i think if it's something that interests the child i.e. a Ben 10 book or Princess it does no real harm but if you look at how young children (under 5) colour in there is no real point to it for them, they are not trying to colour it in, they are just making lines. Whereas, in free drawing they use lots of symbols, make heads, eyes, mouths, ears or do lots of letter like marks.
having said that for chinese new year my 2 (nearly 3 year old) didn't colour in her dragon but did draw some fire coming out of it's mouth.
I think the idea about decoratign butterlies or ladybirds can work and give them more free expression but for pencil control I still think drawing their own ideas is more motivational practice for them - you see them start to control their symbols in mark making as they get smaller and smaller or as eyes become spots instead of big circles or spirals.
if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got
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