My daughter Aaliyah has just turned 8 last month and we have known from the start that fine motor skills, writing, and drawing are things that she has struggled with always. Her skills in these activities lag far behind any peers of her age group.Her older brother has turned into quite an artist and has just completed a mentorship with freelance artist Mounica Tata in Bangalore. Often, I see that Aaliyah definitely wants to draw and produce art and is often disappointed by the result of her own efforts. Probably constantly comparing herself to her big brother leads to her feeling discouraged and let down by her inability to do anything that looks even remotely similar.
Shapes and sizes, proportions, and several other details are often missed when she tries to draw even simple things, and the end result she is left with often looks completely different from the picture she expects to see take form on the page in front of her.
One day, while book shopping in a large bookstore, I happened to chance upon a cheap, old school book of kolam designs. Kolam is a traditional geometrical line drawing composed of curved loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. These are usually drawn at a house doorstep using flour and are usually symmetrical. Seeing that book gave me this lightbulb moment and I knew I had to get it and have Aaliyah try it out. Kolam has fascinated her in the past as well, but she never tried it out. I also picked up a simple notebook printed with squares, that she can practice these designs in.
The very first day that we took the book out, she was quite thrilled and we began with the simplest and smallest of patterns. BINGO!
It worked like a charm. Before we knew it, Aaliyah was pulling that book out to draw these every day.
What made this such an appropriate activity for her.
• The gridlines in the notebook provided guidelines to prevent her from going wrong. They also help her to keep her lines from becoming crooked or curvy midway.
• The dots are drawn before one begins drawing the pattern, and again provide a kind of guide to help her to avoid mistakes.
• Traditional kolam designs are usually symmetrical and have a continuous sequence of the pattern. This also helps make the drawing predictive once a single side is drawn.
• Kolam designs always turn out to be very pretty and pleasant to look at, and even though the lines are mostly geometric, most of them look pretty and floral. She loves flowers.
• Deciding on a color combination to fill in within the lines is fun for her, and involves a lot of mathematical skill and some challenges too, which she loves.
• She always ends up with a gorgeous pattern once completed, and I can see the pride she has in herself every time she flips through her notebook of kolam designs.
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