Prompt #12 - Kids Colouring & Memories

Say hi to your inner child

What was your happy place as a kid? Was it reading? Playing outside? Or with your toy cars?

I was always happy drawing, colouring, and glueing stuff together. Well, according to my parents, I was also very happy just sucking on my thumb, and covering my eyes with the other hand, but let's not get into that.

Of course, not all childhoods are happy all the time. But thinking back to our happy moments can be a great way to improve our mood.

So today, let's try to connect to our inner child.

The Activity: Children's colouring page

Step 1: Get a colouring book

Find a children's colouring book or page that you can colour. Even if you don't have a little minion running around the house, those are always nice to have, and they are inexpensive as well. You can also find tons of them free to download and print online, like the ones from Crayola here.

Step 2: Colour away

Most colouring books work best with colour pencils or crayons, but feel free to use whatever you feel most comfortable with.

The good thing about kids colouring books is that the images are simple. And colouring like a kid means not worrying about realistic colours or the lines for that matter. Try to colour for the fun of it, not for the outcome.

Step 3: Savour a memory

While you're colouring, think about a happy childhood memory (this doesn't have to be connected to drawing). It should be a specific event that you remember with fondness. What were you doing? Who were you with? What are the sounds and smells you remember?

Try and notice which emotions are coming up for you, and hold on to them for a little bit while you're drawing.

My Example

I have a two-year-old, so we colour A LOT. I chose a page from one of her colouring books with a mommy pig and her little piglets. I started the mother off with a more realistic piggy pink, but then realised what I was doing, and went for a litter of rainbow piglets.

Realism and perfectionism are not at all the point of this exercise. I had another moment like this when my daughter decided to get involved and my first thought was “ah, don't ruin it”. Silly if you think about it.

The memory I was savouring was a day when my dad and I sat at the kitchen table and made little sculptures out of salt dough. This was in our old house; we moved when I was eight. So my best guess is that I was around five or six. I can see the dark wooden furniture and the massive table with a bench. My parents still have that table, so it's easy to see. The rest of the kitchen is a bit more blurry, but I see the basic layout, the counter, the window and the glass door out to the backyard. The sun is shining through the windows. Dad and I are placing our sculptures onto a baking tray that's sitting on the counter, ready for them to go in the oven.

I don't remember any of the sculptures in detail, except for one my dad made of a guy’s face, a bit comical, with his tongue sticking out. And I remember how impressed I was by it.

This is a very happy memory for me, and I hope one day my daughter will savour memories of us colouring pigs and dinosaurs together.