Draw Along with Harold and the Purple Crayon

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson is a very cute story about a boy who literally draws various adventures for himself.  The girls like drawing along with the story as I read it to them.  The amounts of paper this activity took up used to be a lot, so we've switched to using a free drawing program on my Kindle Fire (you could use an iPad instead), where we can easily erase the picture and start again on every page...



Sometimes I make part of the drawing and let the girls complete it (like drawing a tree and asking them to put the apples on the tree, drawing the frame of a window and letting the girls complete it, drawing a moose and having them put the antlers on.  And other times the girls draw the objects completely on their own.  E is still more interested in drawing circles and scribbling than anything else, but L has really improved with her realism drawing skills lately (she's 32 months old).

Here is a picture of a sailboat she made all by herself:

And here is a picture of a porcupine:

She wanted to draw zig-zags instead of the individual quills, and we both agreed it looks more like a lion.  I think it's so cute - and I love the face.

It's nice to be able to repeat this activity over and over without wasting paper (and fighting over who gets which crayon).  We also really enjoy the sequel to this book, Harold's Fairy Tale.