Coloring Pages and Printables

What’s the scoop?

Coloring pages and printables are probably the most often searched for items online to give to children in kindergartens, early elementary school and in home schooling environment.

The problem is though with most of these coloring pages is that all they are are time fillers and really do nothing to really teach the children.

They are not only not educational but they are detrimental to children’s real learning.

According to Jean Piaget the famous child pschycologist, he discovered that children learn best through concrete experiences and that abstract learning does not really start taking root until the children are about 7-8 years old.

Children learn best by actually manipulating materials. Worksheets and printables are more abstract  and by giving children math sheets at young ages to either count objects, categorize objects or any other mathematical concept you are basically taking real learning away from them and making it sterile, boring and irrelevant.

The best way to learn math is by using actual manipulatives or other real objects for the children to handle. Then if you really want to use worksheets or printables you can transfer the learning from real life to the printable itself.

For example: You can have them measure some items, draw pictures of those item on a sheet of paper and then have them write next to that picture what they measured.

This way you are tying the concrete into the abstract which makes learning more relevant and less boring. They will also remember the information a whole lot better.

If you are also using alot of coloring pages you should know off the bat that you are tying your children into a box, keeping them away from being creative and letting them think that there is no way that they can come up with anything creative on their own.

 Coloring pages happen to be a cop out. they are not messy, it keeps the kids busy and if you are a teacher, it gives you something to send home to the parents.

It’s a crutch for many and its a very big pity that they are so popular.

There is even a movement for a idea called the “non coloring books for kids”. Sometimes though if kids haven’t been trained to be creative they get too frightened of the freedom and lack of structure that these non coloring books bring to the table.

For very young children it has not yet become a problem that they think they can’t draw. It’s not until they reach first or second grade that the kids start becoming self conscious and start saying they can’t draw a straight line. Maybe its time to start learning about true art for kids and how important  it is for young children’s development to learn how to think and solve problems and not resort to the same old coloring pages and printables.