on a paper. It’s a process and the sooner you start the sooner they learn. Whenever we’re done we put everything away and out of reach so that we don’t have any masterpieces on the wall, if you know what I mean. This activity is great for toddlers and preschoolers too!
Whenever starting an art project with something new always give your child time to explore the actual object. I gave her time to hold the crayons and see what they were like before I demonstrated for her what they do. Give it a few attempts before you will actually see them understanding the concept.
Here’s how my 1 year old enjoyed her first experience and truthfully I should have started sooner. She LOVED it!
You can let them color and color to create all sorts of masterpieces. You can save these little treasures and make a masterpieces with them for your Wall or even mail to Grandparents. I loved this post from Squash Bottom Babies of creating a Picture from cut out pieces of all the First Scribbles picture from they get older they will start to express themselves and their surroundings using art. This post form Childhood 101 about How Children Use Art to Process Thoughts, Ideas and Emotions. really helps you to understand why art needs to be in every child’s lives from the very start.
We decided to make a few Heart Projects with our Scribbles for Valentine’s Day! You can check out Amanda’s Tot School Post with a photo of his first scribbles heart and also learn about early literacy development.
Additional Resources for Crayons:
35 Kids Activities with Crayons Hands On: As We Grow & many great sites!
I've started sitting with T (10/11 months old) and some chunky crayons and she's stopped eating them and started to hit the paper with them. It's lovely watching her make progress with them.
Wow – she looks like such a big girl sitting at the table!!! What fun!
I love it too Cerys! Thanks for inviting us to your Pinterest Board for Baby and Toddler Activities. Sometimes I find that using a Pen can give a little bit more contrast for them with ease too if you're working with that instant gratification. And yes Amanda she seemed like such a big girl sitting at the table for the first time at activity time.