For two days we are offering you a series of tickets with five tips to get children to end up not wanting to sit at a table to draw.
As we said yesterday, they are very easy and simple to follow, so much that many people have already carried them out with their children, many others have not done so but remember that someone followed them with them and many are seeing that the method can work and they are considering it.
Today we offer you the last two tips and finally, leaving a little irony aside, I will explain what are the conclusions that can be drawn after three days of reading offering what would be the ideal procedure to not hinder the natural learning process and game that comes from drawing.
4. Teach him to draw
The height of the highs for creativity comes when we decide to intervene actively and, sitting with him, we take a pen (sometimes his pen) and tell him how he can do it: “Look, a sun is made like this… a house, like this, with the chimney and the smoke that comes out… a little path… aha, that's it, take it ”.
Then we deliver that drawing to the child, proud to be teaching our son to draw, when what we are doing is offering you a model to copy, a standard. A script that you can follow to draw as most children do and again we trace a path to follow that is not yours, but the one that we believe is the right one. Curiously, our drawing pretends to be a model made by a person who, speaking of you to you with an adult, usually says that "I draw fatal".
5. Evaluate what you have drawn
Following the more or less chronological order of events, after teaching him to draw we hope he will do it similar to how we have done it. Then, when the child has executed his drawing, more or less similar to what seems good to us, we give an opinion, a judgment, usually a "I love it", "it is very good" or similar, the child learning that when draw, when you draw, when you put something on paper you must teach it to others to be evaluated.
Time passes and when the child enters the school begins to fill out cards, color shapes, complete drawings, follow the dotted lines, paint the largest or smallest, if it can be without leaving the line, and all of it You will receive a rating: ok, or a happy face = :), or a regular face =: s, or even a sad face if the thing has not gone as the teacher expected = :(.
The child will always be forced to show what he does so that others tell him if he is right or wrong and will be forced to explain what he has drawn and what it represents.
In this way, in the fear of doing it wrong, he will ask during the process, perhaps as soon as he starts: “Dad, am I doing it right?”, To which the father will answer yes or maybe he could do better (in the worst of cases).
Over time he will sit before a paper and before making the first gesture with the wrist he will ask “what could I draw?”, To be right in the election according to the tastes of others and so until a day comes when he doesn't even feel at a paper because he doesn't enjoy drawing anymore or in fact he thinks he can do it right.
Conclusions
Throughout these three entries we have explained the most common mistakes that adults make that, with all our good intentions, annoy the children's desire to draw, basically, because we believe that children's drawings respond to a need for Do something nice (call it art) and that if they are not more sophisticated or complex it is because they are not able to do better and that with our help they will achieve it.
But nevertheless, the children do not conceive the drawings in the way that we believe. They do not try to make art. They do not try to please. For them it is a game, nothing more (which is not little). In that game they express what they want to express. Maybe your joys, your fears, your experiences, maybe nothing in particular. Perhaps a succession of strokes and colors without much meaning, which to the question "what is it?" Could not explain.
Whatever they are doing, they have to be able to do it in their own way, with their limitations and their capabilities that, little by little, will increase. Our function should be, only, to help them to be comfortable, well seated, to have enough papers and tools to choose the ones they consider most appropriate at all times and, if by chance you give them a gift, accept it gratefully: “Is it for me? Thank you very much, honey! ”, Without making judgments like“ I love it ”or asking questions about“ what is it ”.
We can even keep your drawings in a folder, sorted by date, showing you so what we are doing is important to us (I say this because many people have the feeling of being "passing" their son or not paying enough attention if he does not tell you how beautiful the drawing is or question him to know more) or we can even hang them two or three of the drawings on the wall (or a cork), which we can vary as our son gives us more drawings.
For those who want to delve a little deeper into this topic, which to me personally seems more than interesting, I recommend reading the document “Introduction to the semiology of expression”, which you can access by clicking here.
Photos | Travis isaacs, meg.dai In Babies and more | How to get children to lose interest in drawing in five steps (I) and (II), The importance of artistic expression, Keys to interpreting children's drawings, Educating creativity: imagination is one of the best toys that exist
