Somewhere this month a refrigerator door is about to get a new piece of art. A crayon sun with green rays. A grandmother drawn slightly larger than the house behind her. Grandparents keep this kind of thing. It goes on the fridge, into a wallet, behind glass on a hallway wall, and it stays there long after the child who made it has grown taller than the doorframe.
A coloring page is a good place to start, because it hands a child the drawing and leaves the choices to them. Which color is grandma's sweater? How red is the heart? The page does the hard part. The child does the part that makes it theirs.
The portrait pages
Start with the person. A grandmother with her glasses and her teapot. A grandfather on the porch with a fishing rod he has had longer than any of the grandkids. These pages work because a child already knows these details by heart, and coloring them in feels like paying attention.
Let the small specifics stay. If grandpa's cardigan is always green, color it green. If grandma keeps a cat on her lap, that cat is not optional. The gift is the recognition.
The "I love you" pages
Some pages skip the scene and go straight to the feeling. A heart the size of the whole page. A bouquet tied with a ribbon. A banner waiting for a name. These are the ones kids reach for when they want to say something they do not quite have words for yet.
There is room here for a message too. A child can color the flowers and then, in the white space, write grandma's name in their own handwriting. The wobbly letters are half the charm.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free for iOS & Android. No ads, no sign-up, offline-ready.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free coloring app for kids. iOS and Android, phones and tablets. No ads, no sign-up, even offline.
The pages you color together
The best version of this holiday happens before any gift is wrapped: the two of them at the table, one page between them, disagreeing gently about whether the sky should be purple. Grandparents baking, fishing, reading a story under a blanket: color these together when they visit, or send one ahead so something is waiting to be finished side by side.
Coloring moves slowly, which suits a long afternoon. Nobody checks the time. That is usually the whole point.
The little pages made to mail
Not every grandparent lives down the street. For the ones a few states or an ocean away, keep it small: a single sunflower, one big heart, a hot air balloon drifting over nothing in particular. A young child can finish a bold, simple page in one sitting, and a flat page folds neatly into an envelope.
Send it early. Grandparents Day falls on September 13 this year, and a colored page has some distance to travel.
What else could you color?
Pick a prompt or type your own — opens in a new tab.
Print, color, give
Here is the whole set. Pick the page that looks the most like your own grandparent, hand over the crayons, and let every color choice be theirs. The finished page is heading somewhere it will be looked at for a long time.
