Kid Stuff

In Tom Kelly's work entitled Prototyping is the Shorthand of Design he talks about innovation and how prototyping begins at a very early age.  He wrote about his very driven brother who, like most kids, loved to play in the snow and build things.  He explained that his brother would begin with a snowman and slowly improve his method and design until he was able to build complex forts.  It sounds like Kelly took a chunk out of my childhood experiences and placed them into his journal. As a child, I rejected TV and other forms of electronic entertainment (I still do not have a TV in my apartment). I found joy in the outdoors, collecting rocks and building with them or painting them. It was always so fascinating to me to go down to the lake in the middle of town and look for the smoothest rocks. When I gathered enough, I looked for ways to stack them to build things. Then, I thought about other ways to stack the rocks and decided that tape would be a great way. Well, I tried scotch tape and, as experience would have it, they did not stick. So, then I tried to string them together (a bit of a regression from the tape idea if you ask me, but I was just trying to improve it any way that I could). Tying them together also did not work. Then, I had the brilliant idea of gluing them. I successfully bound the rocks together (after a few attempts with different glues) and then I pained the structure. It still sits in my parent's dining room corner cabinet. Under the structure there is a thank you note to my parents for always letting me have fun.


As sentimental as it may sound, it really is an example much like Kelly's.  The end result of my rock project resembled some kind of a tower and I am sure that was my motive. It was the idea that I was building upon ideas within my own mind that makes that experience a small example of Kelly's idea that children are constantly innovating.  


I am a frequent babysitter and I love the time I spend with the kids doing creative projects. I would so much rather build and paint with them instead of watching tv. I am amazed by the things that they come up with and the ideas they have when they are given a sheet of paper, a marker and scissors. I am particularly inspired by the kids who come up with the wildest and craziest ideas and try to persuade me that what they are saying even makes sense. Those are the kids that I know will lead interesting lives. I hope that I will always be amazed by my own kid's creativity!