Coloring Books???
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My mom HATED coloring books
She thought they destroyed creativity. She couldn't stand that the pictures were already drawn.
The only thing she had more contempt for was color-by-numbers, where they told you not only where to color but what colors to use too!
Can you imagine what she would think about online coloring? Where all your child has to do is click the coloring area and fill it in with some pre-chosen color?
I wonder what color Mom would turn!
An art teacher visitor to this site writes an eloquent eloquent defense of coloring (but not of online coloring pages).
The truth is coloring isn't all that bad
It helps with small muscle coordination. Your child learns how to hold a writing utensil. (You are showing your child how to properly hold the crayon, aren't you?)
These are skills that will prove useful in school and in life.
But online coloring? I don't care whether you call them
they're all the same thing (and NOT worth investigating, because I'm about to give you some better ideas).
Printable coloring books, on the other hand, are okay.
(As are printable coloring pages.)
For free you can print out a picture outline for your child, and let them color - the old-fashioned way - to their heart's content.
Follow one of the links above and I'll give you a few good ideas.
The current state of children's coloring
To some extent, coloring has come a long way.
If you're willing to pay a premium, you can find a beautiful coloring book with elaborate, detailed drawings. Of course, if your child is still scribbling, the pictures are going to end up looking pretty much like all of your child's pictures!
If a beautiful coloring book interests you, I find that typing coloring books and detailed into a search engine query box produces some excellent results.
Of course, in the desktop publishing age, personalized coloring books are also an option. Just type the term into the search engine.
Also, if your child has some specialized interests, you can usually find books that speak to these as well. For instance, typing insect coloring book into one popular search engine brings back more than 300,000 results.
Coloring from imagination
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Mom didn't like to see me struggling to stay inside the lines. I'd like you to think outside the coloring book box too.
Here's a great way to give your child a coloring activity while encouraging creativity and reading as well.
Think about... a pictureless picture book.
Elsewhere on this site, I've published ebook versions of children's books I've written. These books are text only, meaning the pages are left blank so your child can illustrate the story.
It's an exercise in imagination and decision-making - "What will I draw to depict this part of the story?" And something else too...
My ebooks are behavior books. A form of bibliotherapy, they're meant to help your child overcome a problem behavior!
How's that for productive coloring? And cheaper than a nice coloring book!
An alternative to online coloring
Have you heard of KidPix? It's children's drawing software that will blow your (and your kid's) mind. It's about a thousand times more creative and intensive than fill-the-space-with-color coloring.
My daughter goes to a great school, and they use KidPix intensively. Not only does it encourage creativity, but it encourages a mastery of valuable computer skills.
Want to know more? Check out my Kidpix page.
Back to coloring...
To my mind, the best books for coloring have text. Whether it's a description of the particular butterfly your child is coloring, or whether the pictures accompany a story, I believe strongly that you should want ALL your child's books to have words in them.
Write your own pictureless coloring book.
It also happens that I have another page on this site which provides instructions on how to write a children's book for your own child to illustrate!
How To Write A Pictureless Picture Book For Your Own Child
It's not something you'll be able to do in half an hour, but it's something to think about when you want to give a gift to your child that will have lifelong meaning.
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All of these options offer the joy of coloring, without the creativity stifling of "stay between the lines." Also, I suspect, they will leave your child with a much greater sense of accomplishment than filling in the blanks of a mass-produced picture.
Don't you think my mom would be very happy with this page?
Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write
