How well can a five year old draw?

[LanisHouseLot]

My youngest has stood out from my others from a young age in terms of drawing, and now at just turned 5 I keep finding myself bowled over at how good their pictures are. Some other skills, possibly more important ones, are definitely lagging behind but the drawing skills seem to be racing ahead in spite of still clutching the pencil in a fist to draw with! I think covid plays a part, as there have been so many days sitting at home with not much to do, so out comes the paper and pencils.

It dawned on me that I don't really know how well most 5 year olds draw, and can only compare to my previous children at that age. Do I have rose-tinted mum-goggles on and they're actually pretty average? This picture was just handed to me - it appears to be a whale, a shark and a dolphin playing in a band, with 2 children (possibly dancing?).

If you know lots of 5 year olds, would this rank as pretty good or somewhere more in the middle? It doesn't matter to me either way, I'm just curious!

My seven year old can’t draw anywhere near as good as that. I’d say a five year old who drew that is very talented.

Great drawing and great imagination 🌟

I’m a reception teacher so spend all my time with 4 & 5 year olds, I’d usually have a couple in a class of 30 that could draw like this but probably not with this level of imagination!

Definitely above average for a 5 year old! And probably on a par with my drawing ability (I'm 38 🤦🏼‍♀️)

I'm a reception teacher and would say about 70% of the children still draw stick men/women. 25% have started to draw flowers, arms, legs, fingers etc. Then there would be 5% who have an eye for drawing like yours. In my recent class there was 1 child who could draw vehicles brilliantly and was similarl to your DS. He's talented.

I doubt I’d do much better so I’m pretty impressed It’s a really creative picture too!

The attempt to capture the light reflecting off the disco ball is pretty impressive. Also looks like he/she is imitating a cartoony style which in itself shows maturity.
Full disclosure I know fairly little about art or child development but I work with children aged 6-14ish in the holidays and this beats the pants off most of the stuff I get handed.
"Lovely camel Lucy, good job!"
"It's a horse" sad face 😂

No idea about the average 5 year old, but your DC draws a lot better than me! 😆

Like some other posters I work with young children. I would say there's usually only 1 or 2 out of a class of 30 who could draw this well, and often none at all. Especially as they've only just turned 5. Normally the children's artwork looks more like this.

My almost 5 year old spent 20 min drawing me. He was so proud we had to hang it on the kitchen wall! This is one of his better ones.

I would say your son is very gifted.

Thanks for the responses! I'm pleased for them to have something they are particularly good at then, especially as its looking like they will be less academic that older siblings. It's nice for everyone to have their 'thing'!

Ask Kim Kardashian

My five-year-old was immensely proud of herself (as was I!) for drawing a 'perfect heart' (heart-shaped, not anatomically-correct ) the other day. She's not that keen on drawing, but when she does it's kind of stick people (but they do now have bodies of a sort).

It's an amazing drawing for a five-year-old, it's really detailed and very imaginative. I'm not sure my DD would even know what a disco ball was!

Your child is very good at drawing! My kids are shit, DD is 8 and not far past stick men 😂 DS age 6 is about as good as your average 4 year old. They have other skills.... Your glasses are not rose tinted 😁

That is amazing! Can we see more please?

I think it's fab. Love the disco ball, the facial expressions and the fact that he's drawn the faces side-on and they're accurate - no two eyes on the same side of the face!! Really impressive.

Show us more!

These were drawn by DS1 when he was 6. I was incredibly impressed with them and even framed one :o

I do love them but yes, your child's drawings are better in a technical sense.

@user5827372728 I love your DS's drawing, it's super sweet! Definitely one for the fridge.

@TooManyAnimals94 it's awful when you get a picture wrong - I've honed a diplomatic "what a great picture, tell me all about it!" for the hard to decipher ones!

Here's a few more, as requested!

The picture with lots of little pictures is amazingly detailed for the child's age and taking into account their poor pencil grip.

Wow definitely got a talent!! These are amazing! My 4 (nearly 5) yo just does heads with arms and legs growing out of them! 😅

Oh these are lovely drawings, what an amazing talent they have!

@bertiebotts Those are fab! I really like the way he's done multiple staircases going up on the orange one (and all the facial expressions are brilliant )

Bloody hell op they are brilliant! My nearly 7 year old couldn’t manage them

They are amazing!