11.01.2011

Coloring Books Evil or Wonderful?

Coloring with Grace

Coloring books became evil in our home about 9 months ago. I read a book about teaching art to children.  This book started out by influencing parents not to let children have coloring books. It made sense to me. They are coloring in something someone else made.  How can they use their own creativity in that?  My years of enjoying coloring books were thrown out the window. I gathered all our coloring books and threw them out.  For nine months long we were coloring book-less.  We drew on only paper.  I don't feel my children suffered from this at all.  I also don't see that they benefited greatly from it.  They didn't grow leaps and bounds faster in their art abilities from not having access to the coloring books.

Then I read at Let Kids Create about the benefits of coloring books.  Seems I am a quick flip-flopper on this issue.  I think years of coloring and loving it myself made me lean fast back towards the pro coloring book side of the pendulum.  I went out the next day and bought each of my kids a new coloring book.  I had been wanting to get some every time I went to the dollar store anyway.  I mean you can't beat a buck!

When I got home with the coloring books, the joy in my kids face made me all the more glad I did.  I got James a Star Wars coloring book, Grace a Dora book, and Ally a Littlest Pet Shop book.  James has a passion for Star Wars right now.  He started the book by coloring all the weapons on every page.  Then he went through and colored every page within a week.  His coloring skills are mad.  What a kid!  Stays in the lines and works hard to use good colors that are correct and all.  Ally is more into the work book pages that were thrown in throughout the book.  She loves using her mind in that way.  Grace had really never used a coloring book before.  I acutally didn't even give hers to her until yesterday when Grace and I took some time coloring.  I found with her that she finished her page in 1.5 seconds.


Does your toddler finish coloring their page in no time flat?  
My solution for this is to sit down and color with them.  I got her from the 1.5 second up to about 5 minutes.  That is a great amount of time for a 2 year old to do something so I was pleased.  


Coloring with Grace
Starting out.  I love that she tried to use her eye hand coordination to color in the objects.
Coloring with Grace
Done!  After this photo she walked away ready to play.  I quickly ripped out a page for me and started coloring myself.
Coloring with Grace
In no time after I started coloring, Grace came back and started searching for more colors and became interested in doing more. 
Coloring with Grace
Probably 4 or more minutes later.  she also colored the other side of the page as well.  

What are your thoughts on coloring books?  Are they evil?  A necessary pleasure for all kids?  What are your reasons for thinking the way you do?




I often link to these blogs.

14 comments:

  1. I don't think they are evil. The problem is some parents use them as their child's only source of creative work. I think they should be purely used as a way to develop a child's skill to color in things. As an art teacher, i would always have kids draw and color their project so it is a necessary skill to have good "craft" in your art work and just like practicing writing letters and numbers you can do that with coloring. My daughter only has a few coloring books, so I am not a huge fan. Unfortunately when kids go to school they are expected to color their papers and they are judged by if they are staying in the lines. So I think there just needs to be a balance of creative art and coloring books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are a big creative household. I allow my girls to explore all forms of art -- including coloring books. We have baskets full of them. We also have baskets full of plain paper, pastels, paint, chalk and more. Some days my daughters will beg me to print out coloring pages for them and other days, they will draw and write their own story books - complete with illustrations. Sometimes I think kids need a "break" from being creative and just need some downtime to color in a coloring book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If a child enjoys coloring in a coloring book then why not allow it? We have a cabinet full of art supplies and my girls pick what they do, color in a book or on paper. They are enjoying learning to write their letters right now so they tend to pick plain paper (or glitter paper, or whatever kind we have in supply). I think it's important to allow them to explore all types of media and I don't think the pitfalls of coloring books are a large enough issue to ban them or call them "evil".

    ReplyDelete
  4. Evil? Not at all! There are so many things you can do with a coloring book. We color the pages, then we cut out the main photo (cutting skills) and then punch a hole in the page (fine motor) and then we thread a string through and we make banners or send people photos after gluing that photo on a background page that we drew.

    We use light tracing paper to trace the main image, so that they can work on their lines and then we create our own scene for that main image.

    I make up a key (orange-1 Blue-2) and then take the coloring book and fill it in with numbers. This then becomes a color-by-number page!

