8 Tips on Teaching Children How to Draw

When your children are learning to draw the following eight tips might be useful to their learning process.

1. Copy objects instead of another drawing
When children copy another drawing it gives the false impression that the drawing they copied is the right way (or perhaps the only way) to draw something. Parents should not dictate a specific way of drawing so early. Let your children decide how do draw things. You should wait until their basic drawing skills are already developed. Only then you can let them learn by copying another drawing to enrich their own drawing style.

2. Observation is the basic
Take your children to observe the objects they would like to draw. For example, if they want to draw a cat then observe the cat together. Let them notice every detail of the cat. How soft the fur is, how many whiskers it has, what color is the body, leg, head, etc.

3. Imagination
Children are rich in imagination and when they are not in the mood to draw an object let them based their drawing purely on their imagination. You’ll be amazed just how colorful your children’s imaginations are.

4. Welcome mistakes
Expecting your children to draw things correctly on their first or hundredth try is beyond foolish. Children see things differently than adults. They percept and interpret information differently than adults. Thus their expressions can be totally different that what you would expect.

5. Resist the temptation to criticize their work
When your child put three legs on a duck please restrain yourself from saying that duck only has two legs. Instead, take your child to a farm for another session of observation and this time ask him about how many legs does a duck has.

6. Give help only when asked
When you watch your children draw you may feel the urge to straighten a line or suggest the right color for the sky or give some other help. This is bad for your child development because he will feel your not letting him do things the way he wanted. You should give help only if your child asks for it.

7. Keep their spirits high and your expectations low
For children, even drawing a simple object is huge task. If your children can’t draw as good as the other children in the block don’t discourage them by comparing their work to other kids. Everyone has their own pace. No matter how “bad” their drawings are you must keep cheering them and keep their spirits high.

8. Appreciate their work
Simple gestures like saying how good their drawings are can really encourage children to do even better next time. You can also provide a special showcase for their artworks or just stick them on the fridge using fridge magnet. The point is let them know that you appreciate their hard work.