So my granddaughter just sat quietly by me with a pad of paper, and some markers that I keep for the grandkids to draw with. Now, understand that she is five going on six, and is in her first year of any type of school at all - never attended preschool because her parents didn't make enough to afford and weren't quite poor enough to get assistance for preschool fees. It happens. So her mom (my daughter) has always been wonderful at providing craft and art times, cooking sessions, as well as reading to her every night at bedtime. In fact, when my g-daughter was only three months old, I found them together on the couch with my daughter reading to her. I thought at the time that it was too early, and told my daughter "wow -you're already reading to her?", which in hindsight was kind of silly, since I firmly believe in reading to children. Just never thought of reading to them at three months of age. My daughter was so happy, she responded - "look mom! it's a pop up book, watch when I read to her". Sure enough, as she read to my g-baby, and turned the pages, g-baby's legs would pump and kick out and her eyes would get huge, and her arms would reach out and wave excitedly. What a sight!
So, to get back to tonight:
G-daughter's narrative (as well as I can remember) while drawing.
- This girl has purple hair, but every morning it starts out orange and by the time it's night her hair has turned purple.
- This world has two moons (as she is drawing two crescent moons with patterns, and they're blue)
- The world is named Strange World
- There is NO flowers that grow - but there's a lot of grass. (as she is drawing a flower on the girl's dress)
G-daughter starts a new page, of the same world, with the same girl, only this is a morning scene so of course, the girl now has orange hair. Dialogue while drawing:
- Not only does this place have two moons, Gramma, there are three suns. (she has drawn three suns, all different colors)
- her house is very weird, it's got a window that isn't held in by ANYTHING, it just floats there! (as she draws this very tall house, very narrow with a window and slanted roof)
- Gramma, know what's weird about Strange World? (me) no, what's so weird about it? (her again), It USED to be Santa Rosa, but it moved away and ended up in another place so now it's Strange World. Everything is different here!
Oh. My. Goodness. After reading a post about world building by L.M. Preston, I realized that my granddaughter was doing her very own version of world building with a bit of storytelling....Need to encourage her, so she develops this wonderfully creative imagination!
A world with two moons and three suns. I've read SciFi novels with settings similar, but I haven't read SciFi books to her yet - of course! The longest novels she's had read to her are the Junie B Jones book series; and as far as paranormal reading, we've read a couple books about monsters like No Such Thing, and I Need My Monster.
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| our version of Wild Thing |
She drew a bit more, and then wanted to do one of her favorite things; We read a picture book, then we draw a picture together about the book, or try to copy a picture from the book. Tonight it was Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - one of the best ever children's picture books. That guy is a genius.
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| Grandma's Feather Bed |
We've done this a few times, with books like Grandma's Feather Bed
and a book that I cannot remember the name of but we call it Mousie Fair.
**Found it! Mouse in Love by Robert Kraus
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| Mousie Fair |
That's probably all the bragging about grandchildren that should go on in one post...
Anyway, this reading a book and then drawing a scene or our impression of the book is one of the funnest things I've ever done with a child. Wish I had thought of it when my kids were little. :)
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