Maria Montessori discovered that children have their own developmental time clocks and they are obedient to inherent laws of nature as to when they are ready to develop a certain skill, such as coloring.
Children love work that is suitable to their level of development, and they need to be left in freedom to choose their work from an environment that is specially prepared to meet their developmental needs. Coloring sheets, colored pencils and crayons may be made available for the child to use, as he desires, as soon as he is old enough to respect the materials.
Accompanying the coloring book are hand colored illustrations that can be downloaded separately. The colored illustrations set the standard for the child’s coloring work.
The colored pictures for children are food for the absorbent mind of the young child. Each picture stimulates joy and conveys the feeling of peace and many other positive qualities such as orderliness and cheerfulness. The child age 0 to 6 years absorbs his environment, and the impressions he absorbs become the very stuff of which his mind is formed.
Showing children pictures of the grotesque, monsters and hellish creatures may inflict harm upon the mind that is forming. It is essential that whatever is appropriate, purposeful, wholesome, harmonious, beneficial and beautiful surround the young child whose mind is in the formative state.
Montessori points out that it is the normalized child who will grow into an adult capable of correcting the ills of society. (The normalized child is the child whose mind has not been formed in various patterns of deviation. Read The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori.)
Children may see the colored illustrations long before they are ready to begin with
coloring work. We highly recommend that the colored illustrations be used as flashcards for babies because of the positive impressions contained in each picture.
Coloring prepares the hand for writing and all types of handiwork. Children 3 years old and younger will work to perform, and perfect with their hands what they have absorbed with their minds. They will color the pictures again and again until they achieve the level of perfection they are striving for. It is crucial that children have the example of excellence set before them.
Parents can set high standards for their children by providing them with examples of excellence such as the colored illustrations, which are intended for use with the coloring book for this very purpose.
Link to colored illustrations page to download them. If you do not have a colored printer we suggest that you take the PFD file of colored illustrations to a color copy center.
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This beautiful coloring book comes to you, free of charge, from International Parenting Association and as a gift from the heart of our beloved children’s artist Madeleine Morin Soltis. All rights reserved.
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