A Case For Coloring: The Benefits of Academic Coloring

It’s interesting how many of us consider coloring to be solely a preschool, kindergarten, or at least lower elementary school activity. We excitedly offer coloring pages to our little ones with the changing seasons and holidays, and with each new science unit. And then…we stop. Out of the blue. Without concrete reason. As they get older, we suddenly begin to relegate the idea of coloring to non-school time, mistakenly thinking it has little or no value anymore. And just like that, the crayons are gone.

Today, I am encouraging you to consider another option. What if coloring DOES have value for older students? What if it IS still an important part of learning? What if…well, I’m inviting you to join me for a moment and you will understand.

Let me ask you a few questions. Does your brain picture memories and things in color, or in black and white? Chances are, you answered “in color.” For example, the flower stand at the market…did you just imagine the red roses, the yellow sunflowers, and the pink and white carnations?? How about the park you visited with the kids? The house you grew up in? I am pretty sure that you pictured each scene in your mind IN COLOR. Now you see what I mean! Color is how we remember things!!

Academic learning (cognitive learning), memorization of facts, and recall are not very different than you remembering the color and texture of your favorite high school sweatshirt (you know you had one!!), or your grandma’s old berber carpet. Basically, if your child utilizes coloring as one of his/her means of learning, doing so more fully engages the creative right side of the brain, as opposed to using primarily the logical left brain. Now the brain will be working at a higher level, and who doesn’t want that? Higher brain function translates (in school terms) to better information retention. And you definitely want that!

The scientific reason for this better retention is pretty straightforward. The human brain categorizes and stores information in three primary ways:

• the sensory register store
• the short-term store
• the long-term store

Fundamentally, the more of these memory stores that can be utilized, the better the students will be able to retain and recall information. If you’d like to read a whole bunch more about how this works, please click HERE.

Coloring also has many more benefits. The list is very long, but some of the “big” ones include fine motor skills development and practice, brain training for focus, extending length of focus time, improved geometric thinking (yes, math!!), and even improvement of map skills. For a more exhaustive list, please check out THIS second article I found.

In our homeschool, we utilize coloring a LOT. (Even for the high schoolers!) Here are some examples of how I incorporate coloring each school day:

• HISTORY=maps, pictures, portraits of important people, scenery appropriate not the area we are studying, timelines with colored pictures
• READING=journaling each chapter with both words and sketches (I have them use colored pencils exclusively for this, so as not to have markers bleeding through the journal pages)
• MATH=coloring in shapes and lines, using multiple colors if highlighters on important concepts and new terminology definitions
• SCIENCE=labelling diagrams, pictures, flow charts, portraits of famous scientists

For multiple students, and when working outside of a textbook or consumable workbook, I make photocopies of each page, three-hole punch them, and have students file them in the correct category inside the rings of their three-ring binder. Can you imagine the mess of papers without this filing system? I’ve seen it…it’s not pretty, haha. More on that concept in another post!

Here’s a list of items I always keep on hand to help in facilitating learning by coloring:

1. colored pencils
2. printer paper
3. printer ink
4. functioning printer/copier
5. highlighters
6. 3-hole punch
7. rulers
8. markers
9. thin, black Sharpie for outlining (only suggested for ages 10+)

My hope is that this has been a useful source of ideas and encouragement to you today. It’s always my goal to help you bring more joy to your homeschooling days, your kids, and your home. As we learn and grow together, I pray that you will experience a new-found, or renewed, sense of peace in your schooling adventure. Thanks for checking in!