Otherwise known as coloring books. I despise their very existence.
"Color inside the lines!" I can hear a cranky babysitter shouting.
"Look how pretty Caaaandy's picture is! Sheeee didn't mess up at alllll." I'm sure someone said that.
"No! Hair is not purple. That is hair," Crabby Art Teacher snarls. Her hair, ironically, is purple.
Coloring books epitomize the departure of creativity in children. There is no imagination, no thinking to it. It's so rigid! And it is not art.
Alas, my son loves coloring books. He loves to read them (a silver lining) over and over before applying any marks, but when he has heard the stories so often that he knows them by heart, he sweetly requires the honor of my presence to "color wif" him.
Just like that, I get sucked in. I'm hooked. I find my fingers rolling through his Spongebob lunchbox full of snapped, paperless crayons... searching for just the right mystical shade of pink for fairy shoes until finally settling on the one and finding - aahh, nevermind then, he's already covered that entire page in neon green.
It's good that he doesn't worry about lines. I'm glad. Really, I am. But he made me do this and now I can't see the fairy or anything else on the page because of the green everywhere and I didn't want to color in this book anyhow but I got sucked into it and now I want that darn fairy to be PINK!
So I scowl at the fairy, nonexistent in a lime-ade fog... and remember to replace this book with a tablet of construction paper for next time. Pink construction paper.
***Update/Side-note: It's not the coloring I find offensive, it's the rigidity of coloring BOOKS with prefab pages that leave so little to the imagination. I very much enjoy coloring and such activities with Monsoon. Just to be clear... love Monsoon and artsy stuff, do not love ditto-type "in-the-lines" fluff, even if I do get caught up in it.
Ask, Seek, Knock.
5 years ago
19 comments:
LOL! Very cute!!
I love coloring and Bella loves that I will color with her. Although lately....she's been stamping with ME!
Baby Girl never colors in the lines. She says it is easier to "scribble". I guess the life a four year old is busier than I realize.
LOL...amazingly my 3 year old colors better than my 9 year old...cause if you want to talk about scribbling, well...no one has her beat there. But my 3 year old also is almost undeciperable when speaking...so...you win some and lose some.
I always loved to color. Still do, only now I do it in Photoshop. :) I think it's pretty cool that you color together, or at least that the honor of your presence is requested while the neon haze rolls in.
lol. I sat down and colored with the children I babysit on Friday mornings (Bible study group at my church) and I must say my Hello Kitty picture looked especially fabulous :0) Kate (4 years old) said "Miss Lora, I know you colored this for me...right?"
V. good point! I think construction paper is just the ticket (I've always wanted to say "just the ticket" in context--thanks for the opportunity to be cheesy!).
And what's with "Coloring and Activity Books" these days? I go to look for a coloring book, and I have to have the activities too? They're no fun and waste pages I could be using to color!
Just wanted to stop by and say Hello! Thank you for stopping by my blog today and entering my giveaway. Good luck!
Never thought of coloring like that! I still have my own box of crayons and set of coloring books today!
Staying in the lines in any situation is a bunch of bull sh**.
Now I want me a coloring book.
When we were kids we would have coloring parties on yucky days. Popcorn, soda, M&M's and beautiful new crayons and I still love to color.
Oh I hear ya. I could never color inside the lines and detested it. Always. The wee ones now? They scribble in coloring books, but it's usually story drawings on blank paper (e.g., Hulk beating up Jesus). And I'm totally cool with that. There are enough rules to follow out there :)
The coloring books at our house are totally scribbled in a mad man fashion. So nobody here can stay within the lines anyway! Ha. They cant make us conform!
My nieces and nephews love coloring books but I agree. And being a teacher I think it does limit creativity. I do occasionally use them as a writing starter. I ask kids to look at the picture and write a story.
Hehe, such a true, true post that speaks a little too closely to my heart. This is said (typed??) after I "helped" Gabe "finish" some of his birthday cards. And by helped finsih I mean he put two stickers on and I did 20, plus traced his hand print and wrote his name in chicken scratch.
Art class ruined me. ;)
My daughter loves coloring! Lol, however she is not old enough to about the whole "in the line's" thing yet!
Great post! I nearly died laughing.
Did you notice that something has been missing from your blog? It might have appeared around the time I stopped commenting? I’m sorry about all that. I took a little hiatus from the blogosphere, but I couldn’t stay away too long. After a break, I had to come by again and see what you’ve been up to.
Glad that I did.
-Francesca
PS: Thanks for the birthday love!
LOL I know the feeling. My sweet Chloe' loves to color and paint and draw and well...mark on anything. She is so creative and is learning to draw figures. I will have to post some on my blog. They are so cute.
Color with me Mommy....
I don't think I have ever bought a coloring book come to think about it...but we have tons of them lying around..so apparently I must know several people who do like them or think that I should. My boys prefer markers and construction paper. I like stickers. So we put stickers on blank paper and then try to turn them into pictures. Pretty exciting huh?!
I've always loved drawing,painting, and creative stuff, but never liked to be enclosed by lines, so I totally understand! :)
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