I was trying to sleep in the other day. Usually, up and at ‘em by 6:30 I was stalling. I think it was related to the time change. I have never been a fan of it and it throws everything off for a few days. Even Hannah was up later than usual. I wanted to lay still for a while longer and read some more of the Foundation. It’s funny how unconnected things can link together in related ways. Yesterday’s trip to the Butterfly Pavilion and the free kit in cellophane that Hannah got, kinderart projects and learning about animals and bugs combined witha bit of parental laziness and desire for just a few more minutes of morning quiet time lying still unexpectedly gave me a great present. In order to lie still for a few more moments, we had to convince Hannah to be a bit more autonomous. The easiest way to do this is with the iPad because it is bigger than her touch and the games are more fun on it. “Hannah, do you want to take the iPad and Whitney into your room for a little while longer?” When she is not asking me to make pancakes, she usually replies, “OK” and she willjump off the bed, grab the iPad and disappear for at least fifteen more minutes. Sometimes she will even let Whitney out but that is not a sure thing. She disappeared and a few minutes went by. Silence. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Not sure but figuring that I would be sure to hear about it if there was a problem I got a little lost in the Foundation Traders section; all the while, somewhere in the back of my mind I was wondering what she was up to. The kinderart that she comes home with can range from printed out pages for coloring to elaborate creations of things like butterfly’s with cloths pins and construction paper. I wasn’t even aware of the butterfly one until today when I was cleaning up her artwork area. I knew she has been learning about animals and they were talking insects this morning when we got there at 9am. (She slept to 8am - yay useless time change) Yesterday, I was trying to get just a few more pages in before the day started when I heard her coming up the stairs. I figured I would soon know what she had been up to and started preparing mysel f to make pancakes. She announced that she made butterfly’s for everyone. What she did, was adapt the cloths pin + construction paper idea to the cellophane + (butterfly) barrettes. She even colored the cellophane ‘wings.’ What she had done was cut up the cellophane into a semi circular or rectangular shape and twisted it in the middle. Then she closed the butterfly barrette ove the middle and voila! butterfly’s. What is amazing to me is that unprompted she took an idea from a week or more ago and adapted it to the materials she had on hand. The result was the coolest wake up gift I have ever gotten. I am still amazed with the extremely fast rate that Hannah and her friends learn things and pass information amongst themselves. This was something new to me and is on a different level. She is taking abstract ideas (I want to mke more butterfly’s like we made in schooll a week a go) and adapting them to make something with the material she has on hand. That spark of creativity exists as an idea in her head and she draws on her experience to marry the idea with something previously experienced. What I want to know is, where does this spark come from and how can I help her continue to develop it. Helping her continue to develop it is a bit challenging because, lately, everything I do and say is wrong or she is better than me by default :-) If I try to push her into being creative the way I think creativity works she seems to dig in her heels and tells me “No, thats wrong” or just gets bored and wants to move onto something else. If I try to leave her alone to explore things she still gets bored and says, “Daddy, will you play a game with me?” I wish there was an algorithm that made it easy to identify opportunities to push her to autonomously do things that spark her interest in a creative way and identify the times when it is better to structure the ‘games’ that we play so that I can show her how I do creativity. I have a feeling this algorithm could be usefully applied to situations outside parenthood.
3/12/2012 ~ 4 min read
