Coloring pages vs. Creativity

I did something a little crazy last month. I got rid of all of the coloring pages in our Children and Worship rooms. Maybe you're thinking that's not as serious as I make it sound. Or maybe you're fully understanding the level of crazy this hits. It felt a little crazy to me because our coloring pages are the fall back option for my volunteers. It's the thing they can get out for the kids to do if they have run out of other options and still have 5 minutes to fill. It's their safety activity--almost like a safety blanket--something that's always there to fall back on if they need.

So why eliminate them? Two reasons: First, since the pages were only occassionally used, copying them each week ended up being a huge waste of paper. We have 37 weeks of Children and Worship from fall to spring and have 22 children participating in the classes that needed coloring pages. That's over 800 pages of paper that most weeks wasn't even being used!!

The more important reason, though, is that coloring pages aren't as beneficial for children's learning. In explaining the difference between "process art" (free art expression) and "product art" (color pages, directed activities), NAEYC points out the various benefits with process art, while admitting that there are few benefits with product art (Supporting the Development of Creativity by Laurel Bongiorno). In process art children strengthen their motor skills as they glue, cut, paste and play with clay. Their vocabulary expands as new art materials are introduced and new words are attached to those materials. And children experience growth in their social and emotional development as they're able to express themselves freely with a variety of materials. Certainly children work on some of these things with coloring pages as well, but not as many developmental areas are addressed with such a limited activity.

After reading the above article, I was completely convinced--the coloring pages had to go. But I have to admit, I was a little concerned about what would come next. I was a little concerned about making a creative space for our kids. But I'm a task person, so I just jumped in and started working my way down the list of supplies included at the bottom of the article. As I worked I found that the process was easier than I thought. It took a few days of ordering materials here and there and collecting items we already had at the church. I asked for magazine donations from the church and had a volunteer go through the magazines I received to cut out pictures that would be appropriate for the kids to use. Then I spent one afternoon organizing and labeling everything in our Children and Worship rooms. Overall, it took less time than I previously spent printing all those coloring pages.

The end result is pictured above, but here's a description of everything I added to our Children and Worship rooms:

• White paper thick enough to withstand paint and glue
• Colorful construction paper
• Crayons and twistable crayons
• Thick and thin makers
• Colorful masking tape and clear scotch tape
• Scissors
• Glue sticks and bottles of glue
• Play-doh and modeling clay
• Washable paints
• Magazine pictures

As you can see in the photo above, everything is well labeled and has a place on the shelf. This allows children to go find what they want and then find the place to return it when they are done. 

I love the end result, but must admit this is still a work in progress. One reason our color pages weren't being used is that we have a guided craft that the children do each week as we review our story. The coloring pages were just the backup activity if the children finished the craft before church ended. Allowing the children to pick their own art supplies and make whatever craft they want each week would better support their creativity and self-expression, but I'm not sure my volunteers are quite ready for that level of chaos. So for now, the free art is how the children fill their time if they finish the guided activity early. Baby steps!