Creativity and Drawing

Give kids some time to observe, and give them the space to be creative, and they will come up something to surprise you =) At least that's the case with my two boys.

Darling son KW loves construction vehicles.

When he was younger, about age 2+, he would use his many mini construction vehicles and wooden bricks, and set up his own construction site. We would roll little paper balls for his bull-dozer, and he would transport the wooden bricks in his bigger dump truck! Our estate was undergoing upgrading then, and there were plenty of construction vehicles moving in and out each day ... dumptrucks, cranes, bulldozer, excavators and cement mixer trucks. He would stand outside the coffee shop for hours, with grandm who came over for her weekly visit, and watched as the workers operated the vehicles.

We never told him "Can you draw what you see at the shop for us?". All we did was supply him with the drawing materials and paper. If he felt like drawing/scribbling/tearing the paper, he knew where to get his supplies. After many weeks of playing with his construction vehicles, and watching the workers, he drew his first vehicle at grandma's house one weekend .... We couldn't believe what we saw and had to ask his grandma again and again if she helped him with the drawing. No, came the answer. "I looked at the vehicle and drew it on my own.", said the boy.

Can you see the difference between two drawings, and the last two? He has since progressed from freehand drawing at four years old, to using a ruler at six! Again, no one told him to use a rule in his drawing.

How about his little brother?

He has been observing his elder brother draw. But he wasn't very keen in drawing. He was more keen in tearing up paper and sticking them onto another piece. It was only when we moved into the woods, and allowed them to plaster our living walls with their drawing that he took a keen interest in drawing. As with all kids, he started with 'stick figures', and flowers. "Mama loves flowers, so I draw more for her" the boy would say ... so sweet of him (when he is not throwing a tantrum). Then came the "gingerbread", Mario, and family portraits. Next came the Rock Monsters in the Power Miners!

The latest craze? Dinosaurs!
All thanks to PBS's "Dinosaur Train"!
Library books on dinosaurs, both factual and fiction, sat on our book shelf at the moment.

They learn all the big words from the show ... Paleontologist, theropods and names of many dinosaurs. They are better at naming the dinosaurs than I do! No, we didn't draw any dinosaurs for him. Having read the books, and watched the tv programme, he concluded that "a dinosaur has four legs, a long tail, and sharp teeth". And hence, the drawings. I was pleasantly surprised to see the drawings, which he did last night before bedtime, and this morning before going to school. I love the dinosaurs drawn!

Maybe he will start drawing snowmen and Santa Claus, since Christmas is coming?