Somewhere along the way, our little car-obsessed boy shifted gears. He used to spend the entire day planning out, mapping out, and then laying out new adventures for his cars. He still enjoys cars, talks about them, and definitely plays with them a little every day. But his new obsession is IDEAS! I can't think of a better way to explain it. He wakes up in the morning with an elaborate mission in mind: "Mom, today, let's have a transportation party! We'll invite all my friends, and first, we'll do transportation puzzles; then everyone can pretend to be whatever vehicle they want to be; then we'll watch Mighty Machines; then everyone can build cars or trucks out of Tinkertoys; and for dessert, we'll make a cake that looks like a digger!"
This is a great idea. There are only three problems with it: 1) He has no concept of how long it will actually take to carry out his idea, nor of the chance that we might already have plans for the day; 2) He is ready to go forward with it NOW, and I haven't even eaten breakfast yet; 3) Come 20 minutes, he'll be raring to go with another super duper schmooper big idea.
I would estimate that Henry comes up with at least 10 huge ideas per day. On an average day, he may be lucky enough to convince Mom to follow through with 1-2 of them (usually the ones that sound easiest win me over). Of those 1-2 ideas per day (let's call it 45 per month), only a few make it to publication on the blog. So now you know. We're swimming in ideas. Here are a few we happened to have the camera out for:
"Luggage Train" (we set up furniture like a train and then load everything on it)
"Paper Town." This one took days to convince me. When Henry saw this paper I bought with the houses on it, he just had to use it for something. He drew the roads and parking spaces and helped to glue everything together.
"Henry's Crown." He made this pretty much all by himself. I was so proud of his crown-drawing skills! He decided to make it for any siblings of his Joy School classmates who might feel bad that they didn't get a ticket for our pretend movie theater.
You may notice in the background some giant drawings, an ocean collage, etc. Most of Henry's recent ideas have been craft projects. "I just LOVE doing crafts!" he tells me nearly every day. I have decided to devote an entire wall to the projects, since our bulletin board was getting crowded :)
Below you will find today's idea: a movie entitled "Henry and the Purple Crayon."
Henry and the Purple Crayon from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.
And if you are still reading, here are a few other ideas we have carried out, but haven't taken pictures of:
* a pirate/treasure party (with the babysitting co-op)
* "Train Builder" game
* "Sea Divers," a favorite game in which we all run around the house carrying bags that might scoop up random objects from the bottom of the ocean
And a few ideas he has insisted on several times, but we have yet to carry out because I don't quite grasp the vision:
* Make a Hawaiian Haystack just for a decoration
* Make our own website game where people can make their own family, choosing from different people with different colors of skin and different kinds of clothes.
9 comments:
Just wanted to add that these are all Jenn's genes coming through in Henry. I'm the kid who was in remedial scissors when I was little. And I could never get the Elmer's glue not to squish out the sides when pasting. When I had free time, crafts were the last thing I would ever choose to spend time on. Not Henry. Last Saturday, Henry and I had some time to spend together while Ellis was napping. I told him we could play whatever he wanted.
"Dad! Let's do a craft!"
"A what?" I asked.
Sure enough, he had it all planned out. It took me until we were halfway done to realize how it was all going to come together, but it turned out great. I was actually pretty proud of it myself, and it wasn't even my idea or my handiwork!
Yup, I definitely see Jenn's genes coming through strong here! He is so clever, I loved the video; he's a great storyteller.
P.S. I must make one argument that Ben happens to be quite the idea man himself! His research ideas follow a similar pattern to Henry's. He has an ongoing list of research ideas, probably coming up with several new ideas per week. For every 30 ideas, one of those ideas gets looked into seriously. And probably only a fraction of those that get looked into will make it to publication. Quite like Henry! Just a different kind of idea man. :)
What a brilliant boy! And what a great mom for going along with him. :)
We are quite interested in what Henry will choose to be when he grows up. He is very intriguing for sure.
You have one creative kid that's pretty impressive.
Ben is right, this is all Griffin coming out in Henry! I would have been a complete failure as his mother as I would never have been able to comprehend how to help him create his ideas. Ben stuck to Legos! I'm trying to think out of the box and imagine what kind of contribution this grandson is going to make to mankind. You can be certain it will be unique, creative and wonderful!
I'd have to say, I think it's a combo of you both, Ben's party planning skills (which I've seen in action) and Jenn's crafting.
Jenn, you are such a great mom!
Henry, when I come out and visit you, let's make a movie. I love making movies and, judging by "Henry and the Purple Crayon", you're awesome at it! Good job!
/Tanner
Post a Comment