The Process of Creative Thinking

Jared has always been a more literal-minded boy. He is logical, rational, and avoids most abstract thinking outside of the science and math world. However, this has not dampened his creativity. I think that the Bionicles he loves to build helped to nurture unique approaches to problems, plus the stories we've read, plus playing D&D (yes, I'm raising geeklets), plus playing a few video games. I've noticed that Mr. Science and Math truly lets that creative side fly whenever he's asked to draw anything at school. NOTHING he does looks ANYTHING like what the other kids do. I love it! Ariana is much the same way, actually. Their quirky views on the world amuse me.

For instance, in Jared's second grade class, they were required to write a short essay on their favorite food. Then, they were to draw a picture involving that food product. Jared's favorite food is tacos, so his little essay focused on what he enjoyed about eating them (he defined his ideal taco as one with meat, sour cream, and cheese on it--damn that vegetable crap!). Then he drew his picture. His teacher took the better half of the class' essays and posted them up in the hallway with their accompanying artwork. When I saw his picture, it made me giggle.

See, all these other kids are drawing normal stuff: them eating the food, their parents cooking the food, everybody sitting down at a table and enjoying a feast, etc. Every last one of them went along that theme. Then there was Jared's. At first, I had to stare at it to realize what was going on. First of all, the picture was of the sky and clouds. I suppose it was taco heaven? Then there's Jared riding a taco on its side like a magic carpet. Two other tacos--apparently with wings--were flying around in the sky as well. Bwahahaha! That's simply awesome. I will never look at a taco the same way again.

Then they had to draw pictures that will be made into various items like magnets and mugs and such. The kids are asked to do these pictures right before Christmas every year as it's a part of the fundraisers for the school. You're supposed to buy one of these items with your kid's picture on it and maybe give them out as Christmas gifts. Anyway, most of the kids have pictures of family, friends, their favorite sports, or their pets/favorite animals. Now, let's review what my children did:

1) Jared drew a picture of The Holy Grail. I'm not even kidding you. It's a highly detailed picture, too, with the grail glowing in the middle of it and hovering next to a tree.

2) Ariana drew a vampire tomato. Yes, that's right: vampire tomato.

My children's weirdness will never cease to delight me.