Sunday, March 29, 2009

a born engineer

When left to his own devices at church today, without any influence from any other kids, Dan immediately took a piece of chalk and sketched out a machine on the chalkboard that put oil 'from a can into a bottle and puts the lid on'. He talked me through all the parts, too. Then he erased it and drew two more. Granted, there were lots of arbitrary parts that did arbitrary things, and not much explanation of exactly how does it spray oil into the bottle, etc, but he's only 3.

Then he drew a space suit, drew himself inside, and drew a rocket. Then he drew a match in his hand so he could light the rocket so it would shoot fire and fly. He drew himself a second match so he could light the rocket to fly home. Then he explained that he only had two because Daddy took the rest of the matches and put them up so nobody would get hurt on them.

Aaah, the mind of a three-year old!

When left to his own devices, Daniel builds buildings and stages, and draws machines (when he learned that such a job as 'architect' exists, he was delighted). I had to think back to what the other kids drew at that age. Caleb drew games--pinball, board games, computer games--and comics, and he wrote stories (he could read and write by 3 1/2 years old). Anda drew animals and people.

I wonder if this is a hint about their talents and futures?

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