We had the car last Friday, so we went on a trip to the Chagrin North Nature Center. The very first thing the Sunchild did once we arrived was to go to the drawing table, grab supplies, and sit down to draw some birds from the identification poster. I sat and knitted for a while, and watched the birds.

Eventually, school let out, and children began to arrive at the Center. He made friends with a girl a few years older than himself, and with many giggles, they played in the nocturnal exhibit. They were being dragons, and were on a mission to save the animals from the forest fire by leading them to safety. This went on for some time, until it was time to head to the library. Luckily, we found quite a few good books on dragons, and have been reading about them all week long.

This artistic impulse has been prominent, as well. The Sunchild has been getting out paper, and drawing maps. He did this with his best buddy D last week, during their weekly get-together. He has been in a creative frenzy of cartography ever since, and plans on bringing all of his work with him on our next visit to D's house.

We have been drawing together, as well. We pulled out some of the dragon books, and tried our hands at drawing them. I showed him how I am not very adept at drawing dragons from my mind, because my mental image of them is unclear; yet when I copy something I can see, it becomes easier. He tried this approach with good success, and now his made up dragons are even better than ever.

I had the opportunity to go to the library alone last night (ah, the joy of it!) and found quite a few kid's videos on drawing, cartooning, and sketching. We watched one last week, and he really enjoyed it, so I wanted to give him some more choices to select from.

Today, he had a movie date with Nana. He will have a sleepover, and is going roller skating tomorrow. He has been doing this regularly (we all went last Sunday) and has been having a great time. It is good to get him interested in something active, as his geek genes show up in a strong tendency to spend endless hours indoors, fussing with minutae in awkward positions. We have been dancing lately, but not often enough. I hope to do more of that once we relocate to the West Coast.