Picasso of Doodling

So. Many. Doodles.

Tom’s favorite current activity is drawing. He asks for a blank piece of paper, scribbles a few circles, draws a few lines, puts down a few squiggles…and he usually has a pretty decent piece of art.

What are the quirks

Tom has quite a few quirks attached to his drawing habit, as he does with everything in life. At the beginning, he would get extremely down on himself. He wouldn’t color because he didn’t think he was any good. He thought staying in the lines was the goal, as opposed to expressing colors on paper. He’s gotten over that a bit but still needs praise to continue on with his drawing habit.

“Dad, I need a clear piece a paper”

One of his biggest quirks is the need for a completely blank piece of paper. If you hand Tom a sheet that has something on it, or on the back, he will refuse to use it. Even if he uses a quarter of a sheet of paper, cuts it out, and comes up with another small idea new paper is a necessity. This is putting a huge dent in my printer paper stock.

“I don’t know how to draw that”

The second biggest quirk, he won’t expand outside of things he thinks he can draw. But that’s only if it’s your idea. The kid draws some seriously impressive things. He drew a self-portrait that looks like a doodle I’d put out. I’m by no means an artist, so I’m not saying he’s Rembrandt in disguise, but for a four-year-old, he does an amazing job.

The other day he told me he didn’t know how to draw a house. Instead, he drew a beautiful IronMan mask, and then he cut it out.

I asked him to draw a frog. He told me he didn’t know how. I drew a frog, and he put the shapes down to mimic it really, really well.

Recommendations

I only have two recommendations.

1. Get a lot of crayons. And don’t expect kids to keep them in a box. I’m surprised our box of 64 crayons are still mostly, kind of together. We have a bucket of crayons from restaurants and torn apart boxes. It’s amazing
2. We just got styli for the boys, and downloaded drawing apps to their iPads. They love playing on their iPads. We’re hoping that this cuts down on clutter, wasted paper, and bolsters their creativity. Also, they can’t draw on walls. All bonuses in our minds.