Bloody Bandages and Imagination
Posted by Danielle Bean in Just me on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 10:00 AM
(See writing sample at bottom of post)
My kids like to write and share stories with each other and their friends. I don’t think too much about it, especially in the summertime when we take a break from official “schooling.”
The other day, though, when I happened upon 11-year-old Ambrose’s writing notebook which had been left open to this page, I paused. I read these few lines and could not help but smile at the delicious boyishness of it all.
I worry sometimes that I am not connecting enough with my kids through their creative pursuits—that I am not a large enough part of their daily activities or that I don’t know enough about what fills their minds and hearts all day, every day.
But that’s just Ego-Mom talking.
When I read a little bit of fiction like this, I think that there need to be places in our children’s imaginations where they can play all by themselves. If I were looking over my son’s shoulder, correcting his spelling mistakes and critiquing his plot, would he experiment with lines like these? I think it’s more likely that he would feel micro-managed and lose interest in the project altogether.
I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
I don’t need to be assigning, overseeing, and grading my children’s imaginations. Sometimes I just need to give them room to use them.
Print Blog
Email a FriendPost a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
