Crazy Creativity

Hannah is a writer and an illustrator. She cannot seem to help herself. Each day she comes home from school with her arms full of pictures and books she has created, and many afternoons and weekends, she continues creating even while she is at home.

She makes her own coloring books to doodle in after school. In her room, she has a lovely journal, containing the details of many days' activities and experiences, complete with drawings to illustrate the writing, and stickers as souvenirs from doctor appointments or other adventures. Earlier this week, she wrote and illustrated a how-to book about making a butterfly kite that really "flys."

"Fun Craft
By: Hannah"

"What you need
Roll of String
Sicciors (scissors)
Markers
Hole Punch
Stickers
Sheet of Paper
Decorate"

"Fun Butterfly
Roll of Tape
Pencill
Crayons
it Flys"

"What you do
take
the paper
cut this shape ->
cut this shape too ->
use tape to tape
them together
Draw smile with Pecill use
stickers and
crayons to Decorate"

"then Hole punch
the botom
tie string to
Hole.
now you
Got one"

"on windy
Days it flys"

"yay"

She even incorporates her writing and designing into her play. Recently, she celebrated the birthday of one of her stuffed animals. She wrote songs for the party, decorated presents, and even made a countdown until the big day. Another time, she decided to put on a show, based on the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. She created tickets for each family member with our names and the name of the show on them. She also designed a sign/advertisement for the show:

"Hannahs
open
theater
Free evry night
cloudy
with a
chanch of meatballs"

She never performed the show, but she seems to enjoy preparing for such events at least as much as actually performing. At times, I marvel to myself over the projects she undertakes. Some of them, such as her show, remind me of my school assignments from late elementary school. Yet, she plans and completes them because she delights in the process.

I love Hannah's crazy creativity, the passion that drives her to fill each day with writing and drawing and designing. I hope, as we homeschool next year, that I can provide an environment in which her creativity will flourish, growing deeper with each new idea she learns. I also hope that her love of writing continues to grow even as she begins to grasp grammar and spelling and rules of good writing. Honestly, I suspect that the written word entices her heart as it does my own, and I smile as I remember another little girl who used to scribble imaginative stories in a spiral notebook many years ago. In fact, I think I still have that notebook somewhere...

The Shamrock: A Tragedy

Hannah brought home a story she wrote in school for St. Patrick's Day. She was supposed to write about a four-leaf clover. Here is her tale (with punctuation added for clarity):

"once opon a time ther was a Shamrock. one time the shamrock went out to go For a walk. then She met a Four leaf clover. they Became Friends. then they met a leprechaun. they Ran and screamed. the leprechaun got them. the end."

Apparently, Hannah is learning that not every story has a happy ending...

Missing Ballet

This past year, with Hannah in kindergarten, we decided to limit our activities in order to minimize our busyness. Hannah begged to play soccer this year, so we somewhat sadly declined to re-enroll in ballet lessons. As soon as school and soccer started, we knew we had made a wise decision. Though she has enjoyed soccer, games and practices after full days of school have inspired tears and misery on many occasions. Still, until this month, Hannah seemed content with choosing soccer over ballet.

Suddenly, in recent weeks, though, Hannah has become consumed with ballet again. One of the girls in her class told Hannah about her ballet recital, and now Hannah longs to perform on stage again. I spent quite a while convincing her that we could not enroll now and still participate in the spring recital. I did assure her that homeschooling next year will give us the freedom to pursue more than one activity as part of our schooling, which comforted her a bit, but she still regrets missing out on ballet this year.

Ever creative and resourceful, however, Hannah simply decided to to put on her own recital. Layering her costume from last spring over her long-sleeved practice leotard and a pair of bright red tights, complete with sparkly ruby slippers, Hannah practiced dancing during quiet time one Saturday. Then, she came downstairs and practiced a bit for me as well.

She loved demonstrating different moves and showing off for the camera.

Once she has practiced enough, Hannah has informed me that she will put on a full recital for our family. Apparently, she also has invited students in her class, although she has not given them a date or time yet, so I should not have to worry about kids showing up unannounced... I enjoy seeing Hannah develop her creativity in so many ways, and I especially love seeing how confident she is in expressing herself in front of other people. Whether she flourishes as a dancer or a writer or an artist or something else completely different, I hope she always has the confidence and the courage to use her gifts and grow into the person God created her to be.

Spring, Sweet Spring

Suddenly, this past weekend, the lamb of spring arrived and chased away the lion of winter. In fact, after such a snowy winter, this March has been remarkably mild. On Saturday, the sun shone and a warm breeze blew, rapidly melting the large piles of snow and transforming the landscape into a mess of muddy ponds and tiny leaf-filled streams. Even the first tiny crocuses appeared in the only part of my garden not blanketed with snow.

On such a beautiful day, the annual Maple Sugar Festival lured us out of our house to brave the crowds at Malabar Farm. We were fortunate enough to arrive early and get parking, since they had to close most of their parking due to the mud and turn many cars away. After quite a long wait in the mud, we finally reached the front of the line for the wagon ride up the road to the festival.

As we climbed into the wagon, the assistant asked if Hannah and Ben would like to ride up front with the driver. They loved it!

In spite of all the mud and snow, the kids enjoyed trekking from station to station, learning about maple syrup. A Native American man explained how the first people in this area processed the sap to make sugar.

Using sticks as tongs, he removed very hot rocks from a fire and placed them into a log trough filled with sap. This kept the sap boiling, evaporating the water and leaving the sugar behind. The kids enjoyed smelling the steam, with its appetizing cotton candy scent.

The next station demonstrated how early settlers in this area made maple syrup and maple sugar.

Afterward, each person could taste a tiny amount of maple sugar.

Finally, we visited the "Sugar Shack," where they still make maple syrup today.

Inside, a large vat full of sap simmered and boiled, as steam billowed up to the ceiling and out through the vents.

The kids look forward to this part each year, because, after waiting patiently for the end of the presentation, everyone got a small taste of fresh maple syrup.

Before we left, we purchased our yearly gallon of maple syrup and a few maple candies, and then we rode one of the horse-drawn wagons back to our car.

Although the kids wailed and yawned and squabbled from exhaustion the whole ride home, we all had a wonderful day together. We look forward to the Maple Sugar Festival each year as one of the sweetest signs of the coming of spring. Well... perhaps with the exception of those first lovely flowers!