Learning begins at home, and as a parent, you serve as your child’s first teacher. There are many things that your little one can learn from you, such as communicating with others and understanding their own emotions. They also gain basic life skills at home like reading, time management, and even folding laundry.
The simple activities you do with your child at home help supplement their learning. Apart from the usual bedtime storytelling, singing and sensory play, drawing with your child is another beneficial activity that you can do. We give you five reasons why.
Fine motor skills are important for your child to develop because they are necessary in completing every day activities and tasks.
1. Drawing helps develop a child’s fine motor skills
The moment your child learns how to hold a pencil, a whole world of opportunity opens up for you to help develop her fine motor skills and enhance her dexterity. These are important things for her to master early on, because these skills are essential in performing daily tasks.
When drawing with your child, be observant of her dominant hand. Check that the pencil is always gripped properly as well. With better hand control, you will start to see squiggly doodles turn into more solid lines and curves.
Eventually your child will learn to draw objects, people and places. Joining her in drawing encourages her to keep practicing. You could make a game out of it, challenging each other to sketch or copy different things.
Ask your little one to tell you the story behind their drawing and you may be pleasantly surprised at just how creative she is.
2. Daily drawing practice can hone your child’s innate artistry and creativity
Children are naturally creative. Through drawing with your child, you can help nurture this natural artistry and creativity.
With a pencil in hand, there is no limit to what your child can create. Talk to her as she draws to find out what she is creating. You might be surprised at how ordinary squares are castles and curves are fierce dragons to an imaginative and creative child.
Go to the next page to discover three more benefits of drawing with your child.
Teaching your kids through drawing can make learning easier and a lot more fun.
3. Art can be used as a teaching tool for visual learners
Some kids are visual learners. This means that they learn better through images. If you have a visual learner, drawing with your child can be a good way for you to teach her new things and ideas.
You can ask your child to draw her answers to your questions. Some things that you can ask about are her favorite toys, food, cartoon characters and places she has seen.
As she learns the letters of the alphabet, you can ask your child to label her drawings. This gives you the chance to teach her how to properly spell certain words and to also practice her penmanship. This way, learning goes beyond art and moves into other skills that she will need for school.
4. Children can learn to express themselves through art
Drawing with your child gives you the opportunity to teach self-expression through art. Show your little one that drawing can be used as a way to show her emotions, thoughts, likes and dislikes.
Through the use of symbols, colors and shadows in their drawings, the personalities of children come through. Making this a shared activity not only allows kids to express themselves, but also helps parents learn more about them.
5. Working on an illustration together can be a good bonding activity for the whole family
Drawing together can be a great non-gadget bonding activity for your family. Make it more fun by exploring different activity options when drawing with your child. One idea is to finish each other’s pictures, with each family member pitching in to complete the illustration.
You can also cut out a subject from a magazine and collaborate on creating an interesting setting and scenery for it. If you want to work with color, make random crayon scribbles on paper and have your little one draw over the scribbles to form an image.
Make drawing with your child a regular activity to boost his learning and development. It will also be a fun experience for you to see the different works of art that you create while making precious memories with each other.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Patricia de Castro-Cuyugan
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