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This article was contributed by Elizabeth Shelby you can purchase her amazing coloring books here.
Summer is a season kids usually look forward to, with all the free time they would get to have and all the fun activities they would usually do. But came the COVID-19 pandemic, along came the COVD-19 blues as well, as the pandemic limited the activities kids can do for fun and kept them indoors to keep safe from the virus. An activity that can give the best of both worlds is coloring in coloring books. By giving kids coloring books, you can help color their COVID-19 blues away. They’ll have fun coloring on the many pages coloring books provide, while they are kept safe as they enjoy it indoors.
Great Reasons to Give Kids Coloring Books This Summer
Coloring in coloring books is a classic recreational activity that kids are sure to enjoy. Give your kids some coloring books, and they’ll definitely appreciate it. Other than that, there are more reasons why it’s highly recommendable to give coloring books to your kids.
Coloring in coloring books is a classic recreational activity that kids are sure to enjoy. Give your kids some coloring books, and they’ll definitely appreciate it. Other than that, there are more reasons why it’s highly recommendable to give coloring books to your kids.
Safer Recreational Activity
When it comes to summertime, we’d think of fun outdoor activities like beach-going, camping, visiting an amusement park, etc. But nowadays, going outside is not as safe as how it used to be. The family could get exposed to the coronavirus. But it doesn’t mean that outdoor activities should totally be eliminated. It’s just that going outside with the family would entail extra precaution to keep them safe from the coronavirus. When you provide your kids coloring books, on the other hand, your kids would be able to have fun indoors without you having to fret about their safety.
Providing coloring books for your kids to enjoy coloring indoors wouldn’t require a lot of those safety measures that have to be done when going outside. And you wouldn’t worry too much about the virus. You’d feel more at ease, while your kids would have more fun even if some outdoor activities get canceled.
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Entertainment for Hours
Coloring books usually contain several pages of illustrations for kids to enjoy. Even just one coloring book can provide several hours of entertainment with the several illustrations it has in store. The fun doesn’t stop when they finish their masterpiece on one page. After they’re done with a page, they can move on to another, so on and so forth.
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Less Screen Time
Nowadays, that there are many gadgets and electronics kids can get their hands on, they would tend to get too much screen time. And that can result in many harmful effects such as bad posture, eye strain, myopia, risk of obesity, lessened cognitive ability, etc. Providing coloring books for your kids can be a great solution for lessening screen time.
The screen time kids often engage in can be replaced with coloring in coloring books. It’s just as fun but much better for many reasons. One is that it doesn’t cause many harmful effects, so it’s safer. It also allows kids to have fun in a way that’s more productive and creative. It may also even help reduce the electric bill.
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Family Bonding
Coloring can also be a way for parents to bond with their kids. When you have time to spare, you can spend it coloring with your kids. Kids who still don’t know how to color and don’t have coloring skills yet could use the help of their parents. You can teach your little ones how to color properly.
It would also be a fun opportunity to teach the different colors. Colors can be taught through a color-identifying game as kids choose a crayon to use. Other fun learning games you can do are a shape identifying game or objects counting game before your kids color the different shapes and objects in a picture.
Parents can also join their kids in coloring. You can enjoy coloring with your kids too. It will take you back to your childhood when you first enjoyed coloring. But coloring is also not only for kids. Different age groups can enjoy this too.
How Kids Benefit From Coloring Books
Although seemingly a mere book containing several images, there is more to coloring books than just pictures to color. Coloring books can also serve as an instrument in kids’ development, whether physically, cognitively, and emotionally. In a couple of hours or even just a few minutes that kids get occupied in coloring, they are also able to develop skills that are essential in life. And as they engage in it often, parents would sooner or later notice the impact of coloring in their kids’ early childhood development.
physical benefits
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Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
Coloring involves various actions that require the coordination of the hands and eyes. Whenever kids perform those actions, they are practicing their hand-eye coordination, thus it is improved in the process. An action most effectively improving this skill is when they attempt to color neatly within the illustrations’ outlines. In doing so, they would need to precisely maneuver the crayons in accordance with the details they observe with their eyes. Moreover, other actions such as selecting from the box of crayons which crayon to use, grasping the crayon selected, flipping over to the next page, and sharpening up a crayon also contribute to enhancing hand-eye coordination.
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Develops Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills, which are the ability to perform tasks using the small muscles of the hands, fingers, and wrists, are required in the activities usually done in everyday life. However, these skills are not yet fully developed at a really young age. Letting your little ones color would aid in developing their fine motor skills. The various hand movements that kids would do in coloring exercises those particular muscles involved in fine motor skills. Therefore, those muscles would be strengthened, and kids would be able to perform everyday tasks with their hands better.
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Contributes to Better Handwriting
Engaging in coloring often would not only enhance kids’ skills in coloring, but this activity can also aid in preparing them for writing. Along with the hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills kids acquire from coloring that could also help develop handwriting skills, attention to detail, hand strength, and dexterity, which are necessary for writing also get developed in them. Through coloring, they get trained to maneuver an object based on the details they see. So when it’s time to start learning how to write, it would be easier for them.
Cognitive Benefits
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Inculcates Planning and Organizing
Before kids start coloring, they would often aspire to create a beautiful work of art. So they would brainstorm how they can come up with satisfactory results that they can proudly show to their parents. They would be thinking of what colors would work best on a picture, in consideration of what colors would go perfectly together. This practice instills in them planning and organizing.
