If you have a reception DC how much do you "direct" them?

[spikeytreebranch]

I went out with a friend recently with our reception DC and noticed that, when drawing for example, I leave my DS to it. My friend on the other hand told hers what to draw, suggested how to improve certain things and generally had quite a bit of input.

DS's drawing isn't as good as friend's DC, and now I'm wondering if I should try a bit harder to direct DS. I'm aware that how well he can draw at 5 will have pretty much no impact on anything, but I'm wondering if my 'leave him to it' attitude overall means he won't come on in other areas.

It's not like I pay him no attention and don't try to help him learn, we've been concentrating on writing letters at home recently, mostly because he wants to.

I only direct them if they ask for help or are obviously stuck

Pretty much leave them to it.

Occasionally a joint enterprise is a good thing but directed drawing doesn't sound much fun.

Nah let them be creative. I’m sure there’s plenty of draw a picture of something specific at school.

I wonder this too - I leave mine to it but her drawings are still fairly basic and wonder if I should be sort of teaching her how to draw stuff 'properly'.

I remember my then-4yo asking me if she wasn't very good at something, when I was directing her on how best to do it. It made me realise that I was sending a really undermining message to my dc, who was trying her hardest at a task, and needed encouragement not pointing out where she was going wrong.

I think kids who are motivated to be good at drawing will ask for that help though, they will want extra resources because it's something they are motivated towards. Not everyone wants (or needs) to be brilliant at drawing. What's great about childhood is you get to do loads of things you're not good at and not be judged on them. You get to do it for fun and as part of your socialising and education. I would rather have the kind of kids who get stuck in and have fun at that age than the ones who are so busy being helicoptered they don't have time to have fun. Creative pursuits should have a level of self motivation, otherwise. There are some kids who just love to draw and have a natural talent as well, and they do do better with a little encouragement, but I'm thinking more along the lines of some books on drawing, good quality pencils/pens/pastels/chalks/paints and an endless supply of drawing paper than a hovering parent

People seem to micromanage everything nowadays, just let him get on with it.

No, the furthest I would go is to say I’m going to be folding clothes over here, let me know if you want any help. But she’s progressing week on week with very little input. There are two kids in her class who are pushed a lot in art, and they are much better, but the main thing is that she enjoys it.

Your way is better, it lets him develop in his own way. There are numerous educational benefits to it.

Is there a middle ground? Sorry to sound obvious but if you direct them a little bit then they are likely to pick things up a bit quicker and learn how to problem solve by example.

However they will learn either way so I don’t think the “leave them to it” route is wrong at all and it encourages independent thinking but I definitely try to do a bit of both.

All small kids are like sponges aren’t they, you only need to give them small nudges not micromanage them to the nth degree