Teaching drawing to kids is one of the first activities that we engage our kids in, in order to start building their fine motor skills. Whether you like it or not, by default, kids love to scribble. So, instead of them scribbling all over the walls, you might as well learn how to teach drawing to kids! There are many benefits of learning drawing at an early age; for starters, the child begins to explore their creative side, and at the same time they are developing their cognitive skills. Let’s look at how best you can teach your kids the basics of drawing.
Focus on the Grip
What age should a child be able to draw? We all know how to hold a pencil, but children usually wrap their entire fist around a pencil instead of just the pointer and thumb. You must slowly and steadily ensure that your kid is holding the pencil or crayon in the correct manner. At this point, when you’re teaching drawing to kids, you just have to focus on their grip and not on creativity. Let them freestyle scribble across the drawing book as long as they are holding the pencil properly. This will help with their hand-eye coordination and the flex of their fingers.
Curves and Lines
Once they know how to hold the pencil, you can move on to the first step of drawing. Everything you draw is ultimately a bunch of curves and lines. Buy activity books that have dotted lines and curves that the child has to go over with a crayon. Keep an eye on how focused and accurate they are during this activity. Many a time we wonder at what age should a child be able to draw. Of course, the first few times they are going to miss the lines and probably even draw outside the book, but that’s okay! Over time, they will get cleaner and faster with their strokes.
Imitation Drawing
After they have scribbled to their heart’s content, the next step while teaching drawing to kids is to move on to sketches that make sense. Smiley faces, trees, sun, house, fish, etc. are some of the easiest things that a child picks up while learning to draw. Now you can either give them activity books that show you a picture and you draw the exact same thing over it or at the side of it, or you could keep objects like an apple, chair, or toy boat in front of the child and make them draw what they see. What’s equally important for them to enjoy the experience and retain the skill, is the environment you create. Make it a fun activity for your kid; play some music, initiate drawing games for kids, draw with them, or get their siblings to draw with them. This will boost morale and make the activity enjoyable.
Memory Drawing
Finally, as the kid begins to enjoy putting pencil to paper, you can now ask them to draw whatever they feel like. If you’re wondering how can kids improve their drawing skills, here is where their creativity and storytelling will come into the picture. They will try and draw everything that is going on in their minds. It can be a memory of the visit to the park, zoo, something they saw on television, or the most common one – drawing their family members. They are sure to come to you with a funny, distorted drawing of a bunch of people, and they will tell you that it is everyone in the house, including the pet!
Promote Creative Techniques
