Enchanted Learning

There is value in "learning to love what must be done".  But there is also value in embracing the natural passions that flow out of a child and his or her particular gifts.  One of my takeaways from last weekend's session "with" Julie Bogart of Brave Writer was this:

"One of our goals in partnering with our children in their education is getting the feelings they have about the things they are passionate about into the things we want them to care about."

I've been thinking a lot about this since I returned from my trip.  My son, Luke, definitely has a knack for sketching.  He loves to draw and any time he's not required to be doing something else, you can often find him drawing.  He is also a huge fan of Mega Man video games, especially the classic, old-school Mega Man.

Recently, my brother told him about a website gallery (http://www.themmnetwork.com/gallery/) full of Mega Man images.  Every boss, every hero, every character is represented.  Luke still spends a lot of his free time drawing, but now his preferred method is to observe one of the images on the computer screen and try his best to copy it on paper.

Luke busy drawing.

Mega Man soundtrack playing in the background.

Several years ago, we gave Luke Mark Kistler's "Imagination Station" - a book all about how to "draw 3D".  In that book, Kistler says this:

"Some folks have told me that copying artwork is wrong or bad.  I don't agree at all.  I believe copying artwork is great, fantastic and wonderful! The best way to learn how to draw in 3D is by copying other 3D art! When you are coping, you are learning techniques that will help you create your own 3D drawings.  The more you copy, the more you will learn.  The more you learn, the more you will draw.  The more you draw, the less you will have to copy.  Got it?"

So this week, when my son asked to use my computer again to copy more Mega Man drawings, I squelched my "hmmm ... is that a video game obsession?" and instead thought "His passion for Mega Man is driving him to self-train as an artist."  And do you know what happened?  Just this week (maybe because God knew I needed a little reassurance that we were moving in the right direction) Luke came and said to me "You know what?  I'm not just copying what I see anymore.  Now I'm kind of looking at the picture to get an idea and then I'm making my own drawing."  Apparently, Mark Kistler's prophecy is coming true!

But I think that the best win of all was when he laid out all of his art work on the floor and I asked if I could take a picture of it to share on the blog.  He was astonished that I was so enthusiastic to document and appreciate his art work.  I couldn't decide whether I was thrilled that he was so encouraged ... or whether I was chagrined that my enthusiasm was so astonishing to him!

Another sweet blessing has been his siblings' fascination with his work.  Once he has completed a drawing in black-line, he photocopies it and they have hours of coloring fun!