    So much more can be done with 1 little book!

    There are so many things, that I find them a wonderful creative outlet, if only parents are willing to think out-of-the-box

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love them! They are one of many type of art material available to my daughter at home. She is going through a phase now where she wants to color a lot, and I figure it's something that she needs to work on if it is something that she is drawn to and keeps her attention. She especially loves coloring the oversized coloring books because we can work on one page together. For some reason, I think it is calming to her as well, and I feel the same way when I color. My mind and body are relaxed when I am coloring which is a different experience when I do more inventive art projects.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, you know I love coloring ooks. Of course it's not our only creative outlet. But Mina asks almost all day long to color if she is not doing something else. It is her favorite thing to do which works nicely when we go somewhere and have to be quiet or wait coloring keeps her happy and calm.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I also used to think that coloring books stifle kids' creativity. I suppose I probably read that somewhere. However, I'm starting to change my tune. My kids love to draw, but when we're traveling or just out and about, a coloring book is handy. I also suspect it might be good for developing hand-eye coordination. And as Rebekah said above, I myself love coloring, even as an adult, and find it very relaxing. I think I might go buy some more now that I think about it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I definitely don't think they're evil. I do think that they're taboo to talk about in the children's art world. You may remember I asked how to encourage coloring in coloring books awhile back. It was my most commented on status and almost everyone that posted told me they are evil, they do more harm than good, etc etc. I was surprised by the comments especially since anyone can read my blog and see I'm not using coloring books as a main creative outlet for my children. I won't be posting about coloring books again that's for sure! I will, however, let my kids keep using them because I do believe they are able to offer skills that other activities can't.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm kind of in the middle. My girls use coloring books and enjoy them. It is the best way to teach them to color within the lines. I also don't believe that should me the only form of "art" a child experiences. We do all sorts of other artwork that is more process oriented and open-ended.

    Plus, another bonus is that my girls can color in a coloring book while we traveling. It's not like I'm going to hand them blank paper and paint (or even markers) in the backseat of the car!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I wouldn't call them evil. But I can say when I switched my 4 yo's preschool from one that used coloring pages to one that only has blank paper and crayons, he is much more creative. It may have more to do with the overall "academics" from one school to the other, but I love his drawings. I am so proud to hang his crayon drawings everywhere. I really feel like he made them from his heart and I am touched when he draws pictures of him and I. We have always had coloring books at home and I've never discouraged him from using them. But I really feel like he is expressing himself in his drawings, and I never saw that in a coloring book. Again, I don't mind coloring books, he does use them sometimes. I try to let him guide our activities and he prefers white paper and crayons.

    P.S. When traveling, he takes a notebook of drawing paper, crayons, and washable markers (all from the dollar store).

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am a big fan. My son is autistic and he was not interested in picking up a crayon or other markers until I got him some Thomas and Chuggington colouring books from there he has moved on and will now happily draw on plain paper. We also had to do the same with painting buying a few pre- printed sheets and canvas and away he went. Now he gets so excited about painting and crafts.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am a fan. I mean I would much rather be doing an open ended art activity, but there are times (mommy's making dinner and the 3 kids are fighting) that sitting them at the table with coloring books is quick and will keep them engaged so that I can do what needs to be done. Vicky from Mess For Less

    ReplyDelete
  13. You had said you thought you had commented on one of my posts and then seen that you hadn't.. well I beat that with.. I thought I had started following you, yet I hadn't. I have now!

    I've noticed that coloring books are taboo as well.. but we use them. My son loves them, they are cheap and portable, and he is still working on a lot o different skills while using them. Of course there should be other open ended activities, but I agree.. coloring books are here to stay!

    And I think every one of us flip flops on certain issues, and it stems from our love for our kids. We want what's best for them and try our hardest and we are bombarded with so many different opinions. It sometimes takes a while for us to weigh the pros and cons and see what's best for our family.

    Great job and great post!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I don't have a problem with colouring books in general - they're great for younger children especially, and I remember enjoying them even when I was older - they're quite relaxing! But I personally prefer the doodle books that are about now, which encourage you to draw and use your imagination a little more. I keep on buying these, though I think I love them more than my kids!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Thanks so much. Feel free to leave your blog or email info so I can get back to you.