Maybe you're making dinner.

Maybe you're folding laundry.

Maybe you're trying to answer one email or place that order for coffee before someone needs you again.

You hand your child a coloring book and a box of crayons, hoping for just a few minutes to get something done.

They sit down and start coloring.

Maybe it's blue for the sky, green for the grass, and brown for the dog.

Or maybe they pick orange…

…and color everything orange.

The flower? Orange.

The dog? Orange.

The sky? You guessed it.

Orange.

And maybe orange is simply their favorite color. ❤️

But after 23 years of teaching kindergarten, I've learned to look a little closer.

There can be so much more happening during coloring than we realize.

Before that crayon ever touches the paper, your child is looking.

They're noticing what they see, connecting it to what they know, thinking about what makes sense—and then making a choice.

👀 Look. 💭 Think. 🎨 Choose. ✋ Do.

It happens in seconds.

And that's pretty amazing.

Slow it down for a minute.

You don't have to turn coloring into a lesson. You don't need to correct every color choice or sit beside them the whole time.

Just be curious.

“What are you working on?”

“What color could the flower be?”

“Is your sky dark because it's nighttime, or bright blue because it's daytime?”

“What do you notice?”

You're helping your child look before they choose.

And that matters.

Because if your child wants to create a rainbow tree for a make-believe world, I'm all for it.

Give me the rainbow tree.

The rainbow house.

The purple polka-dot spaceship.

That's imagination. ✨

But if every tree, house, car, flower, and sky becomes a rainbow simply because that's the habit, it may be time to slow down and help them really look at what's in front of them.

Creativity isn't about ignoring what you see.

It's about seeing it, thinking about it, and then deciding what you want to do with it.

That's where creativity and thinking meet.

And sometimes, the best thing we can do is ask a question and wait.

Let them look.

Let them think.

Let them tell you.

Because children don't need us to give them all the answers.

They need opportunities to discover things for themselves.

A child noticing a detail is practicing:

👀 Observation

🎨 Decision-making

💬 Communication

🧩 Problem-solving

And somewhere in all of that, something even bigger is growing:

❤️ Confidence.

At Wimzee, this is the kind of learning we want to make room for. Our experiences invite children to look, listen, think, and do—to explore ideas, make choices, and turn their thinking into something they can share.

Because our job isn't to fill children's heads with all the answers.

It's to help them become confident thinkers who know how to find their own.

Before children become readers, writers, scientists, artists, and innovators, they are first thinkers.

And here's the encouraging part for all of us parents:

You don't have to create another activity. You don't have to buy another toy. You don't have to add one more thing to your already-too-full day.

Sometimes, you just have to pause.

Look at what they're doing.

Ask a question.

And listen to what comes next.

So the next time you hand your child a coloring book and crayons, take a minute to look a little closer.

You may think you're giving yourself ten minutes to get something done.

And you are.

But you may also be giving your child ten minutes to practice something much bigger:

👀 seeing, 💭 thinking, 🎨 choosing, and ✨ creating.

And honestly, that's a pretty wonderful thing to grow from a box of crayons.

🎨 Join me for a Wimzee class Monday evenings!

Little Story Studio, ages 3-5 from 5-6pm EST

Creative Design Studio, ages 8-12 from 6-7pm EST