It’s difficult for any parent to admit their child isn’t very good at something, but flicking through Jack’s end of year nursery report, it became pretty clear that Jack is no big fan of drawing.

Broadly referred to as ‘mark-making’ by early years professionals, Jack has never really been one for making patterns, shapes or general scribbles at any age.

Okay, perhaps I’m selling him a little short here. He does enjoy scribbling using bath crayons or splodging dollops of paint around on large sheets of paper.

However, what I have accepted is that Jack is not keen on doing it very often. He also doesn’t like making likenesses ‘of’ particular objects or things. There are no drawings of mummy or daddy, nor paintings of houses.

On the rarest of occasions, he has managed to draw a car.

I’m not concerned about this as such. I appreciate kids all do things at different speeds. But Jack does clearly feel a bit left out when his other friends are drawing faces or stick people – even houses and cars – that are much more recognisable to him than ones he produces himself.

Further than this, Jack is more reluctant to do drawings than any other activity. Whenever I ask if he wants to do any drawing, he promptly refuses and will often bury his head into the sofa.

When I’ve caught him on a good day and he actually decides to draw something, he’ll often stop after a couple of strokes, drop his crayon/pencil/brush onto the table and state “I just can’t do it daddy” before stomping off into the living room, grunting to himself with frustration.

With Jack due to start reception in September, I’ve been quite keen to get Jack making ‘more marks’ in his own time. Apparently, he’ll be doing it a lot more as the kids start to learn how to write.

I’m less concerned about the quality of mark making you understand, more with his attitude towards it. Does anyone have any tips for me to get Jack into drawing? Or is it just something they have to do under their own steam?