by Patti Winters

Created on: March 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 18, 2007

You need to encourage your children in everything they do not just one specific topic. My son hated anything to do with art. He didn't like to color or draw pictures. Now my daughter loves to draw. From the time she was little she could go through coloring books like they were water. It was her favorite thing to do. Here are a few things we did to encourage her drawing.

1.We made sure she always had a supply of coloring books with crayons, colored pencils and markers. We didn't give them to her at one time because she would color them in one sitting so she would come to us when she finished one and would get a new one.

2.We supplied her with plenty of paper to draw her own art. When she would take magazine and try and copy the pictures we started getting her books on how to draw. We started her with simple one, basic line drawing, so that she didn't get discouraged.

3.As she improved we got her harder books to learn how to draw more complicated items, she is currently into drawing fairies, dragons (really good at these) and animals of all sorts.

4.We displayed her art, and I don't just mean taping it to the wall or putting it on the refrigerator with a magnet, but these are good ideas. When she was visiting her grandparents, we painted her room and decorated it, but we also pulled out her portfolio (she put it together on her own) and took two pictures of horses she had drawn. We framed them with matting and hung them on her wall. With everything we changed in her room that was the first thing she noticed. We had displayed her art and it excited her.

The best thing you can do with your children is encourage them in what they enjoy doing. They don't have to be any good at it as long as they get pleasure out of doing it. It doesn't have to be something they can do for a career; just let them enjoy doing it. Children use drawing as a way to express their feelings and if we stifle those feelings the children could have issues later in life.

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