It’s so hard to listen to kids sometimes. I mean, it can be painful.
Last week 5 year old was on a Venus Fly Trap kick. He gets like this. As he would say, “I get very interested in something until I learn all I want to learn about it.” Currently the kick is Ancient Egypt. But last week it was Venus Fly Traps.
And while we were reading about them and drawing them and talking about them and googling them and watching videos on Youtube of them eating frogs (!)…he was also saying that he wanted to make one. On my sewing machine.
I let that slide between my ears without comment the first three times he asked. But then I sighed. And sat down and looked at him. And said, “Honey. What exactly do you want to do?” See…I was all set to tell him how making a Venus Fly Trap was not like making a quilt for his teddy bear. Or a sack for his treasures. This was simply not something that could be made on the sewing machine. That maybe we could get some construction paper and duct tape and go from there.
But that child. He went right for the scrap basket and laid everything out. And told me in detail his plan. And low and behold if it wasn’t a damn good little plan for sewing up a Venus Fly Trap. And so I had to sigh and chalk off the next hour to helping him sew.
This is what we ended up with:
Not a great shot – but the only one I had without his smiling face in the picture with it. It opens and closes. And he used pipe cleaner in the stem to make it “not floppy.” He was a little distressed that we didn’t have hairs on the inside of the mouth- but we ran out of time. Sigh.
He took it to school. He was quite proud. And he offered to share his “plans” with other friends, in case they wanted to make one of their own.
I was so grateful that I took a breath that morning and asked him his plan…and then really listened to what he was saying. Because he had a great idea. And we had fun making it. And he will have it forever (seriously – the kids throws NOTHING out). And I will have the memory of making it with him forever. And that’s something special.
