Colouring activities are so good for kids. They help them develop their hand eye co-ordination skills, visual processing skills and motor skills. They also demand a certain amount of focus using a positive self-regulating feedback system. ie. ‘your picture looks better if you focus more and colour within the lines.’
…unless you’re our 6 year old who really doesn’t care two hoots as he much prefers ‘other things.’
The great thing about the first of these DIY colouring activities is that it turned out to be a fun bonding session between us. We took it in turns to draw pictures that the other one would colour. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t draw – even a stripy heart would do! We ended up having board level discussions about which bit was going to be what colour, to make absolutely sure I did the key properly(!)
DIY Colour By Numbers
- Draw anything e.g. a house, a dog, a rocket, a mouse…
- Add numbers to the different areas.
- Draw a key at the bottom…
I had very firm orders to make sure his tail wasn’t pink… 
Must get some brighter pens!
The other really good ‘rustle up on the hop wherever you are’ colouring activity is the infamous scribble picture. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re brilliant if you’ve managed to get yourselves into a cafe and want a bit more time with your cuppa…even if you only have a pen or pencil on your rather than colours it’s fine because they just shade the different areas or use patterns.
Scribble Pictures
You do a big scribble on a piece of paper like this:
Which they colour in however they like:
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I used to always do the scribble and then colour in the blocks things when i was little makes such pretty patterns and i still love a good painting by number now not thought about trying it for the kids! Thanks for linking up to #sundaystars
Scribble pictures are fab! Didn’t know they had a name, always thought they were glorified doodles 🙂 drawing them is so relaxing and freeing.
They really are aren’t they? Very soothing 🙂 ‘Glorified Doodles’ sounds much more glamorous 😉 x
Love this idea. And my absolute favourite colouring activity EVER has to be scribble pictures!! I always used to spend hours doing these, but I’m definitely going to introduce them to my little ones now too. Thx again for linking up with our #sundaystars Steph xxxxx
I only discovered scribble pics as an adult – I can’t believe I had so many wasted years of fun! Thank you so much for hosting! x
This is such a simple yet BRILLIANT idea! It’s so easy to do, but so handy when your children are bored or ‘cant think of what to draw!’
Thanks for sharing x
I’m glad you like it. I know I’m going to find myself doing these instead of writing 🙂
This bought back some fond childhood memories. Thanks for linking up again #bigfatlinky