The Upside of Colouring Using Wax Colours: Explore the Artist in Your Child

Colouring is the initial stage in a child’s exploration of creativity and pre-writing abilities. Children between the ages of 2-3 years begin learning how to hold colours and enter the joyful realm of colouring. This is a fantastic activity for developing their fine motor abilities and hand-eye coordination. Wax colours are designed to help children develop the proper pincer grasp.

Wax colours are usually a child’s first colour set, followed by water colours for school, oil pastels, and colour pencils for art hobby programs.

Advantages of Wax Colours for Kids

Wax Colours are extensively used since they are inexpensive. Another advantage is that these colours are easier for kids to handle. Smaller children do better with larger items since their fine motor skills are not polished, and they cannot control their fine motions as effectively as older children.

As a result, the greater the thickness of a wax colour, the better it is for your child’s fingers and hands. Another significant advantage of wax colours is that they have a more blunt end, so if a child attempts to colour on their own body, they will not injure themselves.

The use of wax colour improves a child’s ability to use tools, such as pencils, scissors, cutlery, grooming and hygiene equipment, and other practical items. By strengthening their colouring skills, children naturally master a writing tool in a fun and creative way. Children commonly complain about hand fatigue while colouring. Colour learning for kids can be an excellent exercise to build hand muscle endurance, which will also help them write for extended periods.

Why are Wax Colours More Popular Among Children?

A wax colour is likely to be one of your child’s first writing implements. Your child fine-tunes their pencil grip by experimenting with wax colours. Pencil grip is a combination of hand strength and practice. Both are possible with colouring!

Wax crayons are less messy, wipeable, and less toxic than most paints and markers. They are also blunt (removes the risk of sharp points), and come in a broad range of colours. In comparison to other colours, these properties make them acceptable for kids and hence popular among parents.

How does it Help?

Basic coordination abilities, such as holding colours correctly, sharpening colours, and knowing which colour to use, will substantially benefit your children.

Colouring stimulates your child’s creative side. A child creates a world in their mind before drawing the picture on the page. Wax crayons are easier to use and result in attractive outcomes for a child in the initial stages of learning how to draw or colour. They are ideally suited for beginners instead of other colours, such as poster colours or paints, for writing and filling images.

Wax colours emit a distinct waxy and flaky smell. It is considerably more appealing to kids unlike the chemical smells of poster colours, paints, or other colours.

Wax Colour can be Used in Various Ways: Colour Learning for Children

Colouring Pages with Symbols

This is one approach for making colouring pictures more appealing. Make little symbols for each colouring spot in the image.  Allot a symbol to each colour. The child can then determine the symbol and colour the picture accordingly. Use two to three symbols initially.

Colouring of Pages

One of the more classic methods of teaching the use of wax colour is through printed colouring pages. However, this strategy has both pros and cons. Staying inside the lines might be difficult for some kids, making colouring a frustrating pastime. Furthermore, some teachers believe that colouring sheets and books limit a child’s inventiveness and uniqueness.

Colouring pages, on the other hand, maybe enjoyable for young kids if used correctly. Give younger children simpler graphics, and don’t punish them for straying from the lines. Balance colouring book exercises with inventive drawing/ colouring exercises to make the kids think and put their imagination on paper.

Painting with Wax

When kids colour on white paper, they frequently experiment with the colour and discover that it is ineffective. This is a common source of annoyance. Allow the kid to scribble with a wax colour on the white paper. Then, dilute and combine some watercolour paints. Allow the kid to paint over their drawing using diluted watercolour. They’ll begin to notice the lines they drew. Children will enjoy watching the lines appear “magically.”

Artistic Scribbling

When kids first start colouring, they simply scribble or draw a few lines on paper. Their drawings may not be very beautiful or appealing at this point. Either make these designs more fascinating, cut out different shapes from the coloured paper and glue them onto darker coloured paper or colourful paper.

How to Use Wax Colours as Learning for Kids to Use Colour only on Paper?

One challenge in teaching children to use colours is that they begin using colours on the walls, tables, and books. When creating artwork, place it on a table that has been covered with newspaper or other paper. Encourage children to colour within the sheet of paper you have given and not venture onto the protective newspaper covering on the table. After colouring time is over, store all the colours in a box out of the child’s reach to keep them from using it on other surfaces.

Wax Crayon vs Pastel

Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. To thoroughly cover the entire surface with crayons requires a little effort and much pressure as compared to pastels. Pastels smear and smudge readily, making them easily transferable to the artist’s hands and other surfaces.

Colour Learning for Kids as Fun Activity

If you do not want to make your child’s colour training a monotonous, ‘go by the book’ experience, the Real School Of Montessori has you covered! The Real School Of Montessori has programs that can help build confidence in your child, help utilise their after-school time, or teach them the wonders of art. Real School’s Of Montessori expert mentors will provide quality art education through enjoyable methods, regardless of your child’s prior art background.

Access the Real School Of Montessori Programs by clicking here.