In order to encourage my daughter to experiment with the way she draws, I set out a simple little drawing activity as an "Invitation to Draw."

This little set-up encouraged creativity, understanding of shapes, thinking skills, fine motor, coordination, building and more.

Ages: 2+ 

(see handy tips at the bottom to simplify or extend to meet your child's needs)

Materials: Paper, Markers (we've used the Micador Mega Markers here) and blocks.

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Ages: 2-6+

Materials: Markers/pencils, paper and rubber bands

Drawing is something that takes place in our house on a daily basis.

 The freedom, creativity, therapy, exploration and skills found within free drawing make it appealing on every level.

Every now and again I like to mix things up and let Maddie explore a different way of drawing that she hadn't thought of yet. Today, it's 'Drawing in Bunches'.

I provided some markers already in a "bunch" to demonstrate the new technique of drawing that we were trying today. 

Maddie's first move was to attempt to make her own bunch.

This was tricky so she moved on to the pre-prepared bunch and practiced different techniques

Swirling

Dotting

and Striping

The most challenging part was using her fine motor skills and hand, eye coordination to bunch the textas together.

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by providing the markers already in bunches. Allow your child to pick the colour combinations and demonstrate to them how you tie them together with a rubber band. You could also use much smaller rubber bands or hair ties that need to be looped less times

- Extend this activity by having your child make up the bunches themselves. Encourage them to think about colour choice and combinations. Look at the different effects you can get depending on the number of different markers in your bunch

- Teach your child the method of using rubber bands. Loop, pull, twist, loop, pull, twist, loop... etc.

- Challenge your child to come up with a pattern that they can use to decorate an entire piece of paper with. Use this design for homemade wrapping paper etc.Talk to them about what makes a pattern.

- Change the writing or drawing materials to see the differences it makes to their design and creativity

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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A fun and different way to encourage creativity through drawing is by mixing up the drawing tools and using different mediums as your base. Here we explored the use of highlighters on bubble wrap.

Such a quick and easy activity to set up. 

You will need: Highlighters, bubble wrap and plain paper

Setting up your "Invitation to Play" I put a piece of plain paper underneath the bubble wrap to make visibility easier.

 Noticing straight away that the plasticy surface of the bubble wrap allows ink to sit on top. It isn't absorbed like with paper

 Because of the see-through nature of the bubble wrap, Maddie kept checking underneath to see if the ink was on the paper

She insisted on continuing until ever part of the bubble wrap was covered

Design done. Now what?

Flip it over, rub over the other side and take off. Maddie was impressed.

Examining the patterns. Talk about why some parts are darker/lighter. Why did some parts work and not others? Which colour showed up the best? etc

Try drawing actual designs and printing those. You can reuse the same bubble wrap over and over.

 Prints can work really well

You're a star

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by just letting your child draw and be creative. Demonstrate printing and what can happen when they flip over the bubble wrap.

- Extend this activity by using to talk about other concepts such as symmetry. Try writing letters or numbers on the bubble wrap and see what happens to them when flipped over and printed. Challenge their problem solving. Can they find any letters of the alphabet that are the same when printed? etc

- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it.

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "absorb," "symmetry" etc.  This will help with their language development.


- Remember that children need to create and explore, they don't need it to be a specific item at the end or to have drawn a specific picture. Allow this and don't push them to think they must make something "real." 






Happy playing,
Debs :)

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The other day I got a bit fed up trying to clean a large blackboard sticker that we use as a memo board on our pantry. It worked great at first, but over time it's become harder and harder to clean and is generally looking a little tatty.

I decided I needed a new solution and after a bit of browsing at the shops, came up with a new idea. Before I ended up completing my new idea to use for myself, however, it occurred to me that this same idea could be used as a fun new way to help my preschooler developing her early literacy skills.

Now I need to make more! haha

 This Do It Yourself writing board is very quick, very easy, super fun and cheap to boot!

 You will need cheap photo frames (These A4 size picture frames were $2 each at the Reject Shop) some backing paper (what ever colour you like... mix it up. I like black) and some Liquid Chalk.(These are different from whiteboard/dryerase markers as they are waterbased and very vibrant! They write on all non-porous surfaces and they are available all over the place. Try art/office supply shops, cheap variety shops or ebay)

 Put the backing paper behind the glass and there you have it. An instant writing board!

But, why would you use this instead of a conventional whiteboard or blackboard?

Well, besides looking cool, the ability to change the background of your writing surface to whatever you like makes this board multi-functional.

Here are just a couple of ways you could use the writing board. There are many more!

 Print out your child's name on a piece of paper, put it behind the glass and let them practice writing their name.

I use the handwriting script that is used in Victorian schools. (Victorian Cursive). In Microsoft Word, put in your text, highlight it, right click, font, then tick "outline." This will give you the same sort of effect that I've used here.

 You can do the same for writing the alphabet

Practicing numbers

Try putting lined paper underneath

 And just wipe away the writing with a tissue or cloth and use again and again.

I find that if the writing stays there and dries for a long period of time, a damp cloth is best.

 The reflective nature of the glass with the black paper behind it is fun (although very difficult to photograph well haha). They can draw patterns, designs, pictures, learn colours, just doodle, scribble whatever. Wipe off and use again and again and again.

Now, it goes without saying that if you are allowing children to use this, you must remember that it is glass and must be treated with care. You're the best judge to know whether you would trust your child using this or not. And hey, if you'd rather they didn't use it... YOU CAN! :)

Debs :)

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Here are 5 simple ideas (that you could do at home) to encourage a love of writing, drawing and creating for your Preschooler.

