colouring in, reception children.

[UniS]

Do reception kids get expected to do "colouring in" ? I ask as I have a child entering reception later in the year who currently ( and for some time) refuses to "colour in" IF pushed to do so by an adult he will do a cursory scribble . Other wise he will sit and look at teh page and chat to friends and maybe write his name on it ( or a shopping list), but will not "colour in" any thing.

Is this going to make life difficult next year, so I need to work on it or can Year R teachers cope with refusniks.

Well there are certainly opportunities to colour in in FS2.

And there are times when it is encouraged (eg at our school the children do soundsheets to reinforce phonic learning and these include a picture which they usually colour in). But if yr DS refuses then I wouldn't see it as a major problem.

The main purposes are fine motor skills/pencil control and concentrating on an activity as well as art and colour sense of course.

If DS can write a shopping list he's doing OK on fine motor really!

I would mention it to the teacher and he/she may see if they can encourage. Maybe seeing peers doing it will spur him on.

my ds was exactly the same - half of the ELC arts and craft range in the house and he showed no interest whatsoever - cursory scribble if forced like yours. However, once he started in September I was astounded at how much colouring he started doing at school and now he loves it at home too - he even said to me the other day, I love colouring muumy, i couldn't believe it. You'll be amazed at the power of peer pressure I think!

I think he liked it better after the first few weeks as well once he had gained the pen control to stay in the lines a bit - he sees it as a personal challenge now.

oh yes, his fine motor control is good. I think he just doesn't see the point of colouring. He doesn't really see the point of drawing either, but writing he gets, he sees adults writing and its important. Hes keen to learn to read.

Actually I have just remembered chatting to the mum of an FS2 child at our school whose colouring and concentration are totally amazing for a 5yo.

(Plus he is a lovely rufty tufty boy too which I always like , not that that's relevant here)

She said it was especially amazing as he wasn't interested at all before he started school.

Honestly I have never seen such neat work (didn't know him at start of school year but certainly by Jan it was excellent).

To be fair, frequently colouring in is more of a maintenance activity in KS1. The actual maths/ phonics etc is done but colouring in keeps them busy.

I wouldn't worry about colouring in as it's unlikely to be an activity he must do. It may be available as an activity he can choose if he wants but rarely compulsory.

I wouldn't worry about that now:

a) the teacher is unlikely to make a big issue of it

b) he may well have changed his mind by next year

• speaking as someone whose ds was refusing to speak English the year before Reception, will admit that did worry me slightly, but by the time he found himself a big school boy his attitude changed.

None of my kids have ever liked colouring in - apparently is a sign of genius

seriously though, they are not expected to do it. Sometimes they might get sheets which encourage them to do so but it will not be a requirement - I can only talk from experience though!

My DD1 is very unusual as if pushed-encouraged to colour she will colour in odd colours (blue grass etc) and in patches of different colours...my DS has no interest in colouring whatsoever yet he knows his phonics (he's at preschool). His fine motor skills are bad though.

Hopefully this has helped somewhat in reassuring you x

Generally 'colouring in' is one of the activities that children get to choose in 'choosing' time.

Other activities might be dinosaurs or train sets or home corner.

So, a reluctant colourer in probably isn't a problem.

Colouring in is awful- certainly not to be encouraged!

Try The Anti-Colouring Book to see if he will try any other drawing activities; but don't worry if not, forcing him to do it will not have the desired effect; quite the opposite in fact.

LOL, why did you try forcing him anyway? It's hardly an essential life skill. I'd say just leave it, many people seem to think that all children love colouring, but some of them don't. Dd1 has always hated colouring in, whenever she had those activity sheets in the FS classes she'd do the work but leave the pictures blank without colouring. She's in Year 3 now and doesn't seem to have disadvantaged her in any way.

DS2, who is now 5 and in Year 1, hated colouring in when he was at nursery school. He would refuse to have anything to do with it, and would be told off. I don't know exactly what happened when he went into Reception, but his drawing (rather than colouring) skills improved dramatically, and his colouring skills then improved as he wanted to colour in the pictures that he had drawn himself!

(Warning, mummy boasting moment coming up...) Last week he won a local competition to decorate a picture of an Easter Egg, there were over 100 entrants and he came 1st. So refusing to colour in at nursery school obviously didn't hold him back long term!

Incidentally, he was diagnosed last year as colour blind, and I do wonder if he didn't like colouring as he tended to choose the "wrong" coloured crayon.

Not everyone is going to love every single moment of school, and I don't think it's our duty as parents to spend our time preparing them for every conceivable situation. Either the teacher will decide that it's important and then they'll just have to do it anyway, even if they don't enjoy it, or else (far more likely in Reception) the teacher will decide it wasn't that important.

My ds doesn't enjoy sitting still in assembly. I don't think I would have made things better by fussing and worrying about it; that's just life, one aspect of school life he enjoys less than the rest, but hardly the end of the world.

Both my two have hated colouring before starting school and neither have refused to do it at school. DS2 is quite happy to do it at home now.

They do it at school sometimes as a time filler more than anything or to illustrate something they have been learning about.

I wouldn't even see it as a problem. DS2 not only wouldn't colour, he wouldn't even pick up a pencil unless absolutely pushed before starting school but now, in Yr 1 he has lovely writing. I just see it as one of those things they get round to when they are ready.

Do not worry, I had DD1 who was always drawing/sticking/doing crafty stuff, and DD2 who just was not interested despite a house full of materials; she preferred reading, doing puzzles and playing games on the computer. Chalk and cheese.

worry not megapixels. He not "forced" to colour in at home, one of his preschool settings seem to have be pressuring him tho, which made me wonder WHY?

I noticed them pressuring* another child to colour in handprints last time I was parent volunteer, and lo and behold DS came home at end of term with a flower made out of coloured in hand print shapes. After little probing DS told me he didn't colour them in, one of the grown ups did! So I'm pretty sure hes holding his own against any pressure.

• 2 adults at table with 1 child sat between them, lots of verbal encouragement and child being told they HAD to do this before they could chose to play somewhere else.