Disciplining will work but will take time.

In the meantime, only allow Crayola markers, crayons, paint, etc in the house. It washes out like a charm! Giving you more time to discipline the habit away ;-)

Some people have suggested allowing it on butcherblock paper hung on the wall, but that sends mixed messages that might confuse the child. I have a little kids' table that is her 'art station', and she knows to only color and paint there.

I do a lot of talking about do's and don't at OTHER times. Suddenly out of the blue, I'll say, "do we write on chairs?" Then act like it's big-prize time when he says "no, only on paper"

Also, you might make a very conscious effort to be sure she has official, set-aside, almost enforced "coloring time" every day. "It's 10 o'clock, time for coloring! You get the paper, and Mommy will get the crayons." Then she'll have an definitely-occuring outlet for indulging that urge , instead of asking for it whenever she thinks of it.

And I'd move everything up, even the Crayolas perhaps, but ESPECIALLY the grown-up markers, out of reach for a while. But be sure there's PAPER she can use where she can reach it, so that if someone forgets, there IS an acceptable place to use that neat new pen someone left on the DR table accidentally.

A little tip~a baby wipe will take most things off the walls and furniture! My nephew is 6 and still colors on his walls because nobody really disciplined for doing it when he was 2. His parents just painted the walls of their rental apartment because they think they're monving (whole nother story) and right after they did it, Eric colored on them again! So my husband went to the car and got a wipe and started rubbing. The crayon is gone! They were just going to repaint. Our son, 2 1/2 has colored on things with pen and permanant marker and both have come out with a wipe. Try it!

I guess you're going to have to work on this a lot to stop it. Do you try the time out thing or anything like that? I usually find that my son colors off the paper on accident but sometimes I catch him doing otherwise. Then I tell him only on paper and I get him some. Other times I take the crayons for the time being and tell him he isn't supposed to write on stuff except paper and coloring books. Surprisingly he won't write in his story books. You're going to have to really enforce this now or you're daughter will be 6 and still doing it like my nephew and his sister (4).

I would keep the crayons put up for a while as punishment, and tell the child that he/she best not write or draw on the wall or he/she won't be getting them back.

After keeping the crayons away from the child I would supervise any activity the child has with the crayons. Having the child sit at a small table or someplace like that and make the child stay seated while drawing/writing with the color.

I always when my children were small kept the crayons put up and they were just allowed to use them at certain times.
Try this for a while , and if the child starts trying to get up and colors on the table etc. take the crayons away again.
~Lynn~

three years old is old enough to understand right and wrong and if you have to keep telling her, I would not have any markers (crayola or otherwise) until she can stop doing it. you are the adult and now is the time to teach her or she will continue doing this. When a dog eats a shoe, it doesnt understand the difference from the old k-mart shoe and the one hundred dollar shoe. You may not have been strong enough because she keeps doing it---does she do this at other homes you visit?? it should never be accepted--

i would kee the stuff up for awhile also and make sure when they are out you color with dd if she marks on the wall make her clean it up.thats what my mom did.shes not to young to use a sponge or a babywipe which does clean about everything:::)

DS did this the other day- he took a marker for his marker board (like dry erase, but just crayola pens) and scribbled on the wall and on some of the woodwork near his chalkboard. I walked in on it, and went "Oh NO." and just stood there. He stood underneath the chalkboard while I calmly put the caps back on his pens (think of a dog with his tail between his legs) and explained that since he was coloring where he wasn't supposed to, he wouldn't be able to color on his board anymore. and together we put all his pens away in a ziplock bag and he watched me put them up high. Then we took a wet rag and he and I cleaned up the mess. it wasn't a tradegy, he didn't cry and I didn't yell, and we were both sad that I had to put the pens out of reach for awhile. Yet, I think he's relieved to have the temptation out of reach. He can't control his impulses, he needs grown ups to regulate sometimes.

