Finding activities that will keep children engaged is a challenge many parents will have faced after a week off from homeschooling.
However, drawing could be the perfect way to ease kids back into learning after half-term whilst having a bit of fun at the same time.
In a bid to encourage more children to channel their creativity and to help parents in their homeschooling efforts, Great Bean Bags has teamed up with artist Dan Pearce to provide a handful of top tips on how to create the perfect drawing.
Image source: iStock
To discover the drawings children have been struggling with the most over lockdown they also analysed more than 350,000 search terms which included the phrase ‘how to draw’.
The research found the twelve drawings children have been finding most difficult to perfect since the beginning of March last year were:
- A rose
- A dog
- A face
- Eyes
- A unicorn
- A cat
- A nose
- A girl
- A dragon
- Lips
- A flower
- A horse
Image source: iStock
While art requires lots of freedom and creativity, Dan has these top tips to help parents improve their child’s drawings:
1) Encourage children to be imaginative – Drawing is all about creativity and being able to express yourself so try not to limit children on what they can or can’t draw
2) Keep an eye on how hard they grip their pencil – One of the most common mistakes I see children making is they grip their pencil too hard. This restricts the outlines they can produce and often results in them having to make more corrections
3) Don’t get too fixated on the detail – While it can be tempting for parents to encourage children to pay close attention to the minor details in their drawings often this can result in them producing less creative pieces. Allow children to use their imagination and often they will produce their best work
When it comes to drawing the perfect rose Dan has this hack:
“Drawing a rose requires quite a bit of intricacy because it is made up of a number of petals often of varying shapes and sizes. It’s easiest to make a petal shape out of card paper, cut it out and trace it repeatedly to get a number of petal shapes. Trace a few different shapes to add a bit more variety.”
Image source: iStock
Dan has pulled together a few additional tips and tricks for some of the most common drawings children struggle with here.
Not only is drawing an entertaining activity for both children and parents, it can also have an extremely positive impact on other aspects of learning as well.
Child development expert and founder of the Good Play Guide, Dr Amanda Gummer, said:
“Drawing plays a crucial role in a child’s development as it links to all three of the main areas – physical, cognitive and emotional.
“From a physical sense drawing helps to refine a child’s fine motor control through hand strength and coordination. It also encourages children to be creative and think flexibly – something which is important for all of the STEM subjects.
“Art is a great way for children to express their emotions and many children find it easier to communicate through their drawings rather than spoken words.”