Four Great Reasons To Encourage Kids to Use Colored Pencils

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Prang. All opinions are 100% mine.

Back when I had six children under the age of ten, life was crazy. The chances of having all six kids calm, cheerful, and happy were greatest when the twins were napping (no surprise there!) and the older four children were settled at the table with some kind of artistic project. I love to purchase high quality arts and crafts solutions like these Prang art supplies and encourage my kids to create.

At least a few times a week I would let my kids choose from colored pencils, watercolors, crayons, paint and paper and create to their hearts’ content. The results were often stunning in their simplicity and I found that the children were much calmer and happier at the end of that hour than when we started.

Our kids are a little older now, but sitting down to color a beautiful page is still a fun pastime. Recently, my kids and I discovered the joy of more intricate coloring with colored pencils. More than that, coloring is actually really good for kids and adults in several different ways.

I’m super excited to give you this free starfish coloring page hand-drawn by my oldest daughter who is currently studying graphic design in college. All of those hours at the table really inspired her to love creating art. You will find the link at the end of this post.

Encourage kids to use colored pencils because coloring helps improve fine-motor skills.

In a world where devices and screens are king, fine-motor skills and handwriting are suffering. Getting kids off of devices with a pencil in hand helps build finger muscles and improve those fine-motor skills. One of the reasons I love these Prang colored pencils is that they can be blended for fun variations and the colors are very vibrant! This really encourages kids to use them because of the quality.

Each pencil has two different colors inside a real wood casing which makes them super easy to sharpen correctly. They are also very durable! That’s a big deal when you are having kids color all the time.

Encourage kids to use colored pencils because coloring is calming.

Back when I was a freshman in college, I went on a bit of a coloring binge. This was before coloring as a hobby was popular for adults, but I read somewhere that coloring was a great focusing activity, and I just became engrossed in it. From the day I got in that very long registration line for freshman orientation week, I had a coloring book in hand and I was coloring away. Before long, my entire half of the dorm room was covered in pages I had colored.

Even after I stopped coloring constantly, I found coloring to be very relaxing and calming when I needed a break. Recently, scientific studies have confirmed that the simple, repetitive motions of coloring can be calming for kids and adults alike.

Encourage kids to use colored pencils because coloring is screen-free entertainment.

As a generation, our kids are spending far too much time in front of screens. Coloring is super portable, cheap, and delightful entertainment without screens! Whether your child needs to stand in line, sit in a car, sit still while adults talk, or just entertain themselves for a while, coloring is the perfect screen-free solution to keep kids occupied.

Encourage kids to color because colors are a great learning aid.

Turns out coloring is great for learning! That’s because the use of color helps our brains organize and store information. So take those facts your child needs to memorize and add some color and you will be helping your child learn. At the same time, getting out the colored pencils when it’s time to work on math facts adds an element of fun.

Whether you and your kids are coloring for fun, for relaxation, or for study I think you will enjoy this fun free coloring page with your new Prang colored pencils!

Download your free Starfish Coloring Page here.