Collaborative Art with a toddler

My son, like many many many boys our there, is obsessed with all things trains.  If he could play, see, watch, draw trains all day he would.

For months he has wanted me to draw trains (thank you Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World for helping me learn to draw trains.)

He has been directing me what to draw and where and here is what I was drawing for him in April.  At that time I did 98% of the drawing while he watched.

He would tell me what to draw, and I would also add things in as we talked about it what I was drawing.  I would also talk about the shapes and colors I was using to draw each item.  At the time he was not talking much but he did have a few words- train, dumdum (for dinosaur), wawa (water).  Of course many of the drawing were just trains, trains and more trains.

After watching me draw these for months he started to use the concept in his schemes.  This appeared in June.  As he drew this he mentioned tracks, train, and steam. The big “rectangles” are the train engines, and the lines coming from them are steam.  All of the circles are tracks.

He has continue to draw this almost everyday and here are a few examples of on his own.

Although he seems to have developed use of schemes in his drawings. He still likes to draw with Mama. So I have tried to find ways to make this educational, as us Mamas tend to do. He will draw the tracks and the tell me where to put my train/s. Then he tells me what letter or number to add to the car. He also tells me what colors to use.  Many times he will color in the cars I draw.  And if I don’t add steam- he makes sure to do so!  Here is some of our collaboration:

 

 

 

The one below makes me laugh because he was so worried about the train track because it ended.  I had to add a barricade at the end of the track so the train wouldn’t fall off the track and get a booboo.   He also was concerned that the weren’t any gates to protect the red line track from the brown line track. And the dots are rain.

Not only is he learning to draw and create, his vocabulary is being pushed and developed.  As a mom, and as a former art teacher, it is just so much fun to see his schemes develop, and even more fun that he enjoys creating art with his Mama!