To remove ALL the black crayons....

[Washersaurus]

from DS' crayon tin, as he is currently going through an artistic 'black' phase?

pmsl bundle

Seriously, Steiner and Montessori don't allow black crayons?

Anyone know why?

i know that steiner doesnt allow black crayons, i cant remember the reasoning behind it, i thought it was something to do with the soul? i will have to go and google now.

but then at steiner schools and toddler groups they cut all the corners of the paper to make them curved edges instead of blunt straight ones cant remember the logic behind that either, but then steiner has some odd ideas, including saying that you should stop bfeeding by 6-7mths as its 'tribal' and shouldnt be encouraged etc...

I may not like black crayons, but I don't have anything against right-angles

lol @ curved corners and guarding the soul from black crayons.

It's a slippery slope, Washersaurus.

this is from another chatroom:

"No Black crayons? No wearing Black? (Black is an "undesirable" color) No photographs (except ones of Rudolf Steiner)? No mirrors? No reading taught until your kid loses their baby teeth? The teachers believe that gnomes are real life forms. They believe in curing cancer with mistletoe.

If all of the above makes sense to you, then you'll love Waldorf Schools.

(name not given) 8/13/07 "

SNORT

I am off to google. Can't resist.

I've never heard of a black phase!

dd3 has crayons of all colours and never chooses the black ones anyway so not a worry for me.

we also have paper of all shapes including corners!

Black is more my thing, or was, I have just emerged from my 'if I wear black noone will see me and I'll feel thinner' phase. It doesn't work

Maybe he is preparing for halloween, wont you be shocked if he wants to be a pumpkin

DD went through a stage of crayoning entirely in black. We'd read somewhere that it was meant to be a sign of depression in children. Decided it was bunkum. And so it turned out to be.

I heard a story about a little girl who drew a lovely picture of her family having a day out. Then she proceeded to draw black lines all down it. Teacher was worried, thought it must be expressing some deep trouble...so cautiously asked the child to tell her about the picture. "Well, we had a lovely day out but then it rained."

perhaps the black phase has something to do with the nights drawing in... colourful daytime picture then gets dark?

YABU cultivate the inner goth

Most of the time he only uses black! Well actually, sometimes he likes to use the brown crayons too.

black is dark brown is mud.
Perfect interpretation of winter.
Very clever boy you have there.

OK I have reconsidered, and am willing to allow him ONE black pencil crayon. Only a pencil crayon because if he uses it too much it will soon get blunt and need sharpening (which he can't yet do properly)

Be very careful about banning colours. My mother had a thing about pink and as a little girl I was never allowed to dress in pink or have pink stuff. Now I am a twenty eight year old woman who buys pink sparkly hair bobbles in Claire's Accessories. Beware!

DS (now 6) went through this at about 3. Was at school Xmas Bazaar and elected to make a black Xmas cracker and tree decoration. Nursery teacher said it was entirely normal. He also wanted his room painted black! And wanted black clothes.

Is now so out of this phase that he wouldn't wear the lovely black t-shirt I bought him for this summer to go with white linen trousers!

And he is now a normal well-adjusted 6 year old (well as normal as he can be with me for a mother!!).

My friend's dd (sho is 6) is defintely mini-goth, she loves black! However she is also seriously into pink as well! I remember going to a mutual friend's 30th birthday bash, friend's dd was 3 and she was wearing black leggings and a sparkly black top - her mum told me she picked it out herself. Now my friend has told me that she has bought some baby goth outfits for my impending arrival. I can't wait to put my baby in them when I take it to see the ils
BTW - YABU it's when they start drawing blood dripping daggers that you should be getting worried Black paint on the other hand is no-no, I remember getting black paint on my school shirt when I was 7... mum went bad coz it didn't come out in the wash....

bad - i mean mad!

Why don't you help him do a lovely fireworks picture like we used to do in infants. totally cover paper with patches of bright colours and then have him TOTALLY obliterate with black wax crayon . Then scrape off to reveal the colours underneath. (obviously, do over splat mat to catch the little scrapings).

This (a) lets him go wild with the black and
(b) does a great job of wearing down the black crayon. Of course, you never buy new wax crayons till all the colours in the old pack are gone

washersaurus's son in 60 years

thanks for that Thready Krueger.