Kid at heart

           When working with kids, the great thing about it is the fact that they say simple answers to such complex questions and sometimes, I have to be honest, it really is that simple. I was working today and a kid was asking me if I wanted to play dolls with her and without thinking, I said "no I can't play with dolls. I'm too old to play with dolls." So she went on and played dolls with some friends in the class and a couple minutes later she came back up to me and sat on my lap. She looked up at me and said "Miss Leah, I never want to become a grown up." Out of curiosity, I asked "why??" And she said "because then you can't do fun things like play dolls." And after that she hopped down and began playing again.

           It was weird, it was such a simple response but also a complex idea.  I thought about it some more and she was so right. I've always told myself that I never want to loose my little kid qualities or my creativeness. But it seems to me like I have begun to. However, this little girl, by saying one thing, gave me a reality check. I am never too old to do kid stuff. Everyone should have kid-like qualities at heart. Why should we always be so serious and have to grow up? It's like we try so hard to grow up but once we get there we wonder where the time has gone and how much grown up stuff we have to do and we don't take a step back and think about all the things that we can still keep with us as we grow older.

            So with this on my head today, I have been thinking about all the ways to keep being creative and working on keeping that creativity. Luckily, I had a high school teacher that did a whole lesson on creativity and what to do to work on it. I am going to keep working on my sketchbook as always, and maybe do some extra things to keep my brain going. I also want to create projects to get the kids creativity going and make sure that they don't loose it; at least in my classroom. And if that little girl ever asks me again if I want to play dolls, my answer will always be a yes.

"Oh I'll never know what makes this man,

With all the love that his heart can stand,

Dream of ways to throw it all away, 

Oh, gravity is working against me,

And gravity wants to bring me down."

"Gravity" by John Mayer