Coloring Books For Kids – How Does It Contribute To Their Development

As kids we all loved coloring and drawing on everything we saw as long as we had crayons in our hands. Coloring books used to be our favorite companions. We may have grown into adults, but if we see a coloring book, we would sure love to start coloring right away and recall our childhood memories.
Children love being creative, and coloring books give them a way to showcase their creativity. If you notice your kids drawing or scribbling, you know it’s time to get them a coloring book.
Coloring books have a lot of variations, but kids prefer coloring books with simple drawings. It not only helps them to brush their coloring skills but also helps them be creative. You may not notice it, but a simple activity like coloring can have lifelong benefits.
All the scribbling kids do may look cute and meaningless, but it plays an important role in their development. Not just that, but it also supports their academic progress. So if you are planning to buy a coloring book for your kid, it’s the best thing to do. It will make them happy and also benefit them in many ways.

Benefits Of Children Coloring Pages

Coloring pages and books are important educational tools. They help a lot in preparing a child for pre-school. It is needless to say kids love coloring. It is like their favorite pastime and they can spend hours coloring. But most importantly, it sparks their creativity and fuels their imagination. Through coloring books, they can express themselves. Give drawing pages and coloring books to your kids and let them color their favorite animals, trucks, or anything they wish.
Coloring is a very simple activity, but it has many great benefits for your children. Some of the main benefits of coloring books for kids are:

  • Improves hand and eye coordination – One of the main benefits of coloring is that it helps improve your child’s hand and eye coordination. Holding the color pencils, sharpening them, and recognizing all the colors are some of the very basic skills that every kid needs to learn. Instead of teaching them verbally, you should have them sit in front of a coloring book with some coloring pages and crayons and let their creativity flow. Coloring books come with simple drawings and diagrams. Kids are supposed to fill specific areas with the color of their desire. This may sound like a very simple task to you but for kids, it’s very interesting since it challenges them to learn new abilities. It helps them to learn to coordinate their eyes and hands together. It also prevents cognitive loss if you give more advanced coloring books to your kids.
  • Makes them more focused – Little kids still have to learn to focus on things. They are chaotic little humans that do what they feel like. But with the help of coloring books, you can teach them how to focus. This is a very important lesson for them. Kids that are into coloring are known to have better focus and concentration power.
    Coloring teaches the importance of staying within the boundary in coloring sheets. When they grow up, this skill will be helpful while learning to write, and this is another good reason to give coloring books to your kids.
  • Stimulates creativity – When you are just a kid, there’s nothing more creative than coloring different things. Giving a coloring book to your kid means you are helping them boost their creativity. It allows them to express themselves. Unlike grown-ups, a child has an imaginary world in their mind and they express it on the coloring sheets. All you have to do is hand them a coloring book and a box of crayons and see your child create magic. You will be surprised to see how well can children express their imagination in coloring books.
    Coloring helps your kid to think about different color combinations to make the picture more appealing. Even if they can’t color properly, they are learning and you should praise them for their efforts. You should correct their mistakes and teach them to do better. Both coloring and drawing are great mediums of expression. Instead of being verbal, many kids love to express themselves through coloring and drawing.
  • Helps them learn – Coloring is also a great way of learning. It helps them to learn about different colors and also the name of the pictures and things they are coloring. Kids are exposed to the color wheel for the first time through crayons or colored pencils. You can teach them the names of different colors and how to spell them. If your kid is about to start pre-school, this could be a great way to prepare them.
    You should give your kids different colors and let them explore different color combinations. Along with that, you should also teach them the right colors of various objects, animals, etc. Coloring is not only fun but also educational.
  • Improves motor skills – Yes, Coloring can help improve your kid’s motor skills. Coloring involves different motions like holding the crayons and scribbling with them. All this leads to the development of muscles in their tiny fingers, wrist, and hands. This is why you should let your kids color and draw from a young age. Good motor skills will help them learn writing quickly. Although coloring is a simple activity, it helps strengthen and develop the hand muscles. This can prove to be helpful later in activities like writing, lifting objects, and typing.
  • Makes them more patient – Coloring can also help your kids become more patient. Filling colors within the specified area is a time-consuming task for kids. To complete an entire drawing, will take a lot of time. That’s how they learn how to be patient. Not just that, but it also has a relaxing effect on their mind. In other words, coloring makes kids feel comfortable.
    Kids color a drawing the way they like, and once they finish coloring a drawing, it gives them a sense of accomplishment.
  • Allows them to practice pencil grip – To color something on the sheets, kids need to first learn to hold crayons properly. This is like a practice session for them. Once they learn how to hold crayons, they can easily learn to hold a pencil. This will be helpful when start learning to write in school.
  • Helps in self-expression – As already mentioned, coloring and drawing is a form of self-expression for kids. They find it comfortable to express their thoughts through drawing. Sometimes kids let you know what they are thinking through their drawings and coloring books. This is why you should pay close attention to what they draw or color. It can give you an insight into your child’s mind.