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Stimulates Creativity
A picture for coloring that is sitting in front of kids would prompt them to conceptualize the design they will apply in the picture. And that would stimulate their creativity. Putting careful thought and actualizing their imaginations on the page allows them to practice their creativity.
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Enhances Concentration
A substantial amount of focus and time would be required in order for kids to finish coloring a picture. They would need to focus their attention on a picture they’re coloring until they have completely filled it with colors. And each time they color would contribute to the enhancement of their concentration.
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Educational
coloring books are not only fun. They can be educational too. You can find a variety of coloring books with educational themes, such as numbers, alphabets, animals, science, space, etc. That kind of coloring book allows kids to learn from the images that they color as well.
Moreover, there can also be opportunities for learning on coloring books with non-educational themes. There are still many things kids can learn through other coloring books like colors, shapes, counting, vocabulary, etc. Of course, kids would also need the guidance of their parents to be able to learn from those coloring books. Parents can teach their kids about information related to the picture their kids are coloring or as brought up earlier in this article, they can have a game with their kids at the same time.
Emotional Benefits
Coloring really does help in preparing little kids’ hands for writing. With all the skills necessary in writing that it can develop, it would make learning how to write easier and more fun for kids. So let your kid color as often as they can. Buy them as many coloring books that they can enjoy for more developmental fun.
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Stress-Relieving
coloring books can also be helpful in times of stress for kids. Pleasurably coloring in coloring books peacefully would also feel therapeutic. As kids enjoyably do it in silence, it can give them a feeling of calmness. Unpleasant thoughts and feelings can be forgotten when they color since it’s a delightful and relaxing activity that can distract them from any negativity that they experienced.
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Encourages Emotional Processing
When coloring, it’s either kids can be distracted from negative experiences as mentioned earlier, or they can reflect on those experiences and express their feelings through a creative activity. It also becomes a means for them to cope amidst distress. So they learn emotional processing, which would allow them to manage during difficult times by being mindful.
How Coloring Books Can Also Benefit Parents
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Coloring Books Aren’t So Costly
There are only a few things that are very cheap yet very interesting that can hold a kid’s attention for long periods. One of them would be coloring books. Sure, parents can spoil their kids once in a while with expensive stuff for recreation. But when they’re looking for something inexpensive, coloring books would be a great option. And despite coming at very affordable prices, coloring books can not only bring loads of fun for hours for kids but also a lot of benefits.
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Preparation Is No Hassle
Busy parents wouldn’t want to deal with anything that would add hassle. Thankfully, coloring in coloring books doesn’t require much effort in preparing. The preparation for coloring is as simple as providing their kids with coloring books and coloring materials.
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Allows Parents to Be Productive While Kids Are Entertained
As coloring books keep kids busy and quiet in their own space, parents would also be able to work on other matters. They would be able to work in silence and concentrate. And they can work continuously without any botherance from their kids.
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Allows Parents to Get a Break
What with all their responsibilities in parenthood and as an adult, parents definitely are deserving of relaxation and enjoyment. Giving their kids coloring books to keep their kids occupied will allow them to get for themselves some time to relax and enjoy. It shouldn’t just be their kids’ enjoyment they should think of, they need to have time for their own personal enjoyment as well.
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Ensures Their Kids Are Engaging in a Safe, Worthwhile Activity
There are several things for entertainment available for kids that they can possibly take advantage of. There are so many toys kids can possibly play with. Many gadgets and electronics give them access to all sorts of games, videos, shows, and movies. And many places for recreation and leisure give them many options for having fun outdoors. Although there are plenty of choices for them for entertainment, not a lot of those options are safe and worthwhile, which are two factors that parents would often consider for their kids’ activities. An activity that ticks both factors is coloring in coloring books.
Coloring in coloring books is an activity that kids can enjoy indoors, so this helps to prevent them from being exposed to the virus outside. It also doesn’t cause any other harmful effects to their health, unlike when using all sorts of gadgets or electronics. And compared to playing with some toys or doing other recreational activities, it’s more beneficial for them. Because it aids in childhood development, it allows them to be productive. And it can also be a means for coping with distressing times.
Conclusion
While kids need some sort of recreational activity this summer, it is also necessary to prioritize their health. You wouldn’t want your family catching the coronavirus. So make sure that everyone practices caution in whatever kind of activity they do, and that includes the recreational activities kids engage in. Providing your kids coloring books and making them stay indoors instead helps ensure their safety while they enjoy the entertainment and other advantages it provides. It really does help parents in keeping their kids safe, and they also get some other benefits from it too.
Did You Find This a Good Read?
Greetings! I’m Elizabeth Shelby, a mother of two kids with a passion for art and developing kids to their full potential. I have authored a number of coloring books, which are mostly for kids. And I also write in my own blog. Creating art has always been my passion since childhood, and it was influenced by my grandmother. I also hope to share my passion with kids in a way that can add a splash of color to their lives and at the same time promote their development.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can check out more content similar to this on my website, letscolorimaginations.com. I also have a mailing list you can join if you want to be updated on new stuff I post and release. Plus, if you join, you’ll get a downloadable coloring/activity book with 22 fun-filled pages for free!
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