The other day while his little brother was asleep, my 6-year-old asked if instead of the normal reading together we do at this time, I would sit down and color with him. Of course, I said yes. He wanted us to both color in the same design. So he chose an image in one of our coloring books, I copied it onto two sheets of paper, and we both sat down with our colored pencils to begin coloring.

Coloring has long been considered a standard activity of childhood, and for good reason: it has many developmental benefits. So while at our house we generally start our drawing sessions with a blank piece of paper (like THIS or THIS), I have plenty of pre-printed coloring books around for my boys to color in.

Here are some of the Benefits of Coloring:

Coloring enables young children to practice holding a writing tool as well as to develop the muscle strength and dexterity necessary for writing. As kids strive to color within the lines provided, it develops their fine motor skills and improves their eye-hand coordination.

Coloring allows for some creativity without the daunting prospect of a blank piece of paper. If you look at a blank piece of paper and aren’t sure where to start, beginning with a coloring page may give you some inspiration, and there are books with every imaginable type of pictures available.

Notably, even the work of two people coloring the same design – as my son and I did above – will come out looking different depending on how they choose to fill in the spaces. In this way, coloring can function as a means of self-expression. You can also express how you’re feeling through the images and colors you choose to work with.

In addition to being fun in and of themselves, my 6-year-old generally uses scissors to cut apart his coloring pages and then mixes and rearranges the pieces, creating interesting collages out of shapes he may not have the coordination to draw on his own. In that sense, coloring pages can be the basis for other art projects.

As you can see from my picture above, we didn’t finish our drawings during my 2-year-old’s short nap. So this round of coloring fostered patience in my 6-year-old, as he needed to wait while I tended to his brother if he wanted to continue to work with me.

There is also the patience required to complete the coloring project itself. Completely coloring a very detailed drawing generally takes a while. In our case, I’m guessing the coloring pages will take several sessions of work to finish them.

Importantly, coloring helps to foster mindfulness and focus, as it’s hard to let your mind run after other thoughts if you’re concentrating on the details of a project – even a project as simple as coloring in a page.

Mostly, it was a fun time for my son and me to sit down together and do something a bit out of our normal routine. For while he often spends time coloring, I don’t typically join him. I enjoyed myself, and found that this simple childhood pleasure was still pleasurable for me.

I’m guessing that tomorrow during our quiet time, my 6-year-old will pull out our pictures so we can work on them again. I’m looking forward to it.

Do you sit down and color with your kids? Do you color on your own? What other Quiet Time activities do you engage in with your children?