Kindergarten readiness has legs! Actually, the legs were on a centipede. On a walk yesterday, a centipede crossed our path. Of course, we had to stop and look. It was easy to encourage little hands to draw a picture of the bug. While the color isn’t the same, nor are there as many legs, the picture is recognizable as a bug.
Drawing is the first way that children express themselves on paper. Pictures and drawing are another form of communication, similar to words and speaking. Drawing can be considered play because it is very much an internal activity. Children are interpreting and representing their view of the world. There are other learnings, too.
- Drawing encourages creativity and imagination, as well as careful observation.
Eye-hand coordination is one of the obvious brain connections as children learn to use tools such as paints, pencils, crayons, markers, etc.- In addition to physical skills, children are also building mental ones; they are visualizing or making pictures in their mind.
- Drawing also encourages growth of attention span and concentration as kids focus on what they are doing.
When it comes to drawing, I’m not far beyond the kindergarten readiness level. Some children will love to draw and some will be barely interested, but encouraging kids to draw helps with all kinds of brain connections. What can you and your child find to draw about today?