You don’t think your good at drawing. I get it – I understand.
It’s OK, you don’t have to be good at drawing to doodle with your child. In fact, the worse you are at it -the better. If your child watches you struggle with drawing - they might be more inclined to draw with you. The time you will spend together doodling, making mistakes, laughing at the silliness of your drawing - will be well worth it for both of you.
Every so often, when my kids were young, I would lay down on the floor with my sketchbook and just start scribble-scrabbling. Nothing specific, just doodling some lines on paper. I never asked them to come and draw with me. They would be playing with their toys, watching YouTube videos, eating a snack, whatever it was – and then maybe a few minutes go by and “what’chya doin Dad?“.
“Nothing, I’m just doodling – I think it looks like a monkey in the dentist chair”.
Not every time, but most of the time, they’d venture over and ask if they could draw with me. Success!
My kids are now 10 and 15–two boys. One is all about soccer and sports and hanging out with his friends. One is into anything and everything that’s new – first it was music, then it was skateboarding, then it was surfing, then it was Swiss Army knives, then it was drums, then it was back to music, etc. etc. - you get the point. Even now, every once in a while, I lay on the floor to work on My Daily Doodle Book and they lay down next to me – to see what I’m working on.
They don’t always ask to draw with me, but they do ask what I’m working on and if they ask - then I invite them to join in. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but they always smile and give me their feedback and encouragement and it means the world to me.
My prayer is that they will doodle throughout their lives and my hope is that you will too. Happy Doodling!
