One Hour

I was inspired by the one minute and 20 seconds that was “1000 hours” from Seth Godin’s Stop Stealing Dreams.  That one small chapter made me reflect on my own life and my own proclaimed love of learning.  What more can I be doing to really learn something new each day.  Something that is worthwhile and might possibly make me a better person, at the very least, a better educated one.  I realized that I was already making an attempt to do this for my children.  On our drive from school to dance lessons I asked them to think silently about inventions.  If they could invent one thing that could help one person or maybe everyone to have a better life, what would it be?  I told them that a better life could be had by helping their person(s) do something that they needed to do every day.  It could be simply bringing a little more happiness into their person(s) life.  My six-year-old immediately wanted to share her idea.  I very much wanted to let her blurt it out, but encouraged her to just keep thinking about it silently.  I promised that when we arrived at dance class she could share her idea in my ear.  I know this quiet reflection time is necessary for my oldest daughter.  It’s just the way she works.  I explained that sometimes sharing her ideas out loud could narrow what her sisters might be imagining.  She said, “Okay, but listening to my sisters usually just makes me think of even more things”.  My second daughter asked if she could use sticks.  I told her that they could use any materials they could think of, even things that didn’t exist.  In a burst of excitement, she announced that she was making a magic broom.  I heard a sigh from my quiet girl and asked my magic broom maker if she could keep thinking silently about how she would make it and what it would do.  I quickly realized that I should have let them get out their little notebooks so they could jot down their ideas and make drawings.  How could I accommodate my three very different girls to express their ideas without trampling over one another?  Oh well, this wasn’t a lesson plan.  I was just trying to spark some creativity in my girls. 

As soon as we walked into the dressing room at the dance school, my youngest daughter came over and whispered in my ear that she was going to “make a wheelchair that had arms for people to pick stuff up who couldn’t pick stuff up with their own arms”.  I was touched by her thoughtfulness, but not surprised.  I can’t wait to see her ideas written out and her drawings!  When we arrived at home, my second daughter rushed through her after school chores so she could start drawing a picture of her magic broom.  So far, it looks very complicated.  She is labeling the different parts and describing the materials that will be used.  As soon as my oldest daughter and I were alone in the kitchen together, she came over and started describing a doll that would be made out of blue flowers and tied with a special grass.  I can’t even begin to imagine what she has pictured in her mind, but I am certain that it is truly beautiful.  Nothing concrete came from this little activity.  It was just meant to be thinking for thinking’s sake.  It was meant to allow them to be creative with no boundaries.  I think we are off to an excellent start.  Thinking back on that time earlier today I realized that maybe the most important thing I can do right now  is to spend my hour per day of learning something new, something worthwhile, learning excitement, creativity, and unlimited imagination from my children.