On Monday we heard about Cpl. Hathaway, USMC who had surgery on August 30 and could use some cheering up. I started making a card and my son (who will be four on Jan 6th, 2011) asked me, "mommy, what you doing?" I told him there was a man who had an owie and was feeling sad, so mommy and some of mommy's friends were making him cards to cheer him up. Koen thought about that and said, "me too mommy! we make him happy, mommy, send him hugs like grandma!" (Maternal Grandma sends stickers and other fun things with little notes all the time, Koen knows all about how the mail system works now).
After I recovered from a pang of maternal pride that brought tears to my eyes I figured, heck, let's make something that's all his. So I took some white card stock and cut it down to 6x11.5 and scored it at 5.5 to fold in half. Another piece of coloured cardstock was cut to 6.25x11.5 and also folded in half. The whole kit and kaboodle was tied together with some hemp and I used one of my journaling markers to draw lines at the bottom of each page.
Koen then drew images (if I were to do it again I'd do the writing in pencil so I can fix mistakes like how I spelled Pteranadon. And I'd use sheets of tracing paper between the pages to keep them from glomming up the opposing page.) and told me what they were about. The words are entirely his, I cleaned up pronunciation ("cane-o" is really "volcano") and a tiny bit of the grammar, "he is Russian" for someone who is long dead is now, "he was Russian" for example.)
Page 1: This is a tree with the warm sun overhead. Birds and fairies (like Tinkerbell) live in trees. Koala bears live in trees too.
Page 2: My grandma has a beach on a lake. I like to go swimming and make sandcastles with a bucket. It is really hot at the beach.
Page 3: Spaceships have rockets and go to planets not back down [to earth]. Gagarine was the first man in space, he was Russian. Rocket fire is blue because it's hot.
Page 4: Dragons are real and breathe fire! Some dragons fly, like the Teranadon*
* mommy isn't sure that is spelled right, but is sure we mean "dinosaur" not "dragon".
Page 5: Teranadons are dragons, no, dinosaurs that fly. They fly away from volcanos. Teranadons are green and eat fish.
Page 6: Volcanos blow up with fire. They are made from mountains. Volcanos are not the beach.
Page 7: This is mommy with baby Elora. Baby Elora cries, mommy makes her feel better. I like to snuggle Elora, I love her lots and lots and lots and tooooooo much.
Page 8: My daddy is fun. He takes me to the park.
Thank you Koen, we now know not to take a towel and swim trunks when we next go visit a volcano.
The last page is done by Kerowyn who was quite jealous of Koen being allowed to colour in his own little book (she was tired of plain paper that mommy had given her) and she explained her picture was "flophers" and "binkerbell".
It warms my heart that my kids (the older one at least) want to make others happy, even those they have never met. Now if only they'd be nice to each other!!
10 comments:
They follow after a great mom! You should be so proud of how they are growing, what great little kids you have and a great card.Tell them, Lucky gives them a big lick!
What a thoughtful little man you have. It sounds like he is going to set quite the example for his little sisters. They are all just adorable! Oh, very informative book, too!
Such sweet memories you've made here!
you are so blessed...thanks for sharing this with us and a wounded soldier..
Oh my, I bet that card will bring tears to the eyes of the recipient, what a wonderful RAK! And such a good project to help instill values in your kids. I am touched.
It is absolutely beautiful and warms my heart. I love that you journalled and translated the drawings. Great kids have great parents. TFS
Beautiful!! You SHOULD be so proud!! This will for sure bring a smile to the soldier's face!!
TFS
Maria
What a wonderful creation! I'm sure that soldier will be touched deeply. You should feel proud!
Ruth, this is one of the sweetest things I've seen in a long time. How wonderful that you're instilling in your children a sense of caring for others. They did a terrific job with their artwork!
I enjoyed reading this post. Koen's description of his photos made me smile. :) It is awesome the imagination he has and how he wants to help brighten someone's day. So sweet! I'm sure this will bring a big smile to Cpl. Hathaway's face.
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