My daughter's school feels that teaching a child how to draw stifles creativity. However, that approach does not work for her, and she has been begging me to give her detailed drawing lessons.

I know very little about drawing! I did some research, and this book (the Monart Method) comes highly recommended, and seems to be exactly what my daughter is craving.

A creative method for adult beginners, too

This is a good book, presented as a complete course for helping children learn to draw. The techniques also work for adults, who can learn along with the children as they go. My son and I worked through parts of this book together, but he got bored with the exercises after a while and forged ahead on his own. I felt like I got some good instruction out of it, though, and I worked through fairly diligently. The author goes step-by-step through a variety of techniques, growing increasingly more complex. She also makes it easy to teach people at any level, from very young children on up in age.

This is a good book that I would recommend for any teacher or parent who wants to have some fun doing artwork with children. ( )

This one's a good textbook to help you teach your child how to draw better. It takes the student through the process of looking at a subject and visually breaking it down into parts that can be drawn: lines, circles, etc. It also contains evaluation and warm-up exercises. Towards the end of the book, Ms. Brookes cuts you loose and tells you about other media and mentions other techniques for creating your own drawings. It's kind of disconcerting to be left on your own at that point, but I think the thought is that your child should be excited enough to take the ideas offered and run with them. Anyway, it's a nice book to have on my shelf. My girls have both been through it, but I may have to save it in case of grandkids.
--J. ( )