art attack

A few days ago, I surprised Sage with a huge bagfull of art supplies: colored paper, oil pastels, glue, scissors, paperclips, paintbrushes, envelopes, tape and so on. Delighted, she gave me a kiss and proceeded to think about what to create first. Her mother reminded her that her Uncle Alex and Aunt Kate had given her a box of grape juice (which she loves).

"Oh," Sage exclaimed. "I know what to do!"

She wrote a thank-you note, applying her growing design sensibilities, placed it in one of her new red envelopes and, later, gave it to the delighted couple.

I firmly believe in encouraging creativity in children, especially in my own daughter. I love the fact that she creates a mess of paper cut-outs, leaves glitter on my nose and festoons the fridge with her drawings. I hope she carries this joyful sense of creative expression into all her days as a grownup.

And maybe, just maybe, she can do what her mother and father cannot do - write and ilustrate her own book (I could, actually - if you like horrible stick figures).