Step-By-Step Drawing Book: Learn How to Draw

How to Draw - Step by Step Drawing for Kids and Beginners

Drawing is the first step of learning, be it at home or in school. Children start making doodles on the things at home and depict their internal feelings through various expressions. It is the natural way of their development both physically and mentally. What they see and how they see it matters a lot because it builds their imagination and it is considered the source of learning and acquiring knowledge. Drawing, with its various benefits, builds a strong foundation for children. Let’s discuss them.

1.  Gross and Fine Motor Skills: Development in motor skills of children is very important, it defines how well a child would be able to write well in his/her coming years if the gross and fine motor skills are fairly managed by parents at home through various drawing, colouring and pattern writing exercises. One can easily understand the difference between gross and fine motor skills through a very simple example if a child draws a line or a circle not accurately, but in its resembling shape, it is an example of gross motor skill. When a child masters that skill and start making a perfect line or a circle, it is an example of fine motor skill. A child starts writing haphazardly, but after practising for a year and more. His/her handwriting improves to such an extent that the child starts writing between the lines. Fine motor skill is the specialised movement of a hand or one can say the movement of the wrist, because it helps us throughout the life whether it is writing, doing something at home or outside, working on a computer or simply riding or driving.  All these things can be performed through fine-motor skills. Drawing is the best way to improve motor skills because it not only entertains children but also helps them to understand their surroundings in a well-defined and managed way. They start with doodles and then colour objects given in various colouring books. Their skills improve when they take books which teach them how to draw. Such drawing books foster their imaginative power.

2.  Visual Skills Improvisation:  Children see various things in their immediate surroundings. They start anaylising their shapes, sizes and colours. It is the process of their visual improvisation. This skill helps children know things better. They start behaving with these things according to space these objects acquire and colour they reflect. This is the same time when a child develops emotions of fun, laugh, fear and getting scared.

 

Knowledge of distance and comparison help children throughout their lives. Drawing is the perfect source of improving such skills in a very calculated and planned way. Children start drawing with simple concepts like drawing of banana or mango to a little advance and complicated images such as a car. That kind of drawing should be promoted and encouraged by parents at home because it is going to define the lifelong success of a child. It does not mean the concepts of mathematics and languages are not necessary or important for kids, those are the fundamental concepts, but drawing and colouring can be very helpful as assistance.    

 

3. Concentration : Drawing and colouring is the best source of developing concentration. Each activity or image draws the attention of a child. He or she spends time with the picture of a particular object and simultaneously develops concentration. One should not forget that a concentrated mind is the source of all success in life. It can observe things around and develop a proper understanding of them. These are the same minds which have developed all the luxury items we proudly own and enjoy in our daily life. So here is a point which can be said and taken undisputedly that drawing and colouring engage an individual and develop his/her concentration power.

 

4. Hand-Eye Coordination: Drawing and colouring connect the dots of various essential things that a child needs. In this process, hand-eye coordination cannot be spared. It requires proper skills to do things of various orders – simple to complex – in our daily routine, that can only be handled through proper coordination between our senses and external body parts. Drawing and colouring connect these dots and help a child grow into a well-groomed individual.

Confidence and Problem-solving Skills: We always talk about confidence. What is it? It is the ability to feel comfortable in doing or resolving situations that challenge you. How could one feel comfortable in complicated situations? It is possible only then when you work hard and resolve problems without running from them. In this case, you develop such problem-solving skills that take out yourself from that intricate situation. However, such problem-solving skill develops through various reasons, but reading and participation in various activities - drawing and colouring can be one of those.  

English Comprehension: How to develop comprehension skill?

 

What is the purpose of reading comprehension?

Understanding of a topic remains thicker than the rote-learning, it makes a proper base and ultimately helps a child grow into a well-read human being. Let’s understand it with some other example, we read a beautiful paragraph about the geography of a wonderful place, we have got a wonderful voice and people enjoy listening to us, but what is the purpose of such reading when reader does not understand the meaning of geography, if a person is telling about the geographical features just by reading then how could it be possible for that person to imagine such place or its physical features. Let’s take another example, you are going with your kids to a market to buy daily stuff, but you do not know the units in which that stuff will be available and money to be used in exchange. These simple and daily skills are improved by comprehension. It is an essential part of study when it comes to reading content and understanding it. It is an important tool of reading which helps children recalling things which they have just studied. Our purpose of being read just winds up when we could not understand the study material that we have in our hands, however, we could just read it. That is completely useless.

