My son hated coloring. He hated so much that he finished it as fast as he could just to be done with it. He is a perfectionist about some things, but coloring in the lines was not one of them. He wanted to read about interesting things like science.
The kindergarten teacher felt that coloring in the lines was so important that she wanted to hold him back a year to learn to color better since he didn't need to learn anything the next year. He could already read beyond a 5th grade level, could spell very well and could identify words that were verbally spelled out for him. He could even identify words that he had never seen before. He was also doing math above grade level including some multiplication and math with negative numbers. He could read an analog clock if there was a big enough difference in the size of the clock hands and he could count change but had to look at the nickel and quarter because size differences were a problem for him. He had undiagnosed vision issues but he was smart enough to compensate for them.
It didn't matter to the teacher that my son had a mild disability that affected endurance. His hands hurt after writing or coloring for more than five minutes. My husband and I told the teacher that we didn't care if he colored in the lines since we didn't feel it was a necessary skill. We didn't know at that time that he also had vision issues that affected fine motor skills.
We talked to the principal and a first grade teacher who told us we needed to homeschool. My son's endurance for coloring and handwriting never got much better even though he took piano lessons and did hand exercises. He is 14 now and we are still homeschooling.
