Have you heard about the InkTober creative drawing challenge? For the last few years in October I have seen posts on social media with photos of all kinds of cool drawings from my creative and artistic friends. This year I decided it would be the perfect activity for Ellie and I to do together! [Scroll to the bottom of this post to find the PDF printable I made to help you quickly get started on InkTober drawings with your kiddos!]
InkTober was started in 2009 by illustrator & cartoonist Jake Parker as a way to improve his ink drawing skills and develop a greater habit for personal drawing. It caught on quickly and has become something that people from all over the world look forward to participating in each year! You can find all the official info at https://inktober.com – but the basic idea is that you use the provided word prompts to do an ink drawing each day for the entire month of October. Then you can choose to share it on social media with the #inktober or #inktober2021 hashtags. The best thing about this challenge is seeing all the different ways that people’s ideas blossom from those one-word prompts! Here are the drawings Ellie & I made on day 1:
I love to draw, but truthfully I can probably count the times I have sat down to actually do it in the last few years on one hand. I’m just busy with ALL the other things, you know? So it’s been fun the last few days to have a sit-down-and-draw time planned ahead!
Honestly, though, that’s not why I’m doing this. Ellie is 8. She is on the cusp of hormone changes and entering the weird tween years. 😱 😭 Drawing is the thing that she loves MOST, and she asks Brian and I to draw with her…a lot.
I’m embarrassed to tell you that I have allowed myself to be so busy with everything else in our lives that I just haven’t made it a big priority to make sure we guard and preserve the 1:1 time she’s been craving. Can you relate?
So when I started seeing the posts with the prompt words for this year’s InkTober, I knew it would be the PERFECT opportunity for Ellie & I to spend some intentional time together each day doing something we both enjoy! Here are our drawings from days 2 & 3:
Because I’m a kids’ activity & worksheet nerd, I decided I needed to make a fun pumpkin themed PDF for all of you! There’s a pumpkin with a prompt word for each day, where you & your kiddos can do little mini drawings. 😊 Of course, you can also use construction paper, printer paper, or any half-used sketchbook you have lying around the house (if your house is like mine, lol)! The point is just to spend a little bit of intentional time together each day – seriously, even 5-10 minutes!
The official challenge is to make ink drawings, however the website does say that you can draw in pencil and then ink over. Ellie and I decided that markers & gel pens count as ink.🤷♀️ Make this what you need & want it to be, though! Share to social…or not! Use ink…or not! Just carve out a few minutes of each day to sit, draw, and talk with your kiddos! If you like, I would love for you to come join the Grow Great Curiosity community over on FB (link HERE), where I love to share fun learning stuff for kids and encouragement for busy mamas!
Don’t forget to grab your InkTober for Kids PDF below! Happy creating & connecting!
💕 Amy N.
