I don't really see coloring books to have anything to do with art.
It would certainly be highly inconvenient to see that and admit it.
I don't understand what you are saying. What would be inconvenient or difficult to admit? They have nothing to do with art, I can't imagine anyone thinks they do.
I'd say for us coloring pages or coloring books were waiting for the entree to arrive at a restaurant. Maybe three hours a year? I can't say I can work up a head of steam about three hours a year of screen time either. I don't think the research suggests that most kids are on screens three hours a year, more like what five or six hours a day.
Playing a game is also different from moving dolls around; one involves rules and the other not. That doesn't make me worry about stunting DS6's creativity when we play strategy games. Learning to work within the confines of a rule-based system exercises problem-solving skills.
Rules and strategic play have existed for generations before computers. Surely I'm not the only one who remembers childhood play involving endless hours of rule creation and negotiation.
Screens aren't the same as play in real life. They don't involve using gross motor skills, feeling the weight of objects, experiencing the size of objects in real space, having the sensory experience of objects, interacting and negotiating with real people - reading their facial expressions, etc.
Children have not had the experience of struggling against an alien race to conquer a galaxy by creating with self created stories; they've imagined someone else doing them. One involves more strategic and tactical problem solving, the other creative writing or imaginative play.
It is odd to me to try to parse it out this way. My experience of kid play both as a parent and as a child is that it involved all of these - imagination, strategy, problem solving, conflict, cooperation, creativity. It is all there in kid play at least in kids who know how to play - something that is disappearing for some kids with more screens.
Take my word for it or not, but DS6 is very highly creative. I can't imagine that playing games has stunted his growth, just as you can't imagine that your children's coloring has stunted theirs.
Funny. I'm not sure where the coloring book obsession is coming from. I don't think it destroys a kid's creativity to color while they wait at a restaurant and if Grandma brings a coloring book a couple of times a year. It is time wasting handwriting practice. I also don't think screens at a restaurant a few times a year or at Grandma's is a big deal either. Of course we know that the real issue is that for most kids it isn't a very rare experience but hours and hours each week.