How do we know that the Earth is oval-shaped? This is because we have learnt about the physical features of Earth through modern-day satellites. Well-learned and reputable people of society wrote down a wonderful history of theory and practices for us, that still inspires us and leads us to live a better and wonderful life. They compiled their experiences in the form of books and we just sit on our study table and read what they achieved in their lives and we continue from where they stopped their research. But how could you understand these wonderful theories, this needs skills and that skill is fostered by comprehension. You cannot imagine that a child could understand anything that he or she has just read; lack of comprehension skills would not let them understand these things. The main purpose of comprehension remains the same; it is developed in order to sharpen the understanding of children through stories, researches, discoveries and arguments. Thus comprehension plays a vital role on two fronts, first, it improves language and grammar skills as children spend a lot of time thinking on topics of their study – how to start and where to start. Second, it enriches children with loads of information that will help them in their lives. For example, what is the distance of our Moon from our planet Earth, this is a tricky one and you need to rote down the facts. But it is, though, not so important. However, if you start understanding that Moon does not have its own light and it just reflects the light of the Sun, this information is crucial and one should keep it mind. Because that is the difference between an animal and a human being – a human could reason, be logical to things and could be rational. Now we can say the importance of comprehension cannot be overlooked.  

 

How to develop comprehension skills?

Comprehension is equally important for every child whether he or she is interested in science or arts. However, it automatically improves the language skills of children, but its main purpose is to make a great balance between reading and understanding of a particular topic. Comprehension is everywhere, whether we are at home or outside. It plays a vital role in building our sense at every stage of life. Parents just need to spend thirty to forty minutes out of their busy schedules and help children understand things they see in their immediate surroundings. Daily reading and observation of things are very crucial and important. That can only solve the purpose of things a child should understand. 

Everything which is read should be followed with some logical questions so that a proper understanding of things could be developed. Parents should ask questions on the topic which is just read, it will not only help your child, but also help you enhance your knowledge. You need to make visuals of things related to the topic, which you both are reading. Share your childhood experiences and ask things happening in your surroundings. Always keep one of Albert Einstein’s quotations in your mind, “Imagination fosters your intelligence”. What does it mean? It means when you start visualizing things your strength to imagine things improves, and every brilliant task of this world that was once executed, first was imagined by a brilliant mind.

How could imagination be fostered? It could be fostered only when you start asking questions about topics that you are reading and start putting things in order and start visualizing what would happen next. This theory of next, if taken in a positive way, could lead to a wonderful life.

Phonics or Phonics Sounds: Fundamentals of Language

Almost all the alphabetic languages are taught through phonics. Phonics is a method that is used to teach reading and writing of the alphabet of a particular language. No language can stand alone without phonics that is why it is also referred to as decoding words. It reflects a very strong bonding between the sound of a certain language that one utters and alphabet one writes. It focuses on the sound of a word and the composition of letters within that word. In other words, it is a teaching program for students that helps them learning-to-read.

It is a matter of debate that if a teacher starts teaching reading, without a good introduction of phonics for kindergarten as a proper subject is very harmful to children. That is the reason once a child starts reading without the knowledge of phonics the much-awaited results cannot be achieved. Awaited results can only be achieved when there is synchronization between a program and its implementation. Further, that can be strengthened through techniques of instruction, management of classroom according to curriculum and grouping of students. 

Phonics can be taught in different ways. There are a variety of approaches that could be followed in order to teach phonics. These approaches can be categorized as learning individual sounds – M-A-T (three-letter word), OW-N-ER (five-letter word, but sounds like a three-letter word), rhyming words – CAT, RAT, HAT, etc., and consonant blends – BL – in BLOG, BLACK, BLOOD, etc. These approaches blend together and make a strong methodology for reading and writing an alphabetic language.  

From the point of view of improvisation in language, English adopted a large number of words from various other languages that exist in different parts of the world. This approach not only enriched its vocabulary but also diversified its culture. Their approach of absorbing words into their vocabulary gave them global exposure and English became the most popular language in the world, however, this is not the most spoken language. That is the reason we see different pronunciation of a word. For example, if a word from any language of India is included in English, then an English person will pronounce it in a different way in comparison to the person, who knows this word since its childhood.