Coloring gives children the opportunity to be independent. They can color a drawing the way they like. Kids don’t always have the words to express their thoughts, but through drawing and coloring, they can express their imagination easier.

How to choose the best coloring book for kids?

You should teach coloring to your kids from a young age. The sooner you hand them a coloring book, the faster they will learn. Coloring books can differ based on quality, the complexity of pictures, and many other things. Some coloring books are meant for girls, while other coloring book types are a better fit for boys. You will also find coloring books that are suitable for both genders where boys and girls can enjoy coloring.
Coloring books for girls usually contain pictures of princesses, flowers, and other stuff, whereas coloring books for boys consist of toy cars, balls, etc.
If you are looking for coloring books for boys and girls, there are few things you need to consider. In this section, we will discuss the factors.

Paper quality

The first thing you need to consider is the quality of paper used for the coloring book. This is a very important factor and it can make a lot of difference to your kid’s experience.
If the coloring sheets are of poor quality, they may get torn easily or the colors may not show properly on them. Paper quality matters especially when your child colors with watercolors. If the paper is of poor quality, it will become soggy due to the water-based colors.
You should look for coloring books that come with thick, white paper. It shouldn’t tear easily and also show the colors properly. You should avoid buying off-white paper. This is important for the best experience for your kid.

Picture complexity of the coloring book

Coloring books are made differently for kids of different ages. For instance, coloring sheets for 3 to 4 years old come with very simple drawings, which usually require one or two colors. But coloring books made for 5 years old and above have more complex drawings that require multiple colors. This is why checking the complexity of pictures in coloring books is also important.
You need to buy coloring books based on the age of your child. Young kids will find it difficult to color books that require multiple Colors. These coloring books come with complicated pictures that are suitable for grown-up kids. Similarly, older kids will find it boring to color with just one or two Colors. They need something more interesting and challenging. It is also preferable for little kids to color drawings with a thick border. That’s because their motor skills are not yet developed. A thick border help kids to fill colors within the specified space more easily.

Size of the coloring book

Even the size of the coloring book matters when you are buying it for a kid since this can make a huge difference to the kid’s experience.
Coloring books for kids should be bigger. They are more content and happy when you give them something big even if it’s just a coloring book. A jumbo size coloring book is ideal for young kids. It’s neither too big nor too small. Little kids find it difficult to color when the sheets are too small. This is why you should bring them a decent-sized coloring book.
You will find both coloring books and coloring sheets on the market, but coloring books are any day better than loose sheets. The problem with coloring sheets is that they can get lost, and a coloring book comes with everything pinned up. If you like a coloring page your kid drew, you can still cut it from the coloring book and hang it on your fridge.

Tips To Teach Coloring To Kids

You should start teaching coloring to your kids from a young age. This will give them enough time to learn and practice. Ideally, you should start before they join pre-school.
Here are some tips that you may find helpful:

  • Sit and color with your kids to give them company. When your kid has just started coloring, you must help them. You need to help them avoid making mistakes and only then they will be able to learn. But you shouldn’t get too strict either or else you will end up blocking their creativity.
  • Teach them the names of different colors. Once they know which color is which, they will be able to make better use of it.
  • Little kids have loose grip, especially when they have just started to learn to color. As parents, it is your responsibility to make them practice. This will be helpful when they learn to write.
  • Provide your kid with all the coloring and drawing tools. This will trigger their interest and thus, they will spend more time coloring.
  • If you want your child to become a good artist, you should make them color and draw every day. Practicing with coloring books every day will make your kids love this activity more and more, and therefore they will polish their talent every day.

Coloring is simple and yet very beneficial for kids. You should encourage your kids to color and draw more. The more they practice, the better it is for them. But make sure you get them the best coloring book.

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