Mommy Draw

We hit a milestone a couple of days ago, or an obstacle perhaps. Wednesday Sam handed me a yellow marker and said, "Mommy draw bus for you." He wanted me to draw a bus on his paper. I've learned from Susan Striker's Young at Art, and some blogs that I read, like The Write Start, that scribbling is a very important step in learning to write and that we shouldn't encourage Sam to draw specific things before he's ready. Susan Striker says, "When pushed to do something they are not ready to do, they suffer by stifling their own needs." We've all seen the kid, or have been the kid, who's trying to draw something someone else has drawn and just. can't. do it "right". And so, I sat there stumped for a second wondering how to handle this. Then I just started talking about the bus, where it was going, how it was driving, and while talking about the bus, I scribbled with the same types of lines, loops, and dots I see Sam use on a regular basis...so instead of drawing a bus, our markers were the bus driving on the road. And guess what, it worked! He was not at all frustrated by my not drawing a bus for him and even joined in with the scribbles as we talked about the bus.
But, I'm sure this is just the beginning of a long road of "Mommy draw...". I just hope it always goes a smoothly as this time.