Here we will discuss the patterns of English language that keep continuously changing and enhancing with different things that are found in its global surroundings. Look at these two letters – ee – sometimes, or most of the time, they stand for the sound – i, ie, ei or ea.  The words in which these letters are used are spoken with various sounds across the world. That variation in pronunciation takes the English language into the group of rules that are set to understand it.

Phonics Patterns of Vowels

Short Vowels: We all know that there are five vowels – a, e, i, o, and u. These vowels are pronounced for a very short period of time in a particular word. Look at the following words:

·        C-A-T (A – short vowel sound)

·        B-E-T (E – short vowel sound)

·        S-I-T (I – short vowel sound)

Long Vowels: We can understand the meaning of these vowels by their names. It is just opposite to short vowels where the pronunciation takes a very short space of time, whereas, in long vowels, it takes a bit longer space of time while pronouncing a particular word. Look at the following words:

·        SEE (S-E-E  – EE – long vowel sound)

·        MINE (M-I-N-E  – I – long vowel sound)

·        NO (N-O  – O – long vowel sound)

One thing that should be kept in mind that long vowels have the same sounds as the names of the letters. To be more elaborative, if you say the name of that letter, you will get a long vowel.

• Alphabet Phonics is the bases of language that help children understand the association between writing letters and the sounds they produce. Its instructions are taught in such a way that children start recognizing words and sounds, for example, letter – n will produce the sound – n as in the case of words like the nose, new, etc.
• The purpose of each subject should be to help and understand students its fundamentals. Phonics plays a very important role when it is implemented in a very comprehensive way at the level of kindergarten so that a proper letter-sound relationship could be understood by a child. Its implementation makes sure that a child starts recognizing a word then its spelling and further starts working on comprehension, regardless the grade in which he/she is studying.
  
• When we utter something, we produce a sound and when we produce a sound it takes the form of a language in which we converse with other people, whether they are living around us or living across the globe. It becomes the bases of our mutual understanding through which we share our feelings. This entire process is known as Phonological Awareness. It is referred to as an oral language, whereas phonics is referred to as a printed form of sounds. Phonological awareness and phonics awareness both are completely different skills. It is seen that a few children have some weaknesses in phonological awareness and some have problems with phonics awareness. But the possibility of having problems at both ends, whether it is phonological awareness or phonics awareness is very little. A child cannot have problems with both things at the same point in time.  Let’s understand this issue with an example, a child knows the sound produced by a letter, but he/she is not able to form a word, this is phonological awareness. But when a child orally mixes sounds and starts reading sit for set, lit for let, pit for pet, etc., then he/she is having phonetics problem.
  

Mandala Drawing and Colouring - Heal your Mind and Body

In India’s one of the most reputed and ancient languages – ‘Sanskrit’, there is a word called – Mandala. Mandala stands for the circles. Now, if you are fond of spirituality, you will find out that there are a few circles in our body. Each circle has its unique identity and that identity defines how profound you have become in your spiritual process.

 

Yoga unites all of us with universe and at the end peace, harmony and a feeling of fullness grow within. But not all of us can achieve this unification with universe, as it requires a certain amount of Yogic practices, but its essence can be felt through some low-order meditative practices.  However, there are no low-order spiritual practices, but from the Yogic point of view, such practices do not require certain qualifications for being a beginner.

Here is another formula developed by some great artists to gain the meditative mind. This is Mandala colouring. It relaxes us, calms us and finds a perfect balance between body and mind. The complexity and beauty of Mandala designs make us curious at the one end and continuous observation of things keeps us focused on a particular object on the other. It ultimately leads to meditation, which is the source of all happiness. Yes, it is the source of happiness. I am not saying, to be happy in life, you start with Mandala coloring books, but it is one of the processes that brings smile on one’s face without being involved in deep spiritual practices. However, if you do so, then there is nothing good like it.