1. ALLOW EASY ACCESS

I have tried lots of different methods for having books and papers kept organised and tidy yet available for use whenever she gets the urge with not a great deal of success, but this idea (below) has been the most successful.
If your child has to stop and ask for something to write/draw on there's a chance that they just might not bother. PLUS- when it's something special for them, they are much more inclined to want to use it.

 This is an old file folder that I've turned into a way for Maddie to easily access all her writing, drawing and creating papers/books. It has press studs (which even I find hard to close) so I stuck velcro tape along the underside of the flap so that she can easily open and close it herself.

 In each file space there is something different.

- Plain white paper      -Coloured paper

-Black paper                -Coloured circles

-Coloured squares             -Lined paper
-Newspaper            -Scrapbooking paper

-Lined notebook               -Sticker book

-Drawing book &       -Adventure writing book. etc
You could add whatever materials your child needs or regularly uses.

2. PERSONALISE & RECORD

Personalising books yourself is not hard. It makes it much more special and exciting for children, therefore, they are more likely to use it.
Show interest in your child and record details about them in a written format that they can see and "read" over. This gives you something to talk about, personalises it even further and makes a wonderful keepsake.

Make a drawing book for each year and give to them on their birthday. 

(Print out a picture/design/photo and stick to the front of a good quality drawing pad. Cover with contact paper to make it last.)

 You could do something like this inside the front cover of the drawing book.

At the start of each year, fill out a profile of your child and see how the answers differ from year to year. This was done on her 3rd birthday in Jan. We love reading over it as even now (3 months later), her answers have changed. We also trace her hands and date it.

3. WRITE TOGETHER

Your preschooler (most likely) can't write by themselves (and if they can it's probably fairly limited), so if you don't write with them they'll never get the chance or experience.

Try collaborative writing experiences like the one shown below and have other family members, relatives and friends help out too. If asked, they should be more than willing to sit down and let your child dictate their story to them.

Make a personalised writing book where you can record stories and adventures as made up by your child.

This is just a blank notepad that we drew a cover for together. It doesn't look professional but it doesn't need to.

All the stories in here are recorded exactly as dictated by Madeline.

Sometimes she uses stickers as inspiration and for pictures and other times she illustrates her stories herself.

Once again, it's not fancy but that's not the aim. We LOVE reading over what is written and continuing or adding more adventures whenever she gets the urge.

4. MAKE IT SPECIAL AND APPEALING

When I was teaching in a classroom, I loved the uniformity and organisation of matching pencil, texta, crayon pots/tubs etc. It helped reduce fights and was easy and practical. At home however, this isn't needed and I've found that the more creative I am with housing her writing and drawing implements, the more keen she is to use them.

Try storing fancy or special textas, pens etc in different tins/containers.

The more special the implement, the more special the container. :)

This was an old biscuit tin (she added a sticker). Things like chocolate boxes, recycled containers, old lunchboxes etc are all great to use. If they are plain, let your child decorate them.

Standard textas in a recycled plastic tub with a ribbon tied around it

For birthdays/Christmas' etc, you could ask relatives for different and exciting writing tools.

These animal, finger puppet crayons came from her Grandma and are used not only for writing and drawing, but also to ride in toy trains, live in Duplo built houses, stack together, have conversations and SO much more.

5. CREATE INVITATIONS TO WRITE/DRAW

While your child is sleeping or otherwise occupied, create an invitation for them to get creative by setting up an area with everything they need, all laid out. Once again, the more appealing you make it look, the more likely they will get excited and be inspired to create.

Here I set up an invitation for some creative story writing.

(In the box to the left are a whole lot of different stickers and cut out pictures from magazines.. it used to be a chocolate box)

Most important of all... HAVE FUN!

What tips and tricks have worked for YOU to encourage your preschooler to write? Please share them with us.

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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Depending on the age of your child, an activity like this could end up as a fabulous art piece.

With my 3y/o we used this activity to help practice fine motor skills, letter recognition and creativity.

As children work toward developing those early literacy skills and start to move towards writing letters and words, working with some order and within some confines can be very helpful in developing the fine motor skills that they will require in order to be able to write.

This is such an easy activity that will take you a minute to set up and you can use any design you like. Abstract patterns, hidden letters/numbers, objects, etc.

 Draw a simple design on a piece of paper with thick black texta and divide into lots of different segments. Provide whichever art material you'd like. I gave textas this time and the instructions, "try to use a different colour inside each segment."

 I loved how she attacked each segment differently. Taking time to ensure something different in each one.

 She chose to follow the shape of the "M" instead of colouring it. Great practice for letter formation

She spent quite some time on this simple little activity. A great one to pull out while you're cooking dinner or need a few quiet moments. The focus and concentration used in this task was fantastic to see.

Handy tips:

- Use any design that you or your child come up with

- Extend this activity by letting your child draw the design first and then paint/draw within it's confines. Hide letters/numbers to help with learning recognition and formation

- Simplify this activity by drawing larger spaces for your child to work within. Try dividing a simple shape into 4 parts etc.

- Repeat this activity with different designs etc and using different sizes art materials. Paints, inks, crayons, make a collage etc

- Stay near your child while they do this so you can give them gentle reminders about trying to work within each segment

- Talk with your child about what they are doing and use new words (eg. Segments) to increase their vocabulary and understanding.

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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