Parenting & Creativity – Magazine

A giraffe pushing a shopping trolley down a supermarket aisle, its neck bent right over under the ceiling, trolley piled high with groceries, painterly childrens book illustration, warm and completely

Funny coloring page ideas start with one broken rule

A breakdancing dinosaur is not a distraction, it is how kids think. Why the best silly ideas break one rule, plus twelve to steal.

5 min read

A child's coloring book page of a garden where all the flowers have been colored in with the same single bold blue crayon, while a small handful of unused crayons in other colors lie beside the page,

Why does my child only use one color?

Coloring everything green? A one-color phase is usually normal. What it means at each age, and the rare times it's worth a closer look.

5 min read

Overhead flat-lay of several stacked reams and loose sheets of paper in different thicknesses and shades of white and cream, arranged neatly with crayons, felt-tip markers and colored pencils, one fre

Best paper for coloring pages, and when plain copy paper is plenty

Markers bleeding onto the table? Here is which paper to print coloring pages on, by tool and by budget, and when cheap copy paper is genuinely enough.

5 min read

An intricate dragon coloring page on a wooden desk, the left half richly colored with markers and gel pens in emerald and bronze, the right half still crisp black-and-white line art, around it a pair

Coloring for tweens, when the page finally gets as complicated as they are

Most tweens have not outgrown coloring, just the baby pages. What the activity really does for 9-to-12s, and how to keep it something they still want to do

5 min read

a printed coloring page of a friendly cartoon dragon lying on a light wooden desk, the left half filled in with bright colored pencil and the right half still black and white line art, a neat row of c

Coloring for school-age kids, when getting it right starts to matter

The age a child can finally stay in the lines is also when they start judging their own work. What to expect at five to eight, and how to keep it fun.

5 min read

A clean black-and-white line-art coloring-page style drawing of a tall rocket lifting off among stars, with only the engine flame colored in bright orange, yellow and white, the rocket body and starry

Space coloring pages for kids who'd rather invent than copy

Space is the one subject with no wrong colors. Planets, rockets, astronauts, and galaxies to color and invent, all summer long.

4 min read

A cozy coloring corner on a living room floor near a glowing television, two young children lying down coloring soccer-themed pages with crayons, scattered coloring pages and a cup of crayons, warm ev

A coloring corner that keeps kids happy through a World Cup match

Set up a simple coloring corner so the kids stay happy and you actually get to watch the match. What to pack, and how to time it to the ninety minutes.

4 min read

Flat overhead view of a homemade tournament wall chart on a big sheet of white paper, a bracket of empty hand-drawn boxes connected by lines, several brightly colored small paper flags placed in some

Turn the World Cup into a color-in wall chart for kids

Channel all that tournament energy into a wall chart your kids color a flag into after every match. Here is how to set it up in about five minutes.

4 min read

Warm lifestyle photo of a happy preschool-age child sitting at a wooden table coloring a simple picture with chunky crayons, a half-colored page in front of them, soft natural window light, shallow de

What coloring teaches a preschooler (and how to keep it fun)

Between three and five, a scribble turns into "that's a dog." Here is what your preschooler is really building when they color, and how to keep it fun.

5 min read

A kids coloring page of a butterfly among flowers, the left half still black-and-white line art and the right half bursting into bright marker color as if being colored in, a few colorful markers rest

Washable vs regular markers: which to hand your kid, and when

What 'washable' really means, how the two compare on mess and color, and which marker to hand your child at each age.

4 min read

A bold black outline coloring page of a friendly smiling star next to a puffy cloud, the star fully and neatly colored in vivid yellow inside the lines while the cloud stays an uncolored black outline

How to help your child color inside the lines (without taking over)

Staying in the lines is a skill, not a personality trait. Here is how to help your child get there, step by step, without taking the fun out of it.

5 min read

Flat lay from above of a large simple toddler coloring page with one big friendly outlined balloon shape, partly filled in with bright chunky crayon scribbles that spill past the outline, a few fat st

Coloring for toddlers: what the scribbles are building

A calm look at what toddlers are really doing when they color, why the scribble matters more than the lines, and how to support it without any pressure.

6 min read

Articles in "Parenting & Creativity"

Funny coloring page ideas start with one broken rule

Why does my child only use one color?

Best paper for coloring pages, and when plain copy paper is plenty

Coloring for tweens, when the page finally gets as complicated as they are

Coloring for school-age kids, when getting it right starts to matter

Space coloring pages for kids who'd rather invent than copy

A coloring corner that keeps kids happy through a World Cup match

Turn the World Cup into a color-in wall chart for kids

What coloring teaches a preschooler (and how to keep it fun)

Washable vs regular markers: which to hand your kid, and when

How to help your child color inside the lines (without taking over)

Coloring for toddlers: what the scribbles are building