Kids Art: Further Conversations About Drawing

ByChristie Burnett

“There is one golden rule to observe when talking with a child about their artwork – NEVER assume you know the story behind the creation. Try to avoid asking, “What is it?” or guessing what they have created as this can be very discouraging if you are wrong.”

– From Art Not Craft: The Process of Learning Creatively eBook

kids art drawing

Every now and then I forget the golden rule but not this time, though I do admit, I was making mental assumptions! You see that blue line running down the page…I thought it was a snake. Mostly because the previous drawing (shown below) featured a snake (as identified by Immy). Similar types of lines, easy to make an assumption! Good thing I didn’t because I would have been wrong! Instead an invitation to tell me about her drawing (if she would like to) resulted in a wonderful imaginary tale involving a fairy, a boat, a cave and a waterfall! So. Not. A. Snake 🙂

kids art drawing

And just because I love children’s drawings, here is one more to enjoy 🙂

kids art drawing

Needless to say, fairies are very popular here at the moment!

What have your children been creating recently?

P.S. For more ideas about talking to young children about their artwork, check out Art Not Craft here.

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

6 Comments

  1. Lots and lots of pink and purple unicorns.

  2. Love and 100% agree with this! We try really hard to ask if our little guy will tell us about what he’s drawn but it really can be hard to remember at times.

    We also don’t judge his work by saying “That’s beautiful!” or “That looks great!” because it’s up to him to decide what he thinks about what he did and if he’s proud of it or not. I don’t want him to try to please us and create only in ways that he thinks we’d approve of. If we want to say something about what he’s done we say things like “I see that you used a lot of blue!” or “look at all of these circles over here, and the way you made dots with the marker and then lines with the pencil” or “look how you mixed the blue and yellow paint and it made green!”. I also ask “What do you think of your painting/drawing/etc”. The only time I say something like “great job!” or “good for you, you did it!” is when he has drawn something for the first time and is excited about it. We’re also just not into over-praising. 🙂

  3. Kate @ Puddles and Gumboots says:

    I never ever make assumptions out loud about what my kids drawings are of, and I would be wrong 90% of the time if I did anyways haha. I am loving seeing Immy’s interest in fairies pop up in her different activities, so adorable!

  5. Another one who loves kids drawing….Nate loves when his drawing makes mummy “happy cry”. I do remeber the golden rule most of the time….I just wish daddy would, although I’ve told him I cringe as I hear him go through a list of guesses as to what it the drawings are. Lucky for us everyone in our family has been alocated a favourite colour and we’re usually depicted in these colours….no assumptions though because textas do run out!
    I was just presented with a drawing of a monorail……so much detail and we haven’t been on the monorail for months.
    Houses, flowers, trees and rainbows regularly turn up in our pictures.
    Miss P 21months can draw all day “picture” today was the first time she explained her picture. I of course have kept it 🙂

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