How can I help my 5 yr old with his drawing.............

[moosh]

How can I help him. He brings home scribbles and tells me what they are. I always praise his drawing even though I don't know what they are. But when we sit down and get the felts out and I try to teach him simple ways of drawing he doesn't want to know. Am I expecting too much of him. How can I encourage him to draw?

Is he producing recognisable people moosh, ie with heads arm and legs? Just let him see you drawing, show him how you do it, or get him to copy simple line drawings out of colouring books? Sorry, probably not much help, but I wouldn't worry too much about it anyway. He'll surely improve as he gets older.

We found stencils (which you can secure with blutak) really useful especially in helping ds to see that the drawings he wanted to make could be broken down into basic shapes - such as triangle and rectangle for a rocket. This then has given him the confidence to try to draw things freehand although his people are still pretty basic.

Hi Moosh,

My ds started school in August. He is 5. When in nursery they said to me he needs more details in his drawing. I now see a big difference from then although I don't think he will ever be that good at it but it is so much better. When he gets his number sheets home as homework. eg. No. 7 . He has to draw e.g.7 cakes and 7 books. They have a little picture on the sheet so he copies them to the best of his ability. I think things like this has helped him greatly. I wouldn't worry about it, he will be fine.

I'm trying not to worry, sometimes his stuff is recognisable and sometimes there are squiggles and he tells me its a bear e.t.c. As a trained fashion illustrator and a good artist from a very young age, I try to use simple shapes to help him. I was trying to get him to draw a bird, I drew a circle for its body a triangle for its nose and long triangles for its wings and stick feet and a scribble of hair on the top. I drew a shape first and then got him to copy me and we did it a few times. But when I got him to do it on his own it was a scribble of grey felt pen. I do like you idea Lorne, he doesn't get homework but I may take on board you idea and adapt it slightly. As long as he can draw basic pictures like a flower, a bird and a boy and girl I would be a little happier. But please don't think I'm not happy with what he brings home, we always praise him even if we haven't a clue what the picture is supposed to be.