Coloring in the lines

Madelyn has finally given in to the “right” way to color! Ever since she started using crayons to color, instead of scribble, she has had a hard time staying the lines. Not only that, she has also had a hard time coloring a picture to make it look like it would in reality, like a tree with a brown trunk or green leaves. Instead the tree would end up with all black colored so that you really can’t make out it was a tree to begin with… and she liked it that way! Now, hear me say this, I’m not complaining – REALLY, I’m not! I love that she has her own ideas of how things should be. She is a very independent thinker! (And God, please, please!, may that work out in YOUR favor!) But I’ve had this thought that she needs to know how to color to be successful in kindergarten. I don’t exactly know why. And I’ve also known that if I pushed her to color “right”, she would continue to bulk at the idea. So about week ago I challenged her. I told her, “I don’t think you can color without going out of the lines.” I listened carefully (without looking at her) to see how she would take this. I knew she’d either agree with me (dead end) or she’d decide that she could and show me! I’m SO GLAD that she chose the latter. It really was a gamble on my part. The second part to coloring “right” was thinking about what color should be given to each item being colored. I casually pointed out a couple of days ago that each thing in the picture could be a different color and that she could try to make each thing look like it would “for real” if she wanted. And that was all it took! And that, my friends, is how we went from this:

To this:

I also figured out this week that Madelyn REALLY doesn't like it when I tell her that she has done a "great job!". Wow... I've been saying this about everything since she was a baby... so I've been trying to stop and instead say things like, "That is beautiful!" or "Way to go!". It's been hard but I'm seeing a big difference in how she is responding to it! Thank you, God, for this marvelous insight into my daughter!