Creativity

     I recently read a good blog post on nurturing your children's creativity.  The woman who wrote it obviously puts a lot of time and thought into allowing her daughter's creativity to blossom, and it got me thinking about the the need to encourage creativeness, and more importantly, how not to stifle it.  Anna is naturally a very creative person with a super imagination, (we have only recently said good bye to her imaginary friend, Beedo) and usually just needs to be given the means, and off she will go.  The only thing I need to remember to do with her, is to give her space.  Some times in my eagerness to help, I can take over a project, or kill the process for her.  I can also be a little overly concerned with doing things the "right" way.  This must just be something in my nature, since I don't remember anyone ever telling me the way things should be done, but I remember being horrified in Sunday school when a little girl next to me colored her sky pink.  Because, you know, the sky is blue- no exceptions.  A pink sky would not bother Anna.

     The twins, being two, are just beginning to show their natural tendencies and quirks.  Abriel has a good imagination, and loves to pretend she's a frog or a dog.  Even when we are out, she will crawl around and lick poor unsuspecting people's legs.  ( I don't know why the twins are so uncivilized, I really do try to train them.)    She treats her baby and bear as if they are real, and it is very sweet to see.   Samuel is more down to earth, and so active that he barely has a chance to just "be".  He does love to draw though, and will sit down and carefully draw little tiny circles and squiggles.  I love these drawings because the concentration they require seem so contrary to his nature. 

When you praise his artwork, he beams, and evidently takes a lot of pride in it.  He can also tell you what each little squiggle represents; usually a cat or a truck. 
     When I was teaching my co-op nature class, I had the children keep nature journals, and draw something in it each week.  I was surprised at the amount of kids there were who said they couldn't draw, and were to afraid to even try at first.  I kept telling them, "It doesn't have to be perfect, or look exactly like what you are copying.  All that matters is that you know what it is."  I hope Samuel never grows out of the pure enjoyment he gets from drawing, and the absolute confidence that this little circle is a truck, and this little circle is a cat, even if they might look the exact same to anybody else.