Line Drawings

Line Drawings; Drawing Categories for Kids

One of the most important things we provide for the kids in our lives are line drawings superimposed on the paintings of their lives. We accentuate the picture of their world with dark ink, pointing out the important things to us personally, and to the culture the child has been born into.

When they are born, a child’s little brain receives stimuli and messages that they are just beginning to learn to process. Through trial and error, they learn to make sense of the world by interacting with their environment and with the people around them.

It’s amazing to watch and participate in. The child in the stroller watches the world go by and observes with wide open eyes and ears. She sees a neighbor wave at Mom. Mom waves back. Then she sees a great palm tree hand waving in the wind. She lifts her little hand and waves. But Mom doesn’t wave. “That’s a tree,” she says. “The tree branch looks like it’s waving at us in the wind.”

The child learns that we wave at people, but we don’t wave at trees. Mom is accentuating the world her child sees with values and customs. The child is learning what is important. As good realists, we believe the world itself hasn’t changed, but how the child interacts with it and sees it has changed.

When my first was born, I had no idea how her personality was going to change my world. A shy person by nature, I prefer to blend into the walls, but when my little one got around people, she began to shine. Heads turned, the barametric pressure of the room actually changed, and there was no hiding at a party.

At first I used to shush and hush her…bring extra toys to try to keep her quiet and settled. Over time it was a useless exercise. She was who she was, and I began to think to myself, “Why do I think it’s better to be quiet and unobtrusive in public? There is absolutely nothing wrong with letting her be the little extrovert that she is!” I began to separate my idea of politeness from the personality traits of quietness and shyness. My hope is that I have been teaching her politeness without squelching her personality.

Most of the line drawings we create for our kids are just an outpouring of our internal values and culture. They are almost invisible to us. But it’s worth thinking about and evaluating the categories (line drawings) we draw for them as we notice them because it could be an opportunity for personal growth. It also may help us identify the values we really want to teach and make us more proactive in the process of showing and teaching kids about what is really important to us.