Anonymous wrote:Question for OP - is your 5 year old in school? I'm pretty sure my kids learned how to draw through preschool arts and crafts.

+1. My daughter just turned 4 and she started drawing stick ppl on the easel. She told me she learned that school. She can’t draw a whole lot of stuff but she can draw a caterpillar, sun, flowers. We didn’t teach her to draw AT ALL. I figured she must have learned it at her preschool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mechanical drawing (drafting) can be taught by rote. Artistic drawing cannot … but so what?

MMM, yes it can.

Agree. Funny the notions people have about drawing.

Anonymous wrote:Get her an evaluation for fine motor issues. Drawing isn’t “taught.”

Actually, yes it is. I don't know about the basics when a child is young, but past age 4 or 5, it absolutely is taught. OP's child should have basic ability by now. People think artists are born being able to draw, but it's 95% practice and hard work.

It's a developmental skill -- which means she won't be able to do it until her body is ready to do it, and at 5, it might not be.

My kid couldn't reliably draw a human figure (circle head, circle body, stick arms and legs) until he was almost 6. He took a long time on letters, too -- and it was laborious for him. But once it clicked, it clicked, and now he loves to draw.

Picasso quote: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." I am with posters saying let kids draw how they draw and at 5 make the engagement about "tell me what's happening in your drawing?"

Anonymous wrote:Artistic drawing 'taught by rote' just clones a renderer/copyist. It destroys whatever gift was there in the first place.

I think you are reaching. All artists learn to work within a medium, nobody is born knowing how to draw/paint/sculpt/sing/play an instrument/dance etc. Every single one of them worked at it, they all had to learn from someone/ something. You have to master technique before you can create anything.

Immediate PP here again. I'll also add she was in a Montessori preschool and learned TONS, but they didn't emphasize free drawing time, so she didn't get the confidence to practice on her own until she went to public school and they did a lot of free drawing in aftercare.

Anonymous wrote:Artists learn by mimicking. Show her how you draw shapes. She can watch and mimic you and make it her own.

+1. I think it's important to work on because it will impact her ability to write, if it's not already. She doesn't need to be an artist, but having basic confidence with a pencil will help her in school. I draw with my similarly aged kid a lot and describe while I'm doing it. You model, she watches and eventually learns to follow. So a body is :"first a circle for the head, then the smiley face, then the hair, now here's the neck, and arm, and other arm, and body, and legs and feet", a sun is: "circle then line line line line line, all done! What do you want to draw next?" You do it a bunch of times, then ask if she wants to try. And keep it simple, then build.

Also the tV show Creative Galaxy on Prime is very inspiring

Question for OP - is your 5 year old in school? I'm pretty sure my kids learned how to draw through preschool arts and crafts.

My DS is 5 and the same. He started K reading well above grade level and doing advanced math but completely unable to draw. Like the rest of his class drew nice landscapes and cats and butterflies, and he literally kept scribbling. It also affected his handwriting skills.

Artistic drawing 'taught by rote' just clones a renderer/copyist. It destroys whatever gift was there in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:Mechanical drawing (drafting) can be taught by rote. Artistic drawing cannot … but so what?

MMM, yes it can.

Mechanical drawing (drafting) can be taught by rote. Artistic drawing cannot … but so what?