He's still allowed to have chalk, and he hasn't tried anything more. I wanted it to be very clear that if he was going to color in undesignated spots, he would lose his pens, first try. No point in letting him try the couch and the rugs before I realize he's just not ready for that freedom.
Put the permanent markers and pens out of reach. period. If you leave them out and she gets into them, how can you blame her? coloring is coloring. Until she's outgrown coloring on the walls, have designated crayon time, like the earlier poster said. keep a close eye on her- maybe sit down with her while she colors, and when she starts to lose interest, ask her if it's time to put the crayons away and then do it together.

Crayola washable "first markers" and "first crayons" are the best for cleanup. We use those exclusively, but when the wrong places get drawn on, then those crayons and markers go up high for the rest of the day. Tomorrow he can have them again along with a Clean Slate!

Trish

Speaking of markers. I didn't let my kids have them at three. When my daughter was in a 4/5 year old sunday school class,the teacher would give the kids markers in the class. One day my daughter wore a white dress to sunday school and another child put a more than a few marks on the back on her dress :-O

My husband knew the lady and told her about the incidents and said that He would buy the class all the crayons that were needed, but would she please put the markers away! Rather blunt but it worked and there were no more messed up fingers at from the marker making it easily to wipe on Sunday dresses and no child in that class marking on Others clothing.

Anyhow until your child shows she is mature enough to handle the crayons correctly I wouldn't let her have markers. Perhaps you should consider not leting her have them until she is four or a little older if she is close to 4 as of now.
~Lynn~

When I was really little I loved all kinds of pens, pencils, and markers! I remember my Mom getting markers because I wanted them. I think I colored on myself or something and for the longest time I had my markers but they had tape around the caps so I could take them off! I found a new way to play with them. I pretended they were like dolls and played house and make believe with them. My little brother still makes fun of me for "talking" to markers, pens and pencils for years! But it only happened because of what my Mom did. I grew to appreciate my things more and when I was allowed to have markers and use them, I was much older and nothing bad happened. Just thought some of you may get a kick out of what happened to me.

~Leslie~

Thanks for all your suggestions. It is funny that one of you wrote about the temptation of them in her room. Santa brought her the crayola washable felts so I let her put them with the rest of her color books and crayons on her shelf in her room. I came into her room and there she was totally colored from head to toe with her new felts (she also colored a few of her toys). She helped me put them away I told her that we had to put her felts away until she learned not to color things other than paper. Then she said the funniest thing - "Santa shouldn't have brought me them felts right Mom?" I had to chuckle, I guess she is right she is obviously not quite ready to be unsupervised with them. We now only have supervised color time!

Thanks again
Wanda

Yep..we learned this one fast. DS ONLY gets to paint, color, draw, play playdoh, and cut when I'm right there with him at the table...this is always good for qt anyway.

I made my 3 year old "clean" it off the wall himself.
He didn't do a perfect job, but it sent a pretty good message.

We don't keep those things in the kids rooms. We have a "craft supply" drawer in the kitchen. It's actually a set of rubbermaid storage drawers that fit under the cabinet. That way I know when those things are out. That limits the incidents. When they do happen, coloring of any kind is forbidden for a couple days. To make sure, the box gets put up in a high place. We haven't had too many incidents, but arts and crafts, even coloring, is just something I don't let my kids do undersupervised at age 3.

Meanwhile, if you have plans to paint any walls in the near future, I suggest semi-gloss. I know a lot of people prefer the look of flat paint, but you can't wash fingerprints much less marker off of it. Semi-gloss, though, a baby wipe will clean off just about anything. We painted everything in semi-gloss in our old house, now the new house is entirely flat and the fingerprints are showing up already! Semi-gloss paint job is on our to do list!

Just found this on the Cleaning Tips forum: WD40 to clean crayon off of walls. I tried one of those concentrated orange cleaners, and it got the crayon swipe off in one pass.

Baby wipes work wonderfully, too. A lot cheaper than paint and we always have them on hand!

Lynn wrote: "When my daughter was in a 4/5 year old sunday school class,the teacher
would give the kids markers in the class. One day my daughter wore a white dress to sunday school and another child put a more
than a few marks on the back on her dress :-O

My husband knew the lady and told her about the incidents and said that He would buy the class all the crayons that were needed,
but would she please put the markers away! "

It has been my experience that a water-based marker would wash off clothing more easily than a wax crayon! Especially the newer markers.