writing/coloring and boys

[ktsmile]

looking for suggestions for my 4.5 year old DS. He is not interested in the least bit in coloring/drawing using markers/crayons or anything. he loses interest in side walk chalk. even finger painting he gets bored with easily.

honestly, I gave up having markers and/or crayons in sight because all they do is get thrown or swiped off the table hever any interest in them...and I found myself getting frustrated with the fact that he can't/won't write yet..and my instinct is to force him to do it....which I know is not the right thing to do.......like all I want him to do is to sign his name on a greeting card for example...and ends up being a fight


He goes to PreK and lots of kids his age can already write their names, etc....and the teachers have to help my son through the process.

I guess it's cuz he is an active boy....not interested...whatever.

I just want to know---is this normal?

when did your boys start to take an interest in writing/coloring and what did you do to help them? my DS won't start kindergarten for another year.

[raspberry]

my son is younger, he turns 4 next week, and he doesn't have much interest in coloring. He will for a few minutes here and there, but it's definitely not something he seeks out. He won't be starting school until next fall, VPK, so we'll see how he does.

[MomOfAnOnly]

Ok so you asked about boys and not girls, and my DD is only 3.5, but I will tell you what I do with her.

She's not very interested in drawing, and she's certainly not into coloring. But I have colored pencils and paper out on the counter for her to use whenever she wants, and she has an easel with a chalkboard & colored chalk on one side and a dry erase board w/markers on the other. I have the easel placed right inside the playroom door so she walks by it every time she goes in or out of the room. She will randomly draw when the mood strikes.

One thing I've done lately that is really working for her is I printed out a lot of different tracing pages- alphabet, numbers, shapes, beginner mazes and dot-to-dots, and I put the sheets in page protectors and then into a 3 ring binder. I bought small dry erase markers that have erasers on the end and put those in a pencil case in the front of the binder. She can go through and do all of the mazes, dot-to-dots, trace the letters, etc., and then erase and do them again. I don't have to push her to do any of it. She really enjoys it and almost every time I offer it, she will take and do every page in the book. I always bring it with us for her to do in the car if she gets bored, or to do while we sit in a waiting room. Every couple days I print out a few new pages to add to the front of the book.

If you think he might be interested in something like that I can post some of the links for the pages I printed out and take a few pictures of the actual book so you can make one for him.

[AbbeysMom]

For creativity activities that strengthen fine motor skills, I would just try different supplies, like playdough, pony beads with pipe cleaners, shaving cream mixed with food coloring, water with house painting brushes outside on concrete so that the drawings 'disappear'. He might like the sensory experience of those things more. You can use other materials besides pens/pencils/markers/crayons to make letters, so there might be an opportunity to 'write' with those activities as well.

As far as writing letters, I would try reading to him as much as possible, pointing out words and letters as you go. Not just books but signs in stores or on labels/packages, etc. Have days where you decide you will try to find the letter "A", and then look for it wherever you are. It might peak his interest in letter recognition and get him to want to try writing the letter/words as well.

[preciousnd98]

We also used textile flashcards to help kids get the feel of writing letters and identifying them without actually writing them. They make these: http://www.keyeducationpublishing.com/846011.htm
in capital and lowercase and numbers.

We also used an old school Lite Brite to help with fine motor skills if that is a concern at all. Peg boards work too.

[janben]

Hmmm, if you had asked a week ago, I would have said my 3.5 yr old could not write his name. Then I found it written in letters a foot high on my bedroom wall! Couldn't decide whether to be proud or upset lol.
My DD will be five this week and it's only recently that things like colouring have become interesting to her. I say just give him more time. I can see DD making big leaps in ability again now.

[3andMe]

My DS likes sidewalk chalks if he mixes them with water into a paste, but not really for drawing.

He only really likes to draw if he has an instructional drawing book, with step-by-step instructions for how to draw a rocket or an animal or something else, or if he has a stained-glass coloring book. He doesn't often just hang out and color. He does have very specific interests, though, like dinosaurs and robots and rockets and trains, and I try to build on those and get him to help me draw them or color them or write stories about them.

For example, I brought home a bunch of vial caps from work and cut up some aluminum foil and had him put together a robot and write a story about it.



Like this. By that time, he's either tired of the project or invested enough in it that he'll do more work with it. At school recently, they had an assignment where they had to draw a picture of one of their favorite animals and write a story about it, too. I don't have him write or draw all the time, but maybe once or week I'll give him "homework," either my project or from the preschool, and let him know that it needs to get done and try to make it fun for him.

I have found that he becomes most creative when he makes his own stories, and then uses drawing books to help him illustrate them. He doesn't do very well with standard coloring books. He has been telling me a lot of things are boring lately.

He can write his own name and other words, though, although I can't speak to what is normal at this age. I do not think writing is expected before kindergarten.