Hubby's office organised an art competition for their employees children, and he was the chairman of the organising committee. Just for the fun of it, we enrolled S for a coloring contest, and did not want to put any pressure on him. If he finishes it, all well and good. If not, never mind - he can join in the other activities such as sand art, or watch the videos being played or get balloons from the clown.
When he arrived at the venue, he looked at the prizes and wanted to join in, in the hope of winning a prize. There were only 3 main prizes, for the First, Second and Third and 3 consolation prizes. The youngest category was 5 - 6 years old. He was underage.
Everyone was given a box of Buncho oil pastels which contained 12 colours. Too few colours, in my opinion, to create a good artwork.
He did his best to colour as smoothly as possible, and blending it with several colours to create some shading. I was so touched that he could do the coloring so well, as he doesn't usually display such patience and determination in completing coloring sheets at home. Actually he had wanted to win a prize, and he was aiming at a box of 3D puzzles that could be made into a dinosaur. He completed the coloring in 40 minutes. Halfway, he told me that his hands were tired. I gave him some water to drink and told him to pretend that he was a race car. He continued on.
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Waiting for the contest to start
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Coloring with determination
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The completed coloring
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Sandplay during interval
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When the results were announced, he was disappointed that he didn't win. How could he? He was under age. There can be a lot of difference between the artwork of 4 year olds and 6 year olds. There can be a lot of difference between the artwork of 4 year olds and 6 year olds. All the 6 winners were girls. Perhaps the fine motor skills of boys were not yet on par with the girls in the same age group?
On hindsight, I felt that perhaps it wasn't the wisest decision to enrol him in the coloring contest. It was meant to be for fun, but in the end he was disappointed. I told him that we could buy the same toy puzzle at the shopping centre, but he said, no, he wanted to win it.
However, I was very proud of him, that he could persevere and complete the coloring, despite being so young. He displayed some elements of delayed gratification and the ability to see things through to completion. There's hope for him yet.
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Group photo
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