A child's view of the world they live in.....

In an earlier post, I had mentioned about how children insist on drawing houses in the typical way that their pre school teachers probably teach them to.
I have hence also noticed that most 5 year olds when asked what they would like to draw (in the first drawing class) mostly want to draw a house....and then they draw it in the typical style ...it seems almost instinctive !


But I wanted to experiment a little with these instincts ...so I started asking the child if they had ever seen a house like the one they have drawn.....Mostly that drew a blank face, and then a rather shy..."no
I have not seen it...but I imagined it all by myself !"
Then I prod them to draw a picture of the house where they live ...(imagination, btw is a great thing, but somehow the pattern that every 5 year old draws a house this way, makes me beleive this is just drawing what they may have learnt in kindergarten or seen in drawing books !)
I ask them if they live in an apartment, how many floors and so on.
This blog is to share the results of that experiment ...

Each child has been able to, with just that little bit of prodding, draw a picture that closely resembles the actual house they live in.


Here is T's picture of her apartment. She tried counting how may floors her apartment has while drawing the picture. She even improvised this the week after, with watercolors !


This is P's version of his apartment. He even weaved a whole story around the picture ...that he is waving to me from his apartment !













This is the latest one (see below sketch) is A's version of his apartment complex ...he managed to draw an aerial view of his entire apartment complex, detailing car park areas, pool, play area,
the 5 apartment blocks (marked A - E), the walkway all around even marking the speedbreakers ! I was indeed taken aback that a 5 year old was even capable of visualising an aerial view ...an amazing perspective that comes probably from living in a high rise apartment!!!

It is amazing how children can visualize and express in rather innovative ways !!
It is also a lesson for us adults to stop assuming that 5 year olds are capable of drawing only houses that we teach them to draw ! We may need just a little more patience to listen to the stories that the child narrates after drawing the picture, we would be able to appreciate the creativity and talent in the little ones!
So, if you have a young one at home or in school, never tell them what / how to draw, just be prepared to be suprised by what they have to show you !