We as adults forget and sometimes become flustered at how slowly children think as they learn. I have seen parents get upset as their kids sluggishly realize how something works and impede the family progression through the day. Grownups often forget how life looks from the eyes of the innocent while the neophyte inside of the child shines. Kids’ creativity continually causes cultivation proliferation.
The perspective of children should teach us all how to look at things with an innocent mind. At times we need to throw out our presumptive predilections and see things through the eyes of wonder and excitement of a child. I do not see several boxes in a stack, but I see the castle of Camelot to be defended by the Knights of the Round Table although the table is square. It is essential to let the kids be kids as they could unexpectedly invent the next big thing as they play, grow, and learn.
When I was a young child, my school went to visit COSI or Center of Science and Industry. We wanted to see what we could learn and participate in as everything was hands-on at this science center. I remember how we went to the mining exhibit to experience all aspects of the life of a miner. Eight kids at a time piled into this elevator to travel down many floors. I knew that the elevator was going down because there was a window that showed the walls were traversing towards topside. When we got off of the elevator exiting from the opposing door, we were in the deep dark depths of the city.
COSI is very good at sparking imaginations and causing kids creative minds to go wild. With my adult brain, I now understand that the walls that I could see through the elevator windows were on a revolving roller. I comprehend that the elevator was not going anywhere, and we exited from the opposite side of this permanent portmanteau. The adults in the lives of these children should be encouraging this ingenious innovation from these mini minds as often as we can.
The Vacation Bible School theme this year is Into the Wild while I’m looking at it from a child’s perspective. I walked into the woods with my friends and met some people who worked at the basecamp. They took us through tall trees that stood as high as the building where my mommy works. I saw a bridge that looked like it was hovering over a river with fish in it that sits just after the waterfalls. There were lots of trees and animals all around making everything like a real forest. We could see the sunlight as it peeked through the leaves and tree branches that lit our path to the next area.
Our journey took us first to a new part of the woods that was so big that a million of us fit at one time. Although there were trees all around us, some of the staff had music instruments that they played loudly. The lady in charge taught us a lot of great songs. This music made us dance to music and act silly and have lots of fun. These songs reminded us that Jesus loves us all even my big sister, who could not come to VBS this year. I just want to live here because I am having so much fun.
Next, we went to several different rooms for Storytime, crafts, games, and even ministries. VBS reminds us all always to be good people do good things and that Jesus loves us. After all of the fun things, we went back to listen to more merry music before our parents picked us up.
As parents, we teach our kids that all-so-famous song that goes “This little light of mine I’m going to let it shine.” The adults need to remember how famous that song truly is to the growth of children. It is essential that we feed their creative minds because we could be looking at the next genius. When you limit their creativity, you could be smothering the light of the next Einstein, Beethoven, Bill Gates, or even Steve Jobs. The history books are full of people who as children were told that they would never amount to anything, and then they proved the nay-sayers wrong.
Play is the highest form of research.
Scott's MS Life 