Imagination

Just lately, Penny's started bringing a sketchpad and a bag of crayons in the car with her in the mornings.

I'm happy to encourage this. Drawing is an excellent outlet for internal stress and confusion, and it's excellent practice for hand-eye coordination, and it helps teach careful observation. And, of course, it's wonderful exercise for the imagination.

Also, I love it because she never just draws a picture. She narrates stories while she's at it, and I love listening to her.

This morning, Penny drew herself and Ray at the park, and then she drew Alex. He had mittens and boots. And crazy hair! And then he had really crazy hair! And then he had a parachute backpack, because he was going to go for a ride in a hot-air balloon, and he needed to be safe. And then he had special safe mittens and boots and a shirt and a hat.

New piece of paper! An ocean. With a dandelion and a poppy floating in it. And a whale came out of the ocean! (But don't worry, it didn't eat the flowers. It just swam by them.) And it made water come out of the hole on its head. A lot of water! And then up in the sky... A bat! The bat has a magic purse that her father gave her. The magic purse had some yucky water in it, so she poured it out. And there's Alex in his hot-air balloon!

New piece of paper! Penny and Ray again, at the park. On a really big slide! A rainbow slide! And look, there's Alex on the ground, because his hot-air balloon ride is all done. (He landed on the slide and jumped down, apparently.) And he has a really big smile because he had a fun time on his ride.

That series got us all the way to Alex's daycare and back to Penny's school this morning, and since it was especially charming, I thought I'd share.

It was cooler (at least to me) than the new iris scanner we have to operate the door at work, which is what I was going to talk about.