Lots of preschool teachers implement work with colouring pages in preschool and kindergarten. Why? Because it stimulates the kids, it let them be creative and it develops their fine motor skills at the same time. But most important kids find it fun and enjoyable.
As a parent you can easily let your kid colour pictures even when they are very young for example around eighteen months old. Kids at this age will only be able to draw simple thin lines but as they grow older they will develop their fine motor skills and their ability to draw thicker lines and even fill in empty areas.
What do you need to start colouring?
To start colouring all you need is crayons and paper. You can either colour on a blank piece of paper or buy a colouring book. These colouring books often come with specific motifs for example Disney characters or animal motifs.
Instead of giving your child a crayon let her be the one that choose which crayon to use. Young kids don't get a lot of chances to choose since parents often decide what they should do, so these small choices can be a great way to let your kid be more involved and help her in her development.
Another option if you have a printer is to go online and search for colouring pages. There are a lot of websites offering free colouring pages that you can print online. This gives you an almost unlimited access to colouring pages.
Instead of crayons you can also let your kid paint with water-soluble colours. It is easier to paint larger areas with water-soluble colours than crayons.
If your kid is a bit older, perhaps between the age of 4 and 10, you can let your kid colour online. This will save you money on both ink and paper and it is a better choice for the environment as well.
Parts from Disney- and animal characters, seasonal motifs are often very popular. Kids find it great to paint Easter motifs during Easter and Christmas motifs during Christmas. Other seasonal themes that you can't go wrong with are New Year's, Halloween, Valentine's Day and Thanksgiving.
Next time that you don't know how to engage your kids, gather your family and bring out the crayons and spend some time together painting and colouring. I am sure that both you and your kids will a lot of fun.
I also recommend a visit to coloringpages24.com, where you can find thousands of printable colouring pages.