almost 4 who doesn't draw?

[yellowperch]

My other children all loved to color, draw, "write" by the time they were my 4th child's age. He's doesn't.It's not that he protests, but he's never goes on his own to the art spot to work, and he drifts away when I do sit down with him to do a little crayon stuff.

 

Advice?

 

Developmentally he's right on target, and is a very bright, active, articulate engaged boy.

 

TIA

[ChristusG]

I have a young three year old.....she does not like to color, draw, or make art projects. At this age, my older daughter loved this type of stuff! But I cannot get my younger to do anything of the sort.

[Lolly]

My 13 yo doesn't like to draw. He isn't good at it either! He has never been willing to draw or color. I would work on development of hand muscles with play dough or other materials. My boy did like to use scissors.:glare: Screwdriver and some screws? Then, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Require the minimum.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

No advice, but thought I'd let you know that none of my boys enjoyed drawing at that age. And they still aren't particularly drawn :) to it. (They are bright, well-rounded boys.) Why does he need to color/draw/write at this age if he doesn't enjoy it?

[Mom2J112903]

My son just this year at age 6 started to draw and it is *very* abstract! Some of the things he draws makes you wonder what he is thinking about. Who knows maybe he is the next Picaso :lol:

 

J just does not like to draw, never has, and neither has DH, so I wonder where J gets it from ;)

[Tap]

No advice other than telling you about ds15.

 

Ds15 never liked to draw as a child. I was an art major and had a house full of fun supplies but he never had any interest. When he was in about 5th grade he finally started to pick up a pencil a bit, but his art was very basic. He never really found a passion for it. In school he pretty much scribbled his art until he was 12yo or so.

 

Now, at 15 he is very, very into a miniature war game called Warhammar. The models are anywhere from 1.5 inches to 8 or more inches tall. I am sure his army contains 100 or more pieces all of which he hand painted. They are extremely detailed and he has found a passion for painting them. He is very, very artistic in his painting abilities. He watches videos online of other people's ideas and then creates his own background structures and land formations. He spends hours a day painting very, very fine detailed characters. He is really good at this, and I tend to be a bit picky about such things. :D

 

He hopes to eventually start painting for his friends, and maybe for pay. He already has his first friend to is going to let him paint his army. This is a pretty big thing, because these armies cost several hundred dollars, and you don't want to have them look like a kindergartner did them.

 

We have always spent time at art museums or discussion the beauty around us. He definitely has always seen it, it just wasn't flowing for him yet.

 

 

Looking back, I realize how creative he has always been with Legos, or creating story lines for other action figures, writing descriptively has never been a problem and he loves simple-yet beautiful things. His creativity was always there, it was just in a different form that I was used to seeing.

[myfunnybunch]

I have two boys who did not like to draw until 7-8, and they still don't draw a lot. They'd rather be moving, building, playing cars, sculpting play dough.

 

My youngest loves to draw, go figure. :) Just depends on the kid.

 

Cat

[sbgrace]

Niether of my boys liked to draw at that age. One got into drawing around 5.5 to 6. The other still rarely draws. Just not his thing I guess.

[Ellie]

I guess I'm not seeing any problem and not sure what kind of advice you're wanting.

[yellowperch]

NAK here.

 

It's not that I am worried about drawing as much as I am about him not developing pre-writing skills. The two went hand in hand with my older three. I suppose I am fretting because my bigger kids are what I know so I am thinking he's missing an important step. DS2 and DD could draw scenes and animals/dinos/people by 4 and wrote copiously.

 

I'd also like to see him at the table with us sometimes.:)

[lulubelle]

My two boys are exact opposites. Ds#1 loves to draw and was good at holding a pencil from the age of 2. Ds#2 has always had a horrible time holding a pencil and has no desire to write or draw. He gets so frustrated with his difficulty. Last year I had him do Handwriting Without Tears prek program and it helped a bit. I've had him do tons of letter tracing, cutting, and dot to dot. He still struggles! He just started HWT K.

 

If your son can write and hold a pencil without difficulty don't worry about his drawing interest.

[sbgrace]

NAK here.

 

It's not that I am worried about drawing as much as I am about him not developing pre-writing skills. The two went hand in hand with my older three. I suppose I am fretting because my bigger kids are what I know so I am thinking he's missing an important step. DS2 and DD could draw scenes and animals/dinos/people by 4 and wrote copiously.

 

I'd also like to see him at the table with us sometimes.:)

I get concerns about pre-writing. I want to caution you though that a child who is drawing scenes like that and writing copiously at four isn't typical--particularly a boy. So maybe the comparison is making this seem bigger than it is.

 

If you think there are fine motor delays I'd look into working on that apart from handling a crayon--things like picking up stuff with tweezers, playing playdough, stringing beads, etc. I know there are good books on amazon for ideas. There is also a curriculum with materials that come in a box for pre-writing fine motor development created by an OT. I can't remember the name though. He might like snipping with scissors (makes a mess of course but good for fine motor control/work) and Kumon cutting, tracing, and other books might appeal to him as well. Basically, I'd come at developing his pre-writing skills from a different angle. Also have lots of paper and crayons available all the time so if/when he does develop and interest it's there for him. I did find HWT Pre-K good for my kids.

Edited May 17, 2010 by sbgrace

[myfunnybunch]

It's not that I am worried about drawing as much as I am about him not developing pre-writing skills. The two went hand in hand with my older three. I suppose I am fretting because my bigger kids are what I know so I am thinking he's missing an important step. DS2 and DD could draw scenes and animals/dinos/people by 4 and wrote copiously.

 

I'd also like to see him at the table with us sometimes.:)

 

My non-drawers both have excellent handwriting. :) If he seems to be able to do other fine motor tasks (pulling up a zipper, putting toothpaste on a brush, pinching and pulling playdough, stacking blocks, picking up small objects) then he'll be fine.

 

What is he interested in that would fit on the table? At that age, my youngest often played playdough, played with a balance scale or cuisenaire rods or counting bears, built houses out of blocks, cut paper with scissors or other more hands-on activities at the table. He got into the habit of sitting with us at the table (most days) and eventually showed an interest in having his own handwriting book and his own math book.

 

Cat

[NanceXToo]

My son is 4 1/2 and he rarely draws either. Once in a while I can get him to sit down with crayons- he especially likes to try to do mazes or tracing shapes kind of thing. He might scribble a little. I think like 3 times ever I've managed to talk him into drawing a person. The rest of the time it's just sort of a scribble or something that looks like it might be fire lol... and it's not often he wants to be bothered at all.

 

He'll get more excited about coloring with chalk on the sidewalk or finger painting or water color painting than he will about drawing or coloring.

 

He has no developmental delays and he's very bright, I think it's just not his thing. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Susan in KY]

Try some other media. Your ds may like string art, or clay, or building things from junk, or any variety of other things. My ds HATES crayons. He always has. He's an amazing artist, but crayons just aren't his thing and he has refused them since he was very small.

 

Incidentally, my dd, who is not as artistically inclined as ds, took a long while to begin to draw, but she enjoys doing crafts and other things like that. YMMV