Is My Kid’s Doodling a Waste of Time? What I Learned As a Mom and Teacher
Last Tuesday, I sat across from my 10-year-old son Jake’s elementary school teacher, the coffee in my chipped reusable cup gone lukewarm, when she paused and leaned forward. “Jake draws during almost every lesson,” she said. “I’ve moved his seat, reminded him a dozen times to put the pen away and follow along. I’m wondering if we need to intervene. Is all that doodling just a waste of time that could be spent learning?”
I’m a 4th grade teacher myself, so I’ve had this exact conversation with at least six parents of my own students just this semester. “Is my son spending all his recess building LEGOs instead of playing soccer a waste?” “Is my daughter’s endless role-play with her stuffed animals just taking time away from her reading practice?” The question is always the same: Is this thing my kid loves so much, that isn’t on the assigned list of productive activities, a waste of time?
I used to ask the same thing about Jake’s doodles. He’s been drawing on any available surface since he was 3: napkins at restaurants, the back of my grocery lists, the margin of every single worksheet he brings home, the inside of his math textbook. Two months ago, I sat down with him to study for his states and capitals quiz. I told him to make flashcards, which was the assignment. By the time I came back with a glass of water, he’d drawn every state as a silly cartoon instead of writing down the capitals. Ohio was a potato wearing a top hat that said “Columbus”. Nevada was a dancing dinosaur that roared “Carson City”. I almost grabbed the paper out of his hand and told him to start over. I’d wasted 20 minutes going over the list already, and this was just a waste of the remaining time we had to study. I let him keep going, though, because I was tired, and he’d been at it for 20 minutes and didn’t want to stop.
He got 100% on the quiz. When I asked him how he remembered every capital, he shrugged and said “I just pictured the potato hat. That’s all.”
That made me think of Mia, a student I had last year in my own class. She folded origami cranes and stars every single time I gave a lecture. I told her to put the paper away half a dozen times, said it was a distraction. After a month, her test scores dropped 15 points, and she told me she couldn’t pay attention when she couldn’t fold. I told her she could keep folding as long as she didn’t bother anyone else and could answer my questions when I called on her. A month later, her scores were back up, and she was getting more answers right than she had before.
I started paying more attention, not to any fancy educational jargon, just to what was actually happening with the kids I taught and my own kid. Most of the time, the things we assume are a waste of time are actually helping their brains work better. Doodling and fidgeting takes just enough extra brain power that your mind doesn’t wander off to video games or recess when you’re supposed to be listening to a lecture about long division. For a lot of kids, especially the ones who get restless easily, sitting perfectly still with your hands folded takes so much effort that you don’t have any brain left for the actual lesson.
Instead of immediately jumping to “this is a waste of time” and shutting it down, I’ve started using three quick checks that take less than a minute, for my kids at school and my own at home. First, I ask if it’s disrupting anyone else. If Jake is doodling quietly at his desk and not passing notes to his neighbor, it’s no one’s problem. If he’s drawing during group work and not contributing, that’s when I say put the pen away for now. Second, I check if the core work is getting done. If his math homework is finished and correct, I don’t care if every margin is covered in dragon battles. If he’s failing his quizzes even with the doodling, we can problem-solve from there, instead of just banning the thing he likes. Third, I ask if stopping it will cause more trouble than letting it go. I tried banning doodles on car rides once, when I thought he should be reading his book instead. He fidgeted, whined, kicked the back of my seat the whole 40 minute drive to my sister’s house. Now I keep an extra pack of paper and a handful of pens in the glove compartment, and it’s quiet the whole way. That’s a win, no matter what anyone says about it being a waste of time.
That said, it’s not all free pass. Sometimes it actually is a waste of time, when it gets in the way of the work that needs to get done. Two weeks ago, Jake had to write a five paragraph book report, and he spent an hour drawing an elaborate cover for the report before he wrote a single sentence. I didn’t take his pen away or throw the drawing in the trash. I just pulled the timer on my phone out, set it for 25 minutes, and said “You can finish the cover after you write the first three paragraphs. Right now, the writing is the main job, and the drawing is your reward for getting it done.” He groaned, but he did it, and we stuck to the deal.
After Jake’s conference last week, we stopped for chocolate ice cream on the way home. He pulled a crumpled sheet of notebook paper out of his sweatshirt pocket and showed me the doodle he did in science that day: a volcano erupting, and all the lava was made of tiny running dinosaurs. I didn’t tell him to put it away. I asked him why the lava was dinosaurs. He said “They’re escaping the volcano, duh.”
We ate our ice cream in the car, watching people walk their dogs past the ice cream shop. I thought about all the minutes I’ve worried about over the years, all the things I’ve written off as a waste of time just because they weren’t assigned or graded or on a list of things kids should be doing. Some days, it’s the tiny dinosaur lava doodles that stick with him longer than any worksheet I could force him to fill out. I still catch myself stressing about it sometimes, when homework runs late and half the page is margin art instead of answers. But so far, those three quick checks have worked better than any hard rule I ever made. We’re still figuring it out, same as everything else.
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