Parenting the Creative Child
Tin has rhythm, no doubt about it. He has been fooling around with music since the day he could move his body on his own. And he loves to draw and I’ve seen those drawings go from trying to draw a straight line to squiggles to trains and planes and automobiles. He’s also a master builder and has taken his blocks and created the Superdome and he’s even created a space landing station that was as wide as the Superdome is tall.
But I thought he’d like soccer because he also loves to run and jump and be with other kids until I’ve seen him on the soccer field. My little Ferdinand I call him as I watch him staring at the blades of grass or the clouds moving overhead while all the other children are fast and furiously chasing the ball into the goal.
The creative type, I tell the other parents who turn to look at me.
And we all know there are many different types of intelligence and ways of being. Should Tin grow up and pursue a creative life, he will have the pleasure of pulling from all the wonders of the universe to see the world differently. And as a parent, I just have to be flexible enough to let him forge his own path, while presenting him with opportunities.
October 22nd, 2013 at 10:55 am
Thomas (our grandson was always the little kid on the soccer field who was more interested in the dog on the sideline than chasing the ball. He’s also the one who wore his halloween brown bear costume to pre-school nearly every day. Now, at 11, he’s still the dreamer, but what a nice boy he’s becoming! I’m so pleased with his manner. You’re wise to accept Tin as he is–not what everyone else’s idea of what a boy should be.
October 22nd, 2013 at 2:05 pm
I love Thomas just by this description!! He sounds like my kind of boy/person. Yes, I love having a little Ferdinand. Especially as we were with friends the other day and her son is a bruiser and just sports minded and stout and wow, I was just give me my little dreamer!!!