Scribbling

[Josiegirl]

I have a just barely 4 yo who I know can draw simple shapes, people, etc.(I've seen her do it) But she refuses and it seems to be because I have younger ones who are still going through the scribbling age. I have tried to encourage her to draw flowers or people, something! Can you think of any way I can step up her motivation cause I know she can do it! I'm almost embarrassed to send home anything we've done because it looks like the 2 yo's work.

[JackandJill]

My son is just like this. He can draw, he can write his name and a few other words, but when we all sit together, he scribbles and globs paint. At first I was frustrated, but now I just let him do it. It didn't seem worth the power struggle, it ultimately took the fun out of drawing and painting for him. I also feel like giving it more attention was making him do it more.

When we are on our own, I will start a page off with say a truck or something, and tell him to fill it in. If I ignore him, he typically adds a man or bird, etc. That seems to work.

[Controlled Chaos]

I had a 5yo I watched who would scribble like that. It drove me nuts because she would go through paper after paper just scribbling and moving on. I praised the 3 and 4yo who were "doing their best" and "working so hard" and "creating such big kid art". She eventually started trying - which I cared about because she had problems in school and I wanted her to work on her fine motor. She couldn't trace

Unless I was worried for a reason other than creating beautiful art I would just send home what she does and tell me the truth. I wouldn't give it any attention, though I might model coloring and cutting and glueing from time to time.

[Josiegirl]

Thanks I'll do as you both suggested. I find it frustrating is all.
I was just wondering...she used to draw pictures of her whole family without me saying much of anything, except talking about who's who, things like that. I try to stay away from heavily praising kids but do strike up conversations about things. This particular little girl gets highly praised for hanging her jacket up, putting her shoes away, every thing she does.....I wonder if overpraising can cause kids to not care as much because everything they do gets praised anyways? Do you think that may play into it a bit? Maybe I'm just trying to over-analyze the situation.
Who knows, maybe next week she'll be drawing her family again.