Chalk it up to imagination

As part of our daily rhythm my family observes an hour and a half of 'quiet time' every day.  A time for each of us to be alone.  A time of quiet play, reading, creating.  Alone.  I love quiet time for the obvious reasons, but there's more to it than that.  I love what comes out of quiet time.  I love when my children show me a drawing, a game, or  a story that they've made.  It's like a little window into their imaginations.

Some of my favorites are they chalk drawings.  There is something about the vibrant colors against the black of the board that seems to really inspire my children to take their drawings a step further, and sometimes in surprising directions.

Cyrus

age 4

It's no surprise that Cyrus was dreaming about space.  He talks about it.  A lot.  A lot.  I was surprised by his detail.  I didn't even know that his space shuttles ever took on this particular shape.  With two American flags (of course), and flame of yellow, orange, red and blue.  His sky is filled with stars and comets, planets, suns and excitement.  You can tell that this is something that he put a lot of work and care into.

Ava

age 6

 While Cyrus dreams of space exploration, Ava is working out some geology.  The first picture is of a camp ground with a well that brings up water from an underground spring.  Notice that there are some caves underground also.  This is something that we talked about while camping 2 or 3 summers ago, and she just made this picture a few weeks ago.  I love how she saves bits of information and works things out in her own time.

The volcano Ava drew this week.  It was accompanied by a very detailed story about a princess and some bad guys who took her jewels and hid them underground.  When the volcano erupts it will "bring the beautiful princess sparkling jewels out above ground again."  I really wish I had written that story down.



I am so eternally grateful for my time with my babies.