When to introduce crayons?

[Anonymous]

I am wondering when I should introduce my 15 month old to crayons. Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

When she doesn't put them in her mouth to eat them?

[Anonymous]

My son loved crayons at that age! In fact T the 15 month appt, that was one of the development questions - does he scribble? Don't let her rat them, but go ahead and give her those thick crayons.

[Anonymous]

Now, just supervise so they don't go in the mouth.

[Anonymous]

Don't overthink this. Give your kid some washable crayons and some paper. See how he reacts. My DD loved to draw at that age. I kept an eye on her to make sure she wasn't eating them (she never tried).

[Anonymous]

I let my DS (16 months) scribble with crayons but he still, once in a while, breaks one or decides to taste one briefly. He loves "coloring".

[Anonymous]

We started crayons and washable markers by 15 months - closely supervised bc although she never seemed inclined to eat them, she did like to draw on everything

[Anonymous]

It's okay to try then. However, don't start leaving them anyplace where they can be reached by a kid. I cleaned them up and put them on a shelf in the closet. I didn't want a lot of "artwork" on my walls.

[Anonymous]

asap

[Anonymous]

Now, for sure.

[Anonymous]

I started at a year. I agree with PP, don't over think this! If your child tries to eat them, oh well, you're there supervising so you can stop it before he bites off a chunk.


FYI, at that age, coloring sometimes lasted all of 5 minutes before ds moved on to other toys.

[Anonymous]

If she likes to scribble on plain white paper and you see a positive reaction from her when she sees the different colors on the page, then why not now?

As long as she is constantly supervised I don't see why not.

Just make sure she does not try to put them in her mouth.

The colors may tempt her to.

[Anonymous]

When he stops automatically putting everything in his mouth right away, and can hold the crayon. Also, get the really thick ones, as little ones can be hard on crayons. Mine delighted in banging the point against the paper to make dots. Thanks goodness we had the super-jumbo crayons.

15 months is definitely not too early. Our daycare does lots of scribbling with crayons and markers in the toddler room.

[Anonymous]

now! i started giving them to DD when she was maybe a year. 18 months now and i still have to watch to make sure she doesn't gnaw on them. but they're nontoxic; so i'm not fussed about it.

it is one of only a handful of tricks that permit me to quietly entertain a seated toddler for 20 minutes straight. (and this one is way safer than dumping out my coin jar and letting her sort, stack and throw them)

[Anonymous]

Now. And do yourself a favor and pay the extra money to get the Melissa & Doug break resistant triangular crayon set. Seriously, at that age, they tend to break crayons like crazy. The Melissa & Doug ones hold up so much better than Crayola or any others.