Hi, my baby loves chewing the crayons, while I want to teach her to draw. What should I do? She’s already 10 months and a half old. Eventhough the crayons are non-toxic, it’s discouraging to see her not trying to do anything else with them and I worry swallowing crayons is harmful for her. Everyone else in my family talks against letting her use crayons. Thank you in advance for any advice.
I think you are worrying too much. Putting things in their mouths is very common for babies that age, so don’t stress about it. Even my one year old still ‘tastes’ everything- books, pencils, pens, toys, blankets, etc., etc. I borrowed books from the library for him to look at, and when I wasn’t looking, he ate it up! :ohmy: I learnt my lesson that day. lol So, if you must give her crayons, be around to supervise, otherwise they’ll end up in her tummy. Though the crayons may be non-toxic, it may not be safe for her to be eating crayons, same with eating books, like my little chap did. There will come a time when they lose the urge to taste and eat everything, and then you can teach her drawing and give her crayons without having to supervise their use.
I read Dr Gentry’s book ‘Raising Confident Readers’, and he talks about this very issue of babies wanting to taste stuff. On page 77, he says: ``Book handling begins early with baby’s grasping. Baby’s touch sensitivity is first developed in the mouth, so expect babies to explore board books with their mouths and their hands’’
In other words, get used to the fact that everything will always be tasted first, before it is used. He also explained this concept in an interview that with babies, putting things in their mouth is their natural way to explore things, to learn about them etc. So when a child tastes a book, he learns about the texture, etc.
And about encouraging writing, Gentry recommends several things. It’s a very long list on page 87 of his book, but I list a few such as
- Guide babies in marking marks with markers
- Model drawing
- Draw something together
- Draw while you tell your child a story
- Take turns using crayons
6 Think of your baby’s joy or fascination with smearing food as a cue to introduce art
and so on
So in a nutshell, my advice would be to encourage drawing, but ensure that drawing sessions are properly supervised. And don’t get frustrated that she prefers them in her mouth than on the paper. According to Gentry, that’s how babies learn about things -by tasting them first.
Enjoy your daughter!
EDIT: Below is the link to Dr Gentry’s interview which I talked about. After listening to Gentry’s response to the interviewer’s question about her son’s book-chewing tendencies , I made peace with my child’s tendency to ‘taste’ stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93J5NjUxPeI&list=UUFV8q1KIdrkB5updZRz-wMw&index=10&feature=plc
And more interviews by Gentry can be found on his youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RaisingGentryReaders/videos
Have you considered a magnadoodle? They are very popular at our house. The magnets are easy to hold to learn making marks. The “pen” doesn’t have ink, so baby can’t eat it. And you don’t need a huge supply of paper.
And thanks for the info, nee. The video was very informative!
Thank you for your replies! nee1, the video is great, I agree with annisis, thanks for introducing me to Mr. Gentry’s methods. With my baby, the thing is that she doesn’t seem to care that much, when I draw the lines with either crayons or the magnanoodle. Another thing is that she seems discouraged, as she has trouble trying to control the crayons in her hand to imitate what I do. So she chooses to do what she can easily does with them, that is anything but drawing. I’m also teaching her the names of colors, to draw her attention to the differences between colors.
You seem to be having the same issue that I am battling on and off with my oldest. He is the type of child that prefers to watch me do something a million times before he tries it himself. I try to leave materials out where he can get themwhenever he likes. And I think a very big break through for us was a game we would play on a small easel chalkboard. He would draw a squiggle on the board, sometimes big and sometimes small. I would then add to it to turn it into a picture. And they would often be very abstract pictures! Kind of Picasso looking! The point was just to get him to make marks and then mommy or daddy would show him that every mark is worth something- every mark can be turned into something. He loved this game and eventually started to draw himself (because I always left it in the middle of the living room). I would watch out of the corner of my eye so as not to interreupt. At about 2, he was drawing cars, houses, shapes! Out of no where on both the board and his magnadoodle.
I think watching me work with what he made, no matter how crazy his drawing looked, made him feel capable. And maybe a little less like a perfectionist? (Gifted children tend to develop perfectionist qualities… and I daresay, our children are gifted in this forum!)
How about showing modeling videos, such as the TV Teacher www.tvteacher.com or making your own that are similar? (there is a drawing video on there, along with letters). It’s simple if you know how, a pain if you don’t. The materials cannot be grabbed when they are on screen while she is figuring out what to do, and later when she gets then she may be more apt to repeat what she saw… You can add in videos of other young children drawing too, maybe youtube clips.
And this is totally normal, natural behavior! It will pass. 
We started with crayon rocks which are natural waxes made from soy beans. The way the crayons are designed help build hand muscles, do not break easily and they promote the proper grip for writing.
As he got older we introduced him to crayola crayons that are shaped like a triangle which also promote the proper writing grip.
http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-52-4016-16ct-Triangular-Crayons/dp/B001VXNFD4/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1343116288&sr=1-1&keywords=triangle+crayons
Wow, so many ideas, thanks so much! To annisis, I’m pracitising what you did with your eldest son. I hope this will work. I guess I’ll have to be more patient, I really admire what you and other parents are willing to do to help your children learn something. To TeachingMyToddlers and PokerDad, my baby can’t pay attention to anything for long, even the TV, but I will try to bring her to see older children drawing, so that she’s more encouraged to do what they did. To Mela Bela, I’m inquiring about the crayon rocks. This is really cool!