Coloring Within The Lines

Ely spends a lot of time making his own creations from paper and various other substances (like the three dimensional house seen below, which he made yesterday in about 10 minutes.), but when is comes to ready made art, Kids' Mandalas coloring books are his absolute favorite. He is on his third book of the series now, having completely colored the first two. He spends a lot of time on them, even naming the designs of some of them when he is finished.

I've never taught my children to color within the lines. I've mostly tended to stay away from any form of direction in their art work as I have not wanted to tell them how they should create.

When GG was here for her last visit she spent some time with Ely, coloring in one of his Kids' Mandala coloring books. She talked to him about the different strokes that markers can make, about completely filling in the spaces and about coloring inside the lines. He really took their session to heart and now approaches his mandalas from a different angle. He takes much more time to complete each one and probably actually now gets a lot more of the calming, rhythmic nature inherent in the designs.

I'm so glad that my children have their extended family around them - to teach them from their perspective.

Night Rays Pattern from first book.

Work in progress - after lesson from GG.

Oh and when I asked Ely how he knew how to make the 3 D house, his answer was "I have many talents with paper."