The only coloring supply a three-year-old actually needs

Every week someone asks us what to color the free pages with. The honest answer is shorter than the aisle at the store suggests. For a three to five year old you need one small set of colored pencils, and that is about it.

Why pencils, not markers or crayons

• Grip. A pencil is the same shape as the pencil they will hold at school. Every page colored is quiet practice for the tripod grip, without anyone calling it practice.
• Control. Crayons skid and markers bleed. A pencil lets a small hand stay inside the big, simple lines we draw the Beem Bunnies pages with, and staying inside the lines is a real confidence boost at this age.
• Mess. Nothing dries out, nothing goes through the paper onto the table, nothing ends up on the wall. Pencils are the supply you can leave out.
• Twelve is plenty. A big set means a big decision before every stroke. Twelve colors gets a three year old started faster and keeps the box findable.

Our pick

We keep a 12-count box of Crayola colored pencils on the kitchen table. Thick enough cores that they do not snap the first time they are pressed hard, pre-sharpened, and the colors match what a small child expects: a proper red, a proper green, a sky blue. It is the set we colored our own sample pages with.

See the Crayola 12-count colored pencils on Amazon. Check the current price there; it moves around, and this is one of the sets that is often on offer.

Beem Bunnies is an Amazon Associate. If you buy through that link we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only link to things we use with our own kids.

Something to color

Ten free summer coloring pages with Pip, Hana and the burrow are waiting on the Coming Soon page. Print one, put the twelve pencils next to it, and step back. Pip is also the star of Pip's First Day of School, our first picture book.