Let’s have a look at the benefits of the Mandala colouring :

1. It relieves stress. Mandala drawings for adult are known for relieving stress of the human body and mind. There are a large number of worries in this world, whether they are related to jobs, businesses, finances, or relations. Whenever we fall ill, we take pills to recover, but when it comes to a disturbing mindset, a special prescription is required to get relieved from such a traumatic condition. In such a case Mandala coloring for meditation plays a very important role. When you colour the circular patterns it draws your deep attention. This deep attention is your concentrated mind. A concentrated mind is a meditative mind and a meditative mind is a source of all happiness, and no anxiety or stress can sustain in such a state of mind.
   Nature in Mandala Art
   
   
2. Mandala refreshes us. Attention brings concentration. A concentrated mind always takes holy dips in meditation and meditation is a source of happiness that we have discussed in our previous point. At this point we are going to discuss, whether Mandala coloring can refresh our brain. The simple answer is “Yes”. Happiness, yoga, meditation, concentration, etc., are related to a spiritual mindset, and mind is not a physical part of the human body. However, the brain is a well-known internal organ of the human body. We know about the two hemispheres of the human brain. Coloring, drawing, and paintings are known as brain refreshers because they require both hemispheres of the human brain to stay focused. These colouring activities create a balance between both the halves. Such intricate designs of a refreshing mandala – coloring book for adults – challenge the human brainial capacity. Human imagination improves when one chooses colors and fills up the spaces. A brilliant problem-solving skill develops when a person spends time in colouring Mandala’s intricate designs.
   
3. It redefines creativity. Mandala coloring books improve creative edge of a person. It is for everyone, however, adults enjoy it a lot. As of now, most of the people have gained so much momentum in their lives and there is very little scope to discover oneself from the scratch. This sort of coloring helps adult to rediscover their creative strength and a colourful restart comes in their lives.  
   The Nature Mandala Colouring Book
4. Mandala works as a healing tool. We all know that it helps in developing concentration and brings happiness. When you are happy from within, your immunity starts boosting. A healthy body and peaceful mind are parallel to each other. So this coloring improves the immune system of a person and helps in gaining more control of one’s body. Mandala colouring helps in treating various diseases through nature mandala coloring book for adults. They are known to have treated people suffering from various diseases. Such designs help in epilepsy, low-blood pressure, uncontrolled limb muscles, and many more.
   
   
   
   
   

A large number of individuals are using these designs to find out a perfect balance between their brain and body. Their significance cannot be ignored and these designs will remain with humanity forever as their role in finding peace and happiness is under scrutiny, yet unprecedented.

5 Books that can work wonders for 3 years old kids

Books that engage children and enhance their reading experience are need of hours for all the parents. Such books help children learn various things easily and add a fun element in the learning process. These books instill a love for reading among children and help each of them grow into a delighted and more aware child.

Here is a list of 5 books that apply a scientific methodology while teaching for a better understanding of different topics. These wonderful books are Alphabet books – Capital Letters and Small Letters, Number Book, Colouring Book, and Puzzle Book.

1. My Practice Book Series (Alphabet Books – Capital Letters and Small Letters) builds literacy skills and records the progress of each child. It helps teacher and parents to look back and see how far the child has come in his or her studies. 

• This series develops a habit of writing and helps children improve their handwriting in a proper and well-graded way.

• Each book in the series helps children understand the formation of alphabet and numbers, which are made up of straight lines, slanting lines, semi-circles, circles and curved lines.

2. My Practice Book Series (Number Book) is the third book in this series. It covers number writing from 1 to 20. Its multiple exercises of continuous writing help children master numbering exercises. It is developed with the aim to provide children with an appropriate practice of numbers. 

3. Spring - My First Colouring Book makes children curious about things they see in their immediate surroundings. It helps them raise questions about them. With this core aim to let children understand their world this wonderful book has come into being.

• This book helps children make choices between the things they like or dislike by colouring and later drawing them.

• Its large and beautiful pictures draw the attention of children and encourage them to colour the pictures naturally.

• It helps children know how to make comparison between different shapes, sizes and patterns, thus it encourages their logical and analytical bent of mind.

• It encourages children possess good colouring and drawing skills, because if they draw a perfect square or circle or any other shape, their ability to identify the numbers, letters and words increases.

4. Puzzles for 3+ Kids is an important book in the Think & Grow Series. This book works wonders in developing the problem solving and reasoning skills of children. It is seen that children who regularly solve puzzles grow with much better life skills than those who do not.

• This book brings such activities that are based on objects which children see in their immediate surroundings.

• It provides such puzzles that are a constant source of mental stimulation for children.                                           
• It boosts the confidence of children that helps them solve puzzles much faster and prepares them for some complex reasoning-based exercises.