I recntly wrote about the difficult time we sometimes have making it to parks with our son. Our ever-changing work schedules and one-car situation make it often impossible to get very far away from our home sometimes. Our backyard, then, presents a world of opportunities far beyond what one would imagine from such a small, fenced in area. Our backyard is, at present, also home to our Christmas tree. Where we live you must deliver your own tree to a drop-off location and, well, we don’t have a truck (we’re bad Texans). Our son, having received a play toolbox (with play tools) for Christmas has become really interested in the saw. One day I decided to show him by cutting a branch off of our dead tree in the backyard. I never knew how much fun a branch could be.
After he had spent his time moving small pieces of wood from the base of the woodpile to the inside of our tree stand he decided to pick up the freshly cut branch from our tree. One of his favorite things to play with in the house is our broom. He loves holding it upright, pushing things with it, and generally trying to help his Mom and Dad (and do what they do). Well, our little boy decided that this branch (with all needles intact) was a child-sized broom. He proceeded to sweep up the mess of sawdust and other materials on the concrete in our sideyard. I was astounded. I’d love to claim that our son is especially inventive or talented or perceptive (I think he is all of those things) but I believe that children, in general, possess these amazing creative skills in abundance. I’m so luckly to be able to relive those memories of boundless creativity with and through our son.