Is this cheating?

[Greythorne]

DD is just 6. For homework she has to illustrate a poem about the 12 months, things like a basket of strawberries for June, white blossom on a tree for May, a hot water bottle for November etc.

She is at the stage where she wants her pictures to be recognisably representative of the object she's trying to draw. She gets frustrated when her attempt to draw, say a bike, looks all out of proportion and odd.

So, for each month, we have read the stanza of the poem, she has told me what she wants to draw, I have sketched out the thing and she has copied my little drawing. Her pictures still look exactly like a 6 year old's drawings, but they are recognisable and she is pleased with the result.

I did not think anything of it until DH came in and saw what we were doing and said it was cheating.

I reason that I have shown her many times how to form letters correctly, she has copied words down from my example, she still asks me for help with letters like b and d and on numbers she is unsure of 11, 12, for example and I will write them down for her to copy.

I feel like I am helping her learn how to draw, not cheating.

Am I deluded?

Cheating would be drawing with pictures with your left hand and saying they are hers. I think children that age find it hard to visualise images in their heads and translate them to paper, you are just providing an image for her to copy. If it makes DH feel better, get Dd involved in your picture eg "where shall we put the strawberries?"

Ok, good, thanks. The thing is, drawing a haystack is quite tricky. So, by copying my version, she has learnt how to draw a cylinder and about perspective. And enjoyed it.

By the way, I myself am hopeless at drawing, so sometimes I actually google "how to draw a mouse" and copy that, so her version is often a copy of a copy!

i can't see the problem if you are drawing the things on another piece of paper to show her how to draw them and she is copying your pictures.If you are sketching on her paper and she is drawing over your sketches then it is not really all her work.
However I don't think there is anything wrong with children learning that we sometimes can't do things as well as we would like to be able to, as long as we do our best. Some people are good at art naturally, most of us with practice can improve but many people never end up being particularly good (also applies to sport etc).

No, I draw on my piece of paper, showing her how the lines of perspective work (or whatever) and then she copies as best she can. The end result is by no means brilliant but it does mean she finishes up with something recognisable to a passing stranger.

I read somewhere that children who are not naturally artistic benefit from being taught basic drawing techniques even at quite a young age as they lose interest when their dinosaur ends up looking like a rabbit (or whatever). And rather than stifling creativity, knowing the basics allows them to get enthused and get better. Dunno if there's any merit in that argument, though.

I have done this as ds1 isn't that good at drawing, and we have bought him books that show you how to draw vehicles and monsters, step by step.

Even though he is now almost 10, if he has to illustrate something, he does some on a scrap piece of paper to get the hang of it then draws it for real, again on scrap paper. He then cuts out the best one and sticks that into his book.

Some children have a natural talent for it, others don't. Ds2 is amazing at copying stuff, everything is to scale.

Of course it isn't cheating.
DD1 is doing GCSE art she trawls the web for paintings to adapt and copy.

Ok

Phew

Surely you are teaching her to draw (by giving her a simple model to copy). That's about as far from 'cheating' as you can get.

You wouldn't hear people talking nonsense about how maths or reading or anything else shouldn't be 'taught' because it should just 'come naturally'. That's so clearly silly. Expecting children to just learn to draw on their own is just as silly.

Did she actually have to draw the things? I would have given her my ever handy box of pictures I've saved for the decoupage screen I will never make, a pair of sharp scissors and a glue stick and left her to it.

But no, of course it's not cheating.

Yes, she has to draw a picture for each stanza / month. She also has to learn the poem off by heart, so I think the drawing is a tactic to get them really thinking about the words as an aide-mémoire.

Here's the poem:

C'est janvier le premier né, sa couronne sur la tête, il dévore une galette!
Février c'est le second, qui s'enrhume et qui grelotte, qui réclame une bouillotte.
Regardez le mois de mars, il desssine sur les branches des pétales de soie blanche.
Le suivant s'appelle avril et c'est le mois qui réveille les oiseaux et les abeilles.
Qunad le mois de mai s'en vient, il met tout le monde à l'aise devant un panier de fraises.
Pour fêter le mois de juin, il faut entrer dans la danse du soleil et des vacances.
En juillet s'en va dormir entre deux bottes de paille la chevelure en bataille.
Le mois d'août n'est qu'un voyou, il invente des orages pour taquiner les nuages.
Et septembre tout doré prend la route de l'école sous les feuilles qui s'envolent.
C'est octobre le suivant qui te fait une frimousse parsemée de tâches rousses.
Et novembre tout en gris se dépêche dans la brume d'attraper son premier rhume.
C'est décembre le dernier qui réclame à tous ses frères des cadeaux d'anniversaire.

Wow- that's quite hard French for 6. Unless you're French, obviously!

Sorry, we are in France!!

It's a french school.

Whoops.

What a relief!