My daughter loves drawing. She’s loved it for as long as I can remember, even though she’s only just turned five. She started prep this year, and I’ve been getting a lot of feedback from her teachers that instead of playing with the other kids during lunchtime, she’s sitting on a bench drawing unicorns. I look at her sketchbook sometimes and she is genuinely very talented. I’m just glad I gave her a sketchbook when I did, as I’m sure if I had allowed her to go so long drawing with chalk, she would have eventually created some unicorn wall art on the walls of her bedroom. Not a great idea in a rental.
I’m currently in the midst of an internal debate over exactly what to do with my daughter. On one hand, I don’t think it’s particularly good for her socially to be spending every lunchtime avoiding talking to other people. The thing is, she can technically communicate just fine, but I don’t want to encourage shyness or antisocial tendencies within her if possible. If she wants to get a leadership role in grade six, she’ll have to up her game.
On the other hand, I can’t deny that she is a very talented artist. I think this weekend I’m going to take her to our local interior home decoration store to show her all the wallpaper there. There’s not only prepasted and removable options, but also a tonne of unicorn wall decals designed in Australia for her to pick out and bring home to her own bedroom. Maybe if she sees the experts at work, she’ll calm down a little bit because she’s had her interest in the subject acknowledged by a professional.
I’m going to call the store ahead of time and ask one of the friendly assistants to prepare a little talk about unicorns. My daughter is going to be so excited when I tell her about our trip to the wallpaper store.