One of the major difficulties in studying children in the ancient world is the identification of their behavioral patterns in the archaeological record. Some argue that children’s activities are random and spontaneous and thus inaccessible to archaeologists (e.g. Hammond and Hammond 1981). Others note that children in the ancient Roman world mostly lacked distinctive roles, spaces and material culture, making evidence of their activities difficult to distinguish from those of adults (e.g. Wallace-Hadrill 1996). This paper tries to shift from the object-focused approach to childhood often employed in Roman archaeology in favor of directly focusing on the activities of children. Based on the idea that children’s behavior is not random, this paper uses figural graffiti to attempt to trace activity patterns of children in Campania, Italy during the first century CE. Studies in developmental psychology have purported that there are recognizable patterns and rules to the way young children draw, which vary depending on the age of the child (Piaget 1969, Di Leo 1970 and Kellogg 1959; 1969). Using these patterns identified by child psychologists as guidelines, it is possible to identify examples of graffiti, which were likely the work of young children. Out of some 540 examples of figural graffiti from Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae, 166 contained characteristics of young children’s drawings. This graffiti is used to map locations of children’s activities both within domestic buildings and throughout the city in order to understand where activities were taking place and what types of behaviors were performed in these locations, revealing insights into social expectations and relationships with the members of the household and the town.