My four year old is too old to be doing this, I would have thought, but she keeps drawing on the wall. She seems genuinely not to comprehend that she shouldn’t be doing this, no matter in what manner we explain this to her. She says with no hint of guile things like “But I didn’t have any paper” etc. And she promises not to do it again–and she does it again the very next night.
We thought she didn’t have any access to writing utensils last night, but she found a marker somewhere…
Right now she’s not allowed to use any writing/drawing implements at all, anywhere in any manner, but of course this isn’t ideal. And I’m thinking about getting her some kind of whiteboard to hang on her wall for when she gets these vertical drawing urges.
And my question is, have any of you tried this before, and did it work? It might work because it gives her a way to “draw on the wall” without damaging the wall. It might not work because she might really be wanting to “draw where I’m not supposed to draw.”
A whiteboard was my first thought. There are lots of colorful dry erase markers, and I know when I was a kid, color variety was a huge deal. Second was chalkboard paint - I’ve seen several decorating shows where they’d paint the bottom of the kid’s room wall to be a chalkboard.
Is it just one section of wall in one room, or does her urge strike all over the house? And do you have her help clean up her mess? Maybe having a consequence will drive your message home. Other than that, I’ve got nothing.
They have these cool chalkboard doors these days. Is it possible you could put one of those on her bedroom or something. And then try to get her to only use that?
This is interesting. Is there a theme with her drawings?
When my daughter was much younger we covered the area in plain newsprint and swapped it out when it was full. She was only 2 though, but it did minimize the impact. She still draws incessantly, at 13, but manages to keep it off the walls. But not her notebooks, shoes, hands, homework…
Could be worse - I was definitely older than this when I used to pick the wallpaper off the walls at my Granny’s house
:eek:
Reminds me of a scene at family Christmas a few years ago too. One of the little cousins - probably about 4 or so at the time - is dinging away at the coffee table with a fork. Mum commands him to stop it, in case he damages something.
He looks up at her with soulful big brown eyes. “But Mum! But … but I WANT to!”
Chalkboard paint is good for this too. Paint a section of wall, or a piece of plywood/drywall and hang it up.
One plus with a chalkboard vs. whiteboard is that you can get chalk off of most anything, dry erase markers… not so much.
When they were preparing The Boy’s Room, Middlebro wanted to stick whiteboard velleda all over the bottom of the wall. SiL vetoed any such ideas, since no child of hers would ever think of breaking any rules*: the top of the wall got painted light blue, the bottom a darker color.
After the first time The Kidlet drew on the wall, SiL tried to call upon Paternal Authority. Middlebro merely raised an eyebrow. She huffed, puffed and asked “do you have any of that velleda handy then?” “Matter of fact, I do, since I had already bought it. Give me five minutes.”
That time when Mom gave us permission to draw on the walls because they were about to get painted/wallpapered is one of our happiest memories. Giving The Kidlets an area where it’s OK for them to draw has proved a good idea, they don’t do it elsewhere. They’re also provided with plenty of paper.
She’s Mz Rules; Middlebro OTOH is known among our friends as “the guy who’d take the Law of Gravity off the books if he could”.
I don’t know how to keep your kid from drawing on the wall, but in case you didn’t know, I just wanted to say that Magic Erasers are GREAT for getting crayon and some other writing utensil marks off walls (and other surfaces).
Don’t discourage her wanting to pick up a pencil to draw or write, she’ll need those fine motor skills for school!
Encourage her natural abilities with a white board, chalk board or an easel, or even a big roll of paper. I had all of these available for my kids. I would roll out a 5 foot section of paper on the hard floor and let them get busy with markers, bingo markers, stampers, whatever. They ignored the coloring books at stores, always gravitated to the sketch books instead. Now they both have “portfolios” of their work. Both have natural talent, one posts her stuff on deviant art and has a following of admirers…
I was also going to suggest the chalkboard paint, as long as you’re sure she’ll just use chalk on it. If she uses markers or crayons on the chalkboard, it’ll ruin it. You can always paint over it again, but do you want to keep doing that?
Maybe a combination of a section of wall with chalkboard paint, and an easel? Kids do seem to like standing up while creating their masterpieces, so an easel would be a good idea. You can get a big roll of butcher paper or craft paper from a craft store or teacher supply place. Little Tykes makes an easel with a chalkboard on one side. There are clips on both sides, so either side can be used as an easel.
What happens when she draws on the walls? Is she punished? Obviously, you don’t want to punish her for being creative, but she’s more than old enough to know that she can’t draw on the walls without repercussions.
They have washable markers out now. I don’t know how well they work on walls, but they seem to come out of the carpet pretty well. I believe there are washable crayons as well.
The other idea is not to worry about it much, you’re going to have to paint when you leave most likely anyway. If it’s only in one room then it’s really not that bad of a problem. Though I do know how you feel as I get the same way I’ve started to let it go.
I never drew on walls as a child. It would obviously lead to punishment, which could have been severe. I suggest you can stop this activity through emotional and physical abuse integrated in an overall attempt to make your child an obedient robot.
Or you could take the advice of others and get your 4 year old something else to draw on.
YOu really don’t have to paint the wall. get the big roll of paper and then award her with “drawing on the wall” but on the paper. Bust out some new crayons, you’ll soon learn her favorite colors to use. Mine loved brown. ? She’ll get the message. She may still stray on occasion and doodle wherever she is with a pen in hand, even on herself. I have one of those kids…
Does she do it “openly and notoriously” as we say in the law or does she sort of sneak-draw on the walls. Which is to say, do you catch her at it?
If she hides it from you, or does it ONLY when you cannot witness her doing it, she knows on some level it is wrong (or at least, that you wouldn’t like it). If she just goes for the wall in plain view of you, there is something she is not grokking.
I would lurk in wait for her to start, then jump out with a can of pennies and rattle them loudly to alarm her. No wait, that’s what you do with cats. Crap, I’m no help.
Fry, don’t take it that seriously. I doubt you’re intending to inflict damage on your child, and I’m just agreeing with the others. I had awful parents, they were just ignorant, and badly parented themselves. Relax OK. It’s not a comment on you. I was only giving you an extreme “Don’t do this” example, which I’m sure you had not ever considered as a solution. You’ve seen my posts, do you think my parents succeeded in their wrong-headed attempts to rein in my behavior? I don’t see anything all that awful in your child’s behavior, except for some gray hair showing up sooner than you expected.
I had some success with having my kid help me scrub the marks off the wall. Not as a harsh punitive thing, but I’d have him come over and help me Magic Erase the crayon off or whatever. It seemed to help him make the connection to “Oh, this is why I’m not supposed to write here.” (We had the same problem around the same age with my oldest, and now again with my youngest.)
I usually leave a huge supply of scrap paper within easy reach, too, which seems to help.
or does she sort of sneak-draw on the walls. Which is to say, do you catch her at it?