Competition Entries

Our recent colouring competition evidently proved quite a challenge, however there are some great entries that have been submitted. Thank you to all our young entrants. The way that you have paid attention to the details and the vivid colours that you have used has really impressed The Crafti Bug. Great effort!

The hardest part is always in the judging, however despite getting all these entries, only one entrant met the entry criteria; being for children ages 4 - 8 years of age. Our winner is Saxon from Oxford, aged 6. He has used some great imagination with The Crafti Bug. Saxon, we'll be sending you a 4M Hover Jet!

Gizmo Generation

Ask almost any child what they want for Christmas and they will more than likely tell you about the latest electronic gizmo that has the coolest graphics, high resolution camera, internet capability, wireless functionality, connectability or some other high-tech feature. They have seen it on TV, or in the flyers that came through the letterbox, or their friends have got one. Of course there is no pressure to conform with everyone else, except being told, 'But I'll be the only one without one!' This sort of appeal is great for the IT businesses, since by the time you have purchased your product, it will have been superseded by a new model, or a competitor product, which is going through the final testing stages for the next release. 

Children are attracted to technology for a number of reasons. 

• They want to mimic their parents. If they see you using technology, they want to too, because you are the ones that they look up to and want to be like.
• Flashing lights, bright colours and unusual sounds attract attention. Even as adults we tend to look around when we hear unfamiliar sounds, because we want to know what it is, what's making it and where it is coming from. Lights and sounds stimulate children and so handling technology seems rewarding.
• Generally modern technology is small, light and easy for children to handle. There are not many activities that children can do today that pack so much mental stimulation into such a small package.

But the question that begs to be asked is: Is such exposure to high-tech products good for our children?

Without being unduly harsh, there are some really fantastic electronic devices available. Some programmes have been really well designed to help children learn in an exciting and interactive manner. The sights and sounds capture the imagination of the child and hold there attention while they work there way through the activity, but there is a foreseeable problem. While these devices do really engage children, they soon become yet another 'toy,' something that you can just drop when you are bored.  From that point of view educational tools may be put down when a child has 'had enough.' Alternatively, it may be the other aspect that children will not want to look at educational applications, because they are gripped by the entertainment aspect of the device.

With technology so accessible and able to be switched around from education to entertainment so easily, children will often opt for entertainment, because it is less mentally taxing. The result is that a powerful educational aid, may be neglected in favour of the toy aspect. Secondly, children start to believe that there is plenty of time to get education, because there are educational applications everywhere and they can take it or leave it as they wish. Thirdly, the low entry cost of technology now also means that some children are losing the real sense of value and they can throw things away for a new one when a better one comes along.

Technology while it has its benefits also has other costs. Not only is there the social cost associated with production, such as automation leading to a lower employment cost, there is also a social cost related to the user. Many electronic gizmos are captivating with their classy appearance and captivating graphics, but take it from another angle, how does it affect our attention span and sense of value? One could argue it is great, because people will spend hours on these devices. Very true, and writing this I feel just as guilty typing on the computer, while the kids are sorting out some summer clothes! But take away the technology and people generally become bored very quickly. Give them something that does not have an image that changes every few seconds and they will complain that it is boring. Our minds are constantly hankering for stimulation and the more stimulation they get, the better we feel.

Unfortunately not all stimulation is good for us. Too much stimulation and we find it difficult to rest. Too much light before going to sleep upsets the hormones associated with our 'body clock.' Light causes the release of one hormone telling us it is day and time to be active, therefore too much light at night, and you start not sleeping well! Expose children to fast moving graphics, motion and light and they too become overstimulated and unable to rest effectively. Some suggest that this is not true, but there are two simple tests you can do to prove it for yourself. One way to test if this is true is to take a TV programme you like. When you are watching the programme, time how long each scene/ angle lasts. You will find that the more entertaining the programme is, the shorter the scenes or angle shots are, many no more than 5 seconds, most are only a few seconds long. One result is that you become conditioned to having a shortened attention span.  The other is to watch something quite bright just before going to sleep. Often your mind will be recalling images of what you have seen, over and over and you will probably find it hard to settle. Likewise children with so many choices through interactive high-tech activities now have a significantly reduced attention span of less than 5 minutes, compared to children a generation ago that had an attention span of 20 minutes. 

Socially the cost of IT has also undermined the value of people. There are tremendous advantages of IT, but at the same time, children (and even adults) lose the sense of value of things because it doesn't blink, beep, connect to the internet, or give them wireless capability. Technology enables things to happen in nanoseconds, but that is not how the real world operates. Many traditional toys don't have the same stimulating appeal to children and because technology is cheap, it is believed that everything else should be cheaper, but just because something doesn't have all the bells and whistles does not mean that it should be cheap and disposable. We need to start re-learning the value of people and things. We need to bring ourselves back to the real world a world that isn't frantic, even if it is stimulating. We need to take time to slow down and take stock of the real world in which we live. We need to practice the art of being still as much as we need to stimulate our minds. Our children need to learn the value of people and things so that they grow to have respect of the people and things around them. Maybe we need to hold back on some of the electronic tools we have to re-evaluate the real value in life. Sometimes we need to take time and to use the Mainland Cheese adage "Good things take time!" If we want the best for our children, the absolute best they can have is quality time.

Colouring Debate

Time to get your Crafti Bug Colouring Entries in!

If you know of someone between 4 and 8 years of age let them know that they have up until 5.00pm tonight (10 October 2012) to get their colouring competition entry in (Get your entry form here). We will be posting entries here (with only one name to identify entrants).

The Colouring in Debate...

Colouring is a great way for children to learn a number of skills. Some criticise colouring suggesting that it stifles creativity because children don't get the opportunity to express their own creativity having the freedom to draw their own freehand pictures. This statement is a valid to a point, in that a child does have to follow the lines of the image; a pre-set structure. However creativity is more than freehand drawing. Children need some structure initially to learn proportions, but the structure provided by the colouring page helps in many other ways.

Detail

Give a young child a colouring in sheet and they will initially start scribbling all over it creating their 'masterpiece.' However, take time to show them how to start by following the lines slowly and carefully with one colour until they had filled the region surrounded by the black line and before long they learn how to stay within the lines to create some amazingly detailed pictures, all neatly coloured. We did this with our eldest child and at the age of three she was able to stay within the lines of detailed pictures, unfortunately however, people in disbelief stated that she should not get others to help her; a severe blow for one who was doing some amazing work! People simply did not believe it possible for a three year old to do, until they watched her do it.

Concentration

By focusing on the details, children increase their attention span because they spend a lot of effort concentrating on following the lines and understanding where the boundaries of colours lie. Children that are intently concentrating on their work are not so easily distracted by the events occurring around them. This can be a good thing for children, especially when there may be issues in their lives, which may be stressful. By giving a child something to concentrate on, it helps to distract the child from such events, and can help the child divert his/ her emotions into something constructive and relaxing.

Fine Motor Skills

Because children need to follow prescribed details in colouring pages, they learn to control the movement of their arms, hands and fingers. As details of the colouring page become more complex, the movements required to colour them become finer and the child, in desiring to stay within the line, will develop these fine motor skills quickly. Furthermore, having followed prescribed lines, children learn how to draw shapes and develop a sense of proportion. Eventually they are able to make their own additions to coloured images, completing some lines where lines may have been 'cut off.'

Colours and Colour Co-ordination

Although colouring generally does not encourage blending of colours, although nothing prevents it if the child is able, children are able to learn how colours work together to create images that look good. Children don't take long, once they start working within the lines, to realise that the sky looks better blue and the grass green. Our middle child started taking this a step further and amazed us by being able to pick colours that worked incredibly well in clothing, simply because she had learned to co-ordinate colours that worked well while colouring.

Creativity

Because a colouring page has already established boundaries it does not rule out the freedom to express creativity. Firstly, children are able to express their creativity in the colours that they choose and they ways in which they may co-ordinate them. Secondly the intensity and stroke patterns that they use can help create different effects adding some creative flair. As children get older, they start to see that colouring in pages often eliminate detail to simplify the image. As a result older children start to add back details that they believe are missing, thus expressing a sense of interpretation of art and expressing creative ability.

Colouring in Pages Enhance the Development of Skills Necessary for Creativity

Colouring pages certainly don't allow the freedom of freehand drawing, but they are a tremendous tool in helping children to develop fine motor skills, learn about colours and how colours work together. They also work well to help children develop excellent concentration skills, focussing their attention on a single activity in a disciplined manner (guided by boundaries) and gaining an understanding of how to draw objects in proportion.

The criticism that colouring pages stifle creativity is flawed in the sense that each child will learn to express creativity in many different ways adding their own personal touches to make their page 'special.' Even children given the opportunity to draw freehand need some creative inspiration, just as children colouring in a page may do, but colouring pages help guide children to accomplish works of art that they can delight in when they still do not yet possess the skills to draw the same image freehand.