Capturing children’s attention is easy. Holding it has become more challenging over the past few years. I’ve seen this through working in schools. But give a child a stick of charcoal and step back. See what happens. The child quickly becomes absorbed. Offer a bone to draw – evidence that a creature has lived, walked, swum, eaten, died – and children flourish. Give them permission to get their hands (and faces) dirty. Make them laugh and squawk. Allow, encourage this release. Teach them that drawing is a language of its own: a child can communicate ‘fish’ anywhere in the world by drawing a picture of it.  Try this yourself, have fun. Speak to your children in grunts, in gobbledegook, through a foreign language - while drawing simple motifs for them to see. Ask them to guess the subject as it appears: eye, star, tree, butterfly, cat . . . 

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When children draw, notice how they draw, and foster their unique abilities. In doing so witness their imaginations, motivation, confidence, creative thinking and their learning soar. Confidence creates enthusiasm. This spills into other subjects. Make connections: bring visual art into maths, geography, history etc and vice versa. Ask the children to show each other their pictures. To speak of what they like in other children's pictures, to interpret them, and praise them. They learn so much and quickly from each other. 

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