Mother's Day Coloring Pages

A colored page is one of the few Mother's Day presents a small child can make entirely alone. These Mother's Day coloring pages are built for that: some are cards and gifts to color and hand over, some are scenes of a day spent together, and some show animal mothers, for the children who would rather color a bear than a person.

The gift pages come first. A boy hands his mom a bunch of tulips, a breakfast tray waits on the bed with a stack of pancakes and a flower in a vase, roses stand in a heart shaped vase, and there is a wrapped present beside a jar of tulips, a potted plant tied with a bow, a bouquet of carnations, an open jewelry box with a heart necklace, a wreath of flowers held out in two hands and tulips in a watering can. Some pages carry words: a big heart that reads WE LOVE MOM, framed in daisies, and a girl painting a heart and the word MOM at her easel. Many of the others are time together: planting a flower with little trowels, baking cookies in aprons, picking strawberries, a picnic under a tree, flying a kite, dancing in the kitchen, a walk on the beach, a stroller in the park, a braid being done on a little stool, a cup of tea carried to an armchair, a boy running into a hug and a mom asleep with her baby. The animal mothers include a bear hugging her cub, a duck leading her ducklings, a cat curled around her kittens, an elephant and her calf, a bird feeding her chicks, a kangaroo with her joey, a mare and her foal and a penguin with her fluffy chick.

When is Mother's Day?

In the United States and Canada, Mother's Day is the second Sunday of May. It became a national holiday in the US in 1914, after years of campaigning by Anna Jarvis, who wanted a day to honor her own mother. The United Kingdom and Ireland celebrate Mothering Sunday earlier, three weeks before Easter, so it falls in March or early April. Many other countries have their own date, often in May. Wherever you are, the pages work the same way: color them in the days before, and keep one back for the morning itself.

Colors that feel like a present

There are no "right" colors for a card, but a few ideas help:

• Soft pinks, peaches and lilacs for the flowers and hearts, the classic Mother's Day palette.
• Mom's favorite color used everywhere: on the bow, the vase, the necklace and the tulips. It makes the page clearly hers.
• Real flower colors if the page will sit next to real flowers: red and pink carnations, yellow tulips, white daisies with yellow centers.

For the animal mothers, a quick look at a photo of the real animal is a nice small lesson: brown and cream for the kangaroo, gray for the elephant, black and white with a touch of orange for the penguin.

For toddlers and for older children

A toddler can manage the pages with one big shape and little around it, like a flower bouquet or an animal hug. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Cat cuddle
• Tucked in
• Elephant family

Older children usually prefer the busy scenes: a kitchen full of baking, a strawberry field, a park with a stroller. Lots of detail begins with:

• We love Mom
• Flower wreath
• Roses in a heart vase

Turning a page into a card

Any page can become a card in a few steps. Print on thicker paper if you have it, color the page, then fold it in half along the long side so the drawing is on the front. The back of the page is free for a message, a handprint or a drawing of the whole family. For a bigger surprise, color several pages over a week and staple them into a little book, or roll one up and tie it with a ribbon to go with breakfast in bed. Grandmothers, aunts and stepmoms love them just as much.

Printing

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so nothing is cut off. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack prints several pages at once. For more, the family coloring pages, the flower coloring pages, the spring coloring pages and the animal coloring pages go well with the day.