Homeschool World Forum

hi ther ladies
i just wanted to know... how is a 3.5 yo suppose to be coloring?
my son colors well...wth oil crayons.. but he simply cannot color wth pencils!!!he jus scribbles..

how do i teach him how to color? like how to hold the pencil... and to go only one direction not all over!

Well, my 2.5 year old can hold a pencil and crayon correctly. But he sees his older brother and sister doing it. So, I guess he learned from them.

Is he 'suppose to' be able to - I don't really know. I won't be sending him to Pre-K so I don't have to worry about him "keeping up" with everybody else.

I'd say, the best way to teach him how to do something is to do it yourself while he watches. You know, Monkey see Monkey do!

I'm sure he'll catch on. Have fun!!!

It took my daughter a long time before she could color decently, and if she's not in the mood, she still doesn't do that great. She's 4 1/2 now. Sometimes she colors everything all one color. She doesn't stay inside the lines yet. But when she wants to, she can color more precisely, use a variety of colors, and think about what color she wants to color different parts of the picture.

A year ago she rarely did more than a faint scribble. At church she'd get hardly any of her picture done by the time the other kids had finished their pictures.

I wouldn't really worry about it. It'll come with time. If he colors lightly, you might take his hand (with the crayon in his hand) and show him that he can press down harder to make a darker line. Don't press on the crayon when you do this, press on his hand so he can feel the pressure, then see the difference of the crayon mark on the paper. If he holds the crayon too limply when you try to do this, encourage him to hold it tighter so you can draw together.

Encourage him to scribble in circles, up and down, and back & forth (across). You can take a crayon and draw a circle, vertical line, horizontal line, etc... and ask him to copy it ("Can you do that? Make a circle!")

When you say he colors with oil crayons, are you referring to an artist's crayon, or a regular Crayola-type kids' crayon? And I wouldn't worry about him using pencils right now, I think they take a little more pressure to make a mark than a crayon.

My 7 year old still doesn't color well with colored pencils. I would not worry about it at all!

Carletta