Sketching on a Walk

We try to take lots of walks each week, especially in the evenings when Paulie gets home from work. It’s a nice time for as all to be together, get some exercise, and talk as a family.

Theo’s favorite thing is spotting birds and dogs. Lucy usually likes to collect little nature treasures or show us her new hopping skills, but sometimes she’d rather just go along for the ride. On these days she sometimes likes to bring a little notebook and pen and draw things she sees as she’s riding along in the stroller with Theo.

It’s fun to see what she deems important enough to be recorded in her notebook. I think today a stop sign, house, lamp post, and bush were lucky enough to be selected. She has decided that things can not be repeated in her notebook so I’m interested in seeing what she chooses to draw as her choices narrow down over the next few weeks.

It’s also been a great opportunity to help her notice details and differences in things around her. We had a little conversation on the walk that went something like this~

Lucy: “Hmm. What can I draw next?”
Me: “What about that tree right there?”
Lucy: “No, I’ve already drawn a tree.”
Me: “But I think that is a different tree than the one you’ve drawn, isn’t it? The trunk and leaves look different.”

Now, she still did not want to draw a tree, apparently it went against her self-imposed rule of not drawing something twice, but at least we had the opportunity to discuss and notice the details of things together.

Our walk ended nicely with Lucy sharing her notebook with Theo, well…. for about a minute. Then she wanted it back. This did result in lots of screaming and grabbing as Paulie and I tried to help solve the disagreement. Eventually, it was just easier to walk faster and get home. I’m thinking next time we’ll let Theo bring one